The best piece of sports commentary in the past decade included NFL game picks and had a subsection called “Great Moments In Poop History”.
But Drew Magary’s take that “Everything Is Public Relations Now”, written for Deadspin in September 2014, has proven to be prescient on a near-daily basis for five-and-a-half years.
As Magary laid out, truth is malleable, reality is catered to the customer, and integrity only matters if it’s popular. There is only one principle in this modern world: project the best possible image of one’s self at all times.
And that was in 2014.
In 2020, things are exponentially worse and Magary has been proven unquestionably correct.
Forgive the pessimism, but keep that overall sentiment in mind when I tell you that Major League Baseball is going to come back this season.
And it’s not because the owners and players collectively sacrificed in the name of entertaining the masses, either.
No, it was a brilliant PR play from the owners that will ensure that we have the national pastime this year.
After weeks of warning shots between the owners and the players — some of which led me to seriously question if we were going to see the Giants or A’s play this summer — the owners submitted an official “restart” plan to the players on Tuesday.
Surely there will be dozens — perhaps hundreds — of sticking points in that document, but, for the fans who want the game back, the only thing that matters is that the owners included a world-class booby trap in it.
There is no revenue sharing agreement in the deal, per USAToday — the players were ready to strike over such a provision. No, instead, there’s a sliding pay scale for players, with the largest salaried players taking the largest pay cuts.
Is it fair? Probably not. But that doesn’t matter, because in 2020, the only question that carries any weight is “will it sell to the public?”
This plan will sell.
Collective bargaining negotiations like this are blame games. In a showdown between billionaires and millionaires, both sides are being greedy — that’s how these things work — but whomever the public decides is being the most greedy loses the PR battle, and usually, the war.
But in tossing the proverbial ball back to the players Tuesday, the owners put the onus for action on only a specific group of players: the highest-paid. The guys who have 10-year, fully-guaranteed, contracts worth more than a quarter-billion.
The owners are picking on someone who is far closer to their size. It will look like a fair fight to the public.
Why? Because the only group of people baseball fans hate more than owners are players who make a ton of money but play like an average Joe. You only needed to spend one night at Oracle Park last season to know that.
Ultimately this is a problem of the players’ own making. When Rays pitcher Blake Snell announced “I gotta get my money”, he opened this door while showing that the players’ union was fractured and uncoached.
Now, the players union would look foolish to push back on this sliding pay proposal, but they won’t be able to help themselves.
But there’s no reasonable way for them to skew the perception. Last year the National League MVP made $605,000 because of baseball’s ridiculous salary structure. Now the union will argue that players like David Price ($31 million salary in 2019), Jordan Zimmerman ($25 million), and Mark Melancon ($19 million) deserve more money and will hold up play to get it? During these tough economic times?
Good luck selling that to the fans — the source of all of that cash.
