Of course, those moves were short-sighted. Perhaps the Chicago White Sox save a few ducats by paying only six teams’ worth of professional baseball players rather than seven, but I argued then, and still believe now, that those ducats were exceptionally well-spent even beyond what they contributed to player development because they ensured professional baseball was played in more places around the country, which I strongly suspect was a real contributor to creating more baseball fans. That is, in the long term, MLB decided to actively give up opportunities to create and cultivate more fans.
Upon news that MLB and the MLB Players Association had reached agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, ending the owners’ 99-day lockout and prompting them to schedule a full 162-game season, it occurred to me that many of the ills that plague MLB — both real and imagined — could be addressed by more baseball.
