Inside The Dodgers

Though its Leaders Continue to Disappoint, Baseball Will Endure

While its Leaders Continue to Disappoint, Baseball Will Endure
Howard Cole|
Though its Leaders Continue to Disappoint, Baseball Will Endure
Though its Leaders Continue to Disappoint, Baseball Will Endure

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from a lifetime of baseball watching, it’s this: It’s impossible to ruin baseball. It simply can't be done.

A gambling scandal a century ago couldn’t permanently knock baseball from its perch as our national pastime, nor could two dramas involving drugs that shouldn’t have been found anywhere near a ballpark. Nor could a tie in the All-Star Game one year leading to home field in the World Series being determined by a Midsummer Classic the next. I said at the time that interleague play, as silly as it was, couldn't ruin baseball, or result in the anarchy predicted. And it hasn't. Expansion to 10-teams leagues? Twelve-team leagues or (gasp!) 15? Couldn't ruin baseball. Couldn't detract from the overall product.

Baseball has survived two world wars, a war of the worlds over WAR and nearly three decades of simply awful leadership in the commissioner’s office. But baseball still stands. And the flag was still there. The flag is still there.

Baseball may well have driven away some fans for good with its most recent labor dispute, played out during a frightening pandemic and a national call to action for social justice. If it hadn't already, baseball just might have tumbled from the above-mentioned perch once and for all, one dose of shenanigans too many for the population to stomach. Even so, even with the images of Humpty Dumpty front of mind, baseball will endure. Because try as some might, they just can't ruin baseball.

[Follow Sports Illustrated’s Inside the Dodgers on Twitter.]

But look, neither the owners nor the players have distinguished themselves this spring. Not this time. Not in the labor fight of 2020 (which I'm now referring to as the "Battle of the Bastards"). I've sided with the players almost throughout, and still believe the owners and the league to be the primary villains in the story. But when Trevor Bauer, of all people, is the voice of reason on the players side, you kind of have to tilt your head a bit. See tweets below.

B-i-n-g-o, and Bingo was his name-oh. Bauer nails it. Everyone involved has come across as obnoxious at one point or another. But yeah, you can say the owners have been worse than the players. You can say that, but not without coming up against the clear conclusion to be drawn that a defense of the players is the real-world equivalent of a child's claim, "he started it!" 

I don't know if this will all work out in the end, or if one side or other will blow the whole thing up this afternoon. I don't know that getting in 60 games and a postseason is doable, or even if making it through another training camp is. I'm skeptical, to be perfectly honest with you, that the powers that be can govern their way to protecting players, family and staff long enough to even launch in late July.

But I'd like them to. I'd like to experience a little baseball this summer. And fall. But not at the expense of even one man, woman or child. If MLB ends up punting the season, I may question their motives for a time, but I'll understand. I'll come around. And I'll be back next year. And the year after that, no matter what. 

Because glove conquers all.

Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.

Published
Howard Cole
HOWARD COLE

Howard Cole is a news and sports journalist in Los Angeles. Credits include Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Rolling Stone, LAT, OCR, Guardian, LA Weekly, Westways, VOSD, Prevention, Bakersfield Californian and Jewish Journal. Founding Director, IBWAA.

Home/News