MLB Lockout

Currently, there is a lockout in the MLB because the Agreement Bargaining Act from 2016 is up and the player union and owners need to come to an agreement. This is one of the only times in history that a lockout has happened which is why history is being made.

What is a lockout? A lockout is when the owners have a work stoppage due to a labor dispute. Major league teams are not allowed to talk to players, sign anyone or make any trades. This puts the whole MLB on shutdown until the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) creates a new act. No timeline has been created to determine when this lockout will end. Many believe that there may be a delay or possibly cancellation of the upcoming MLB season due to how slow things are moving. Sophomore baseball player Chris Peterson said, “The MLBlockout is something I really don’t like as a fan due to the fact that it appears MLB owners and commissioner don’t care about the players.” This would be the fourth time out of every MLB lockout that a delay or possible cancellation of games would happen. Senior Ben Burkle said, “It’s not good, it’s not good for the sport.”

This lockout has left many players and fans upset at commissioner Rob Manfred and owners of MLB teams as well. MLB removed all player’s profile pictures on the MLB website so the players decided to fight back. On MLB players social media pages, many decided to change their profile to blank pictures to troll back at the MLB for making it seem like the players do not matter. Many fans are also left angry at the thought of no baseball being watched in 2021. Waukee northwest sophomore Saahi Jetti said, “If there is no baseball played in the MLB this season I am going to be very upset with the owners.”

This year, the MLB is experiencing the first lockout since 1994. The MLB lockout in 1994 lasted 232 days and if this year is the same there will be a major delay in games played this upcoming season. There have been a total of nine MLB lockouts in MLB history. The 1972 lockout was the first lockout in MLB history, which experienced a cancellation of 86 games. The following year the lockout continued into 1973 and there were zero games canceled. The 1976 and the 1980 MLB lockouts both did not experience any games canceled. The 1981 MLB lockout canceled a total of 718 games. Then 1985 and 1990 had zero games but the 1994 MLB lockout is considered the biggest lockout in MLB history. There were 938 total games canceled, the entire 1994 postseason was canceled including the world series. This shows that if the CBA and owners do not come to an agreement, there could be a major miss in baseball this season.