A Christmas Wish List for Baseball Fans

5. End the Lockout

Is there anything else that comes to mind sooner?  We are already feeling own in the dumps amidst another surge of COVID-19 cases, and like last spring, there is no MLB baseball to cheer us up.  Even worse, we can’t wake up at 5:30 AM to watch baseball from South Korea.  We all have our own personal wish lists, but everyone in the baseball world wants the lockout to end.  Then we can get trades, free agent signings, and *gasp* scheduled baseball games.

The league and the players aren’t meeting again until after New Year’s Day, but they will be discussing the most central economic issues.  Hopefully they make real progress in the coming weeks, or else we will start to fear a delayed Spring Training.  The owners are probably enjoying getting new yachts for Christmas, but I hope they receive lumps of coal.

4. Expansion!

What gets fans more excited that the idea of new teams?  MLB has not expanded since the Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined in 1998, which makes the current stretch without expansion the longest in league history.  There are plenty of proposals and committees floating around to bring MLB to a new city, but nothing will happen in the imminent future.

Every other major sports league in the U.S. has expanded this century.  The NBA and the NFL have been holding steady since the early 2000’s, but the NHL has two new teams in the last five years, including the Seattle Kraken this season.  Major League Soccer, a much younger league, started with 10 teams in 1996 and has remarkably grown to 28 teams, with Charlotte joining in 2022.

MLB is the oldest and most established league, but there is still room for geographic growth.  There is a very realistic chance that the Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas, which would be great for the fastest growing sports city, but cities losing teams are always unfortunate.  Maddie and Heather touched on this development in the most recent episode of The Batter’s Box Office about Moneyball, but Oakland could use a new stadium that isn’t built to share with a football team.

That’s beside the point, because some cities have prominent bids for a Major League Baseball team.  Montreal is falling behind over a relative lack of local interest, which I witness firsthand, but the Rays might someday split time up North.  Dave Dombrowski was part of Nashville’s committee before becoming the president of baseball operations for the Philadelphia Phillies, so Tennessee has some meaningful connections.  The most likely destination is Portland, where baseball would be the biggest sport in a cool city, and the prospective renderings are gorgeous.  Plus, they already have a Portlandia sketch in their favor.

3. Elect Big Papi

This is admittedly part of my personal wish and not everyone will agree with it, but I am really pulling for DH David Ortiz to make the Hall of Fame.  He is eligible for the first time with New Year’s Eve as the voting deadline, and if we all agreed on his candidacy, then I wouldn’t have to add him to the wish list.  There are two concerns detractors bring up that I think can easily be tossed to the side.

Ortiz is considered to be a steroid user, but only by the thinnest of connections.  He tested positive in the anonymous 2003 survey where some of the results were false, and he never served a suspension.  He also played almost all of his career as a designated hitter, which gives some voters pause over the lack of well-roundedness in his resume.  Edgar Martinez broke through the DH bias a couple years ago, but he was a better hitter overall and played a solid third base early in his career.

In a sport where hitting is by far the most important skill, I think it is unfair to punish someone for poor defense.  This is hurting some other candidates, as RF Gary Sheffield is still on the ballot, and 3B Dick Allen fell short in the Golden Days Committee.  Many people also underestimate the resilience of designated hitters, who have to stay warm and ready while spending most of the game in the dugout.

The reasons why Big Papi should get in are obvious.  He was a fearsome hitter his whole time with the Boston Red Sox, and you might recall his greatest moments came after the ’03 survey.  He led the Sox to three World Series titles while breaking the curse and hitting .289/.404/.543 in the playoffs, better than his regular season slash line.  His World Series line is also the best of any player at .455/.576/.795 with more than 40 plate appearances.  He got clutch hit after clutch hit every year in the playoffs, and these are just his on-field accomplishments.

Ortiz has an outsized personality endearing to everyone, so much so he has become a classic SNL character.  While fellow debutante Alex Rodriguez was the most hated player in baseball, Ortiz brought infectious energy and rallied the city of Boston after the Marathon bombings.  Since he retired, he survived an attack on his life and still keeps a positive outlook.  He might not get in this year, but David Ortiz certainly deserves a plaque in Cooperstown.

2. Pay Minor Leaguers

This really isn’t that much to ask for, and yet owners still don’t care about their most vulnerable employees.  Teams finally agreed this fall to pay for minor leaguers’ housing, but the players still make less than the national poverty line.  The billionaires who write seven-figure checks every week won’t even pay a living wage to people who spend all year improving their skills despite only playing for a few months on the calendar.

Prospects are a team’s greatest asset because they are paid so little compared to what they provide on the field, but the vast majority of minor leaguers don’t have a large signing bonus to make up for the difference.  Most signed for low-six figures or less, which will not sustain them for years on the road.  This is a human rights issue that can easily be fixed.

1.  Seriously, End the Lockout

I’m not kidding, we’re getting frustrated over here.  Pay the players what they deserve and let’s get back to baseball.

Cover image by Leon Halip/Getty Images.