Quick Hits: Commish on the Cardinals | St. Louis Cardinals – STLtoday.com

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. addresses the team in the clubhouse at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla. (Post-Dispatch photo by Laurie Skrivan)

QUESTION: Who do you favor in the battle of multi-bazillionaires -- the players or the owners? Would love to hear your reasoning.

COMMISH: Neither side has comported itself well, starting with all the leakage of offers, or presumed offers, or responses, or planned responses. That's not negotiating, that's like trying to play the media.

With the pandemic and unemployment and police brutality and racial insensitivity, people are confused, disappointed and, well, downright angry. Baseball, with a golden opportunity to assuage that anger, at least a bit, only has made everyone madder.

There will be baseball soon. But I dare say that baseball's popularity will not soon return -- if ever -- to its height. There is too much distrust, not just between the players and owners but between the fans and either of the above. Baseball already was fighting an uphill battle to present itself worthy to a younger audience. But now it is losing its core audience of adults.

I will be back because nearly my entire adult life has been invested in baseball. I like the game very much -- on the field. As for the rest. . . it often borders on ludicrous. I do not blame anyone if he or she jumps off the baseball bandwagon. You would hope it would be different but with another labor stalemate looming next year, how much can the public endure?

Follow-up: Who was holding a gun to the owners' heads when they signed the agreement in March?

COMMISH: The impasse has resulted from who wrote the agreement, regarding MLB's belief the language suggested that MLB had the right to adjust the agreement if games were played in empty ballparks. The players' union interpreted the agreement to mean the players would get 100 percent of salary, depending on how many games were played.

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Quick Hits: Commish on the Cardinals | St. Louis Cardinals - STLtoday.com