It's time for the Players Association and the owners to realize they need each other

*Photo from Talking Chop*

   It's mid lockout season, and there are still plenty of boundaries that the MLB and the MLBPA have to agree to. As a matter of fact, they have everything to agree to, because they haven't talked since the lockdown. And it's exactly that reason that I'm writing this. Because the MLB and the MLBPA need each other, and they need to know it.

   The hallmark of "negotiations" between these two sides in the last few years has been nothing but arguing and bickering. There had already been tension, as the MLBPA believed that the scales of the CBA were tilted in the owners favor. That tension came to a head when it was time to negotiate the playing conditions of the 2020 season.

   Those negotiations were nothing but arguing and screaming, and both sides trying to use social media to aid their side of the story, and paint things the way they wanted them to be painted in the public eye. It didn't get them anywhere, as the commissioner had to unilaterally implement a season in 2020, so they couldn't even agree on that. But, for the good of the game, they need each other.

   The players are rich. That's been known. They want to fight for their rights, which is something they should be able to do. However, they need to know who they're fighting. They're fighting the owners, the people who made them this rich to begin with. Because it's the owners who paid them their salaries, gave them the stardom by giving them a team to play on, and they need to recognize that and try not to grab everything they can from the owners.

   On the other hand, the owners are even richer. They're the billionaires who can afford to give the players the money they need. Yes, they were already rich beforehand, but you know who made them even richer? That's right, the players did. Because they're the ones who bring fans to games and bring lucrative TV and radio deals because the players are the ones the people want to see. So turning around and trying to unfairly treat the people who build your success isn't fair, and the owners need to recognize that.

   Anyway, that's my two cents on this CBA situation, which should carry well into the early months of 2022, with the MLB and the MLBPA not even beginning to talk proposals until January at the earliest, per multiple reports.