Baseball is playing with fire

Bill Shanks can't believe what the owners and players are doing

How long do they think we will care? What will Major League Baseball do if we all of a sudden don't care anymore about their bickering? 

Here is the NBA, figuring things out. The NBA board of governors will vote Thursday on a plan that commissioner Adam Silver will propose. And we are hearing nothing positive on the baseball front. Nothing.

This tweet by Joel Sherman, who I believe is one of the best national baseball reporters around, scares me. He is hearing a lot of negativity because what positive vibe is really out there? Why should we feel positive when all we hear is the MLB owners and players cannot get on the same page?

Sherman reported Wednesday the owners have rejected the players' proposal of a 114-game schedule. They want a shorter season, so they won't lose as much money. They don't want to pay these players when the people won't be in the stands.

We don't know their books, and when Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said earlier in the week fans are mistaken if they believe MLB teams are flush with cash, I don't think he's lying. I think some teams don't have stacks of money buried in the bottom of stadiums. Some might, but others might not.

This is about the health of the entire game, however. The long-term impact of this sport not playing this summer could be most costly than whatever the owners may be losing now. Don't they get that?

I'm worried. I don't want to be, but I'm concerned. It's June 3, and the clock is ticking.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. ET on Middle Georgia’s ESPN. You can listen online at TheSuperStations.com. Follow Bill on Twitter at @billshanks and you can email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.