The Summer Without Baseball
By: Clark Topjon
Tags: Blm, BlackLivesMatter, Summer, Baseball, Pandemic

The last time there was a summer without Major League Baseball was 102 years ago, in 1918, the final year of World War One, and the height of the Spanish Flu Pandemic. Since then, through World War 2, Vietnam, 9/11, strikes and lockouts, there has been professional baseball of some sort played in the summertime. In the darkest times in American history, baseball has been eternal and ingrained into the culture of American society. No sport has a closer connection to race relations, to politics, and to the optimism of American ideals.

Summer officially began just two days ago, and as of now there hasn’t been a single regular season game and hope has dwindled that there will even be a real season at all. As I write this, the MLB players are voting whether to agree to a deal with the owners of the 30 teams that would allow for a 60 game season. But the hangup throughout all of the negotiations of the past few months hasn’t been about the amount of games, or the safety of the players, or what the return of Baseball means to an entire country aching for a sense of normalcy. It’s been about money.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the frustrations of the players who had a deal in place before the season even started to receive their full salaries prorated. I will always fall on the side of pro-labor even if it’s over amounts of money that I cannot fathom. Despite that there’s a sick irony that amidst a global pandemic and a civil rights movement that billionaires cannot come to an agreement with millionaires to bring America’s pastime back. And not necessarily because Baseball is a distraction from the issues facing us, but because Baseball is so culturally relevant to the societal issues we face.

In 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and started at first base for the Dodgers opening the floodgates for the integration of the sport, but also for the further integration of America. Jackie’s debut came 13 years before Ruby Bridges was the first Black student to attend an all-white school. I hesitate to say that Major League Baseball has been ahead of the curve in regards to segregation and racism, but it’s impossible to deny the impact Robinson had on race relations and how African Americans were perceived by Whites. Not just because Jackie was allowed to play and held his own, but because he exceeded all expectations. He put together a Hall of Fame caliber career on statistics alone, not just because of his influence on the game and the thousands of players of color who would follow in his footsteps.

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, and the ensuing protests against police brutality, there was an absence of a unified stand against racism and systematic oppression by a major sports league. Sure, players and teams posted black squares and #BLM on twitter and instagram, some even donated money to bail funds and other groups. But as a country, we missed out on our heroes and idols using their platform to say something important. Summer is the time for baseball and in a normal year the MLB would have been in the spotlight. The way in which the players and organizations could have responded on the field, on television, on radio should have been extremely impactful for the public discourse.

America missed out on that. We missed out on the White Sox following Tim Anderson’s lead taking a knee during the national anthem. We missed out on Marcus Stroman writing #BLM on his hat as he toed the rubber. We missed the Royals salute to the Negro Leagues game. We missed out on Jackie Robinson day, where every player in the league dons Jackie’s famous #42. And we missed out on a triumphant return on July 4th, when all 30 teams were hopefully supposed to debut the shortened season and take the first symbolic step showing us that things are going to be ok.

Unfortunately, things aren’t ok. They never really were in fact. Maybe Baseball not coming back is a sign of that. When Baseball returned after 9/11 the opening game was in New York, and President George W. Bush walked out to a packed stadium to throw an iconic m opening pitch. After days of fear and uncertainty, it was a sign that America could start to heal and accept the way things were going to be from now on, and that Baseball would still be there through it all to bring us together.

That is until right now. As I finish writing this, the players voted against the MLB’s proposal to bring the season back on their terms. The likely scenario now is that the league will force a shortened season on them that would start in late July at the earliest. There will be grievances filed, players will sit out, and with the rising number of Covid-19 cases the future is still in jeopardy. The future of the MLB is also in jeopardy as this will surely sour negotiations in 2022 when the CBA expires, and we might be looking at another wasted Summer.

There has been no triumphant return, and we still don’t know for sure if there will even be one this year. Perhaps because a return means things are going back to normal and that we are able to move on from the fear and division that we’ve experienced this year. Maybe things aren’t ready to go back to normal because we don’t know what normal really is. There is still work to be done. The present and future of America is still filled with uncertainty. But eventually Baseball will return when we are ready for it, to begin Spring with hope and optimism and to fill the dog days of Summer. Because in Baseball, as in life, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.