What Implications Will Unfold Due to Blake Snell’s Rant?

The sports world has been on halt for now a little over two months, which to many fans and some players has felt like an eternity. Leagues that were soon to begin the playoffs such as the NBA and NHL have had their seasons possibly cut short, and collegiate seniors all around the nation have had their final seasons cancelled completely. We truly are in unprecedented times outside of the sports globe, but it seems the consensus to resume play is in the near future. The President along with the commissioners of the major sports leagues have been in talks for weeks with the CDC, attempting to create guidelines and precautions in order to resume play. It’s been a struggle thus far to make progress, as there are an exorbitant amount of factors that go into creating these proposals. A glaring issue has been the discrepancies between various leagues player unions’, and team owners. The players union has been in somewhat of a power struggle in this situation, as seen on Twitter with athletes of various leagues voicing their opinion negatively towards the idea of resuming play under certain conditions such as a pay cuts or safety concerns. One incident in particular that has garnered a lot of attention was former Cy Young winner Blake Snell’s rant on his Twitch livestream the other day.

Whether you feel that he’s right or wrong is up to your own judgement. Some people have no empathy for these guys because they’re millionaires for playing sports, which is a fair argument considering many people in the country have been forced to work everyday for minimum wage despite the pandemic going on. People such as MTA workers who have had to clean disgusting subway cars and stops, risking their health everyday may not have a certain level of empathy for guys who swing a bat for seven or eight figures. In another sense you have to look at it from the players point of view. Some guys aren’t making tens of millions like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, and like Snell said players are probably going to earn less than 25% of their normal salaries after taxes. While getting their salaries heavily reduced they also have to be away from their loved ones for months on end, and risk potentially getting the virus and having to deal with it on the road away from loved ones. He claims there are a lot of players out there thinking the same way, which raises the question as to whether or not some guys will agree to even play. It’s a sticky situation that not only the MLB needs to resolve, but other leagues as well.

States such as California, Texas, and now New York have agreed to reopen sports stadiums for games, without fans of course. While everyone seems to be trying to expedite the reopening of sports, the players seem to have been forgotten. They are the driving force of the leagues, without them teams hold no value. Some guys are all for getting back and that is great news for fans, but for everyone their is, there’s another that is reluctant. Sometimes fans, such as myself look at these guys and forget that they are normal guys just like us, except they make a lot of money. This rant should be taken seriously, because if the players aren’t on the same page with organizations sports may remain on pause for an extended period of time.

Published by Fran Cava