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The last 10 days in baseball news are a microcosm of why you should care about the ways that owners manipulate sympathetic media, conservative public sentiment, and confusion over CBA negotiations.
First, it starts with the owners putting a 2021 "deal" on the table
First, it starts with the owners putting a 2021 "deal" on the table
Then, of course, that "deal" is covered extensively by the media, because there's not a whole lot else going on in baseball's offseason these days. The package seems reasonable (it's a pandemic, after all!), until you start to actually think critically about each piece of it
Expanded playoffs: A massive financial windfall for owners, who make more money per game (obviously) for TV rights and gate receipts. Not a real windfall for players, who don't get their salary in the playoffs (they get a bonus, which pales in comparison to what the owners get)
The owners already make ~$500 million a year from national TV contracts (which are largely juiced by the postseason). Grow the playoffs, the largest portion of that revenue, and you're jacking that number up even higher
Not to mention the fact that setting a 2-year precedent (in the lead up to the CBA expiring) for expanded playoffs all but guarantees owners won't accept a new CBA without it. More teams making the playoffs = less wins needed = less $ required to compete = less $ to players
Universal DH: Do the players want this? Yes, it's 15 new jobs! But universal DH is so trivial in comparison to the landscape-shifting nature of expanded playoffs that the PA should be insulted the league would think they'd trade those two things
Delaying the season for one month: could you sell me on this because of player safety? Yes. Do I think the owners are proposing this because of player safety? *checks notes on when they played through several outbreaks in 2020* Hmm, idk.
To recap: a group of 30 billionaires (many of whom got richer in 2020) want to subvert a CBA to get a massive financial windfall in a pandemic, in exchange for something as low-stakes as the DH, under the guise of "health and safety" (when they plowed through < 1 year ago)
And where it gets really fun is that the league had all offseason to put this shit deal on the table, yet they chose to do it two weeks before players had to report to spring training
If you've read this far and are still like, why should I care? Because owners just tried to make a joke of competitiveness by expanding the playoffs to mean 53% of the league makes it, all so that they could make a quick buck in the short term and suppress salaries later on
And somehow, despite all of this, the baseball writers with a lot of Twitter followers' knee jerk reaction is confusion as to why the union wouldn't make a counter offer. 
Should the headline be:
"Players' Union Rejects League Proposal For 2021 Season"
or
"Owners Want To Re-Negotiate Current CBA One Year Early; Players Say No"
"Players' Union Rejects League Proposal For 2021 Season"
or
"Owners Want To Re-Negotiate Current CBA One Year Early; Players Say No"
This isn't to say all of baseball media got it wrong — most reporters weed through this shit deftly. But the problem lies in the fact that many huge media members' massive followings of generic baseball fans take the first headline and repeat it to everyone they know
And it creates the never-ending cycle of "jeez, both sides are really torpedoing these negotiations as a show of strength," as if these "negotiations" are valid in the first place. Thank you for coming to this absurd rant!!!! Don't stan owners!!!! Sorry for the long thread!
