Will We Ever Play Again?
by Chris Gregor
It seems like forever since I’ve watched a live sporting event. All the major sporting leagues are trying to figure out how to get back to business without putting their players and fans at risk. But in a post-Covid world, this is turning out to be quite the challenge.
And to add to that challenge, the reduced revenues from a shortened season are causing some strife between players and management. One would think that when both sides will be making hundreds of millions of dollars once the details are worked out (or nothing, if they can’t come to an agreeable arraignment), that they would have plenty of motivation to get the deal done. Well, not for Major League Baseball.
The Players and Ownership have some longstanding resentments that go back literally a hundred years. It was players from the 1919 White Sox (aka the Black Sox) that took money from gamblers to lose the World Series that initiated the establishment of the Commissioner of Baseball to act as an arbiter. Even today, the lack of trust between the Player’s Union and the Owners causes contention every time their Collective Bargaining Agreement expires. I’m not sure if they even know why they hate each other: the present generation of ball players have better working conditions and benefits than any before them and owners today are making record earnings.
To be honest, as a member of the middle class, it’s hard to empathize with millionaires who bicker with billionaires over petty details when BOTH sides are going to secure enormous profits. This is a win-win situation. All they have to do is come to an agreement… but they just can’t seem to do it. They will play ball this year (that is if the Coronavirus cooperates with their plans), but only because the Commissioner has the power to force them to play without a binding agreement. This issue will be put off until next year when we will go through it all again.
It was the prophet Jeremiah who said “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) It is a quirk of human nature that we seem to take pleasure when someone we don’t like experiences a misfortune. Even though WE don’t benefit from it, the fact that THEY take a loss makes us happy. In fact, we may consider following a course of action that will hurt us in the long run but will hurt them more. In our minds, we win… because we lose less than they do. Unfortunately, pride and envy are at the core of many of our conflicts - we want what others have or can’t stand the thought of someone having more than us. This motivation can hijack our reasoning skills and prevent us from finding true success.
I wish I could say this malady only afflicted professional athletes. But it seems everywhere in our modern culture we find conflict between different social groups. These issues range from economic status, to religious association, to ethnic background and political affiliation. Some of the resentments go back hundreds of years. For some, it festers as an irrational mistrust; for others, it has grown into open hostility. They may not even remember why they hate the other group; they just do.
In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul admonishes us to “never pay back evil for evil” and “respect what is right in the sight of all men” then follows with “if possible…be at peace with all men” (Rom 12:17-18). The Christian response to all this conflict seems to be “don’t participate.” Not only that, but we should be taking an active role in living peacefully with our fellow man. This may require us to bend our pride a little or let go of some of our hurts and resentments. In case we didn’t get the hint, Paul goes on to end the chapter with “overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21)
When we look at the progress we have made in the last few centuries, it’s hard to imagine that there is anything that we shouldn’t be able to accomplish. We have increased the standard of living around the world; we have improved literacy rates to historic levels; technology has given us miraculous tools to understand our world and communicate that knowledge with others. If only we could learn to get along with one another.
But this is something that technology can’t fix. This requires a different spirit than the one man has been given by nature. Perhaps this is the reason God has put us on this earth: to learn how to live together in peace, and to share that secret with everyone else. Perhaps this is the year mankind figures out that if we all work together, we can all have better lives.
Then again…there’s always next year.