[FrankWakefield]

I like college basketball. Have zero interest in the NBA. I liked it when the NBA players went out on strike, I didn't have to suffer through basketball scores and news when watching sports news.

I do care about baseball. There's a lot of everyone is right, here. I think there's lingering frustration among owners and players with how COVID affected the game 2019-2022.

The owners spend a lot of money supporting minor league development. Most of those players don't get to the parent club. And one way to recoup some of that is with the minimum salaries and caps as a player comes up to the majors. The recent cutback on minor league teams was a step by the owners to reduce the number of minor league players in the pipeline (by making the pipe smaller) so that the owners' outlay is less. I think the players should latch onto the 615k minimum. But that doesn't help players who are established in the majors. The interests of rookies and stars are not consistent.

An outright salary cap won't work, it won't last. A day would come when on or more of the cash plush teams wants to outbid for a star free agent. Owners will shoot themselves in their feet.

It's a mess. I well understand the growing disinterest in 21st century baseball by many of us, I'm a bit that way. My second thought, a week ago or so, when I read that the owners suggested that they try federal mediation, was that they were only suggesting it because they knew the players wouldn't go for it. The players didn't. I feel a little sorry for the older players who were gonna go one more final season and add to their stat totals... they leave a lot of money on the table if they don't play; and I believe that they also leave money on the table if they play a truncated season.

It's a mess. Still, it doesn't diminish the amazing career ow WW II hero Warren Spahn. So I can survive the mess, just as I did in 1994 and 1981.