Why I’m Boycotting Major League Baseball

I’m hearing that the players and owners in Major League Baseball (MLB) may not be able to reach an agreement to bring back baseball this year. I don’t care. Here’s why.

I used to be a big baseball fan when I was a boy. I remember listening to all of the Houston Astros baseball games on the radio, and playing the Big League Manager Baseball game so much that I wore out the spinner. I fell in love with the 1969 Miracle Mets.

When I was stationed in San Diego with the Navy in the mid-1980s, I became a fan of the San Diego Padres and attended several of their games. For a long time I rooted for the Mets, Astros, Padres, and Rangers. I watched a lot of MLB games on television every spring and summer, and attended games on occasion.

But sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s I soured on MLB. It seemed that the players and owners were always squabbling over money, resulting in a strike in 1972, a lockout in 1973, a lockout in 1976, a strike in 1980, a strike in 1981, a strike in 1985, a lockout in 1990, and a strike in 1994-1995 that wiped out the MLB postseason including the World Series.

Somewhere along the line I decided that if the owners and the players cared more about money than about their game, then there was no reason I should I care about MLB. So I started boycotting MLB, and I’ve been doing so ever since. I no longer go to the games. I don’t watch them on television or listen to them on the radio. I don’t buy any MLB gear.

Now I still like baseball, and my boycott does not include other levels of baseball, such as the minor leagues, college, or high school. But MLB doesn’t get any of my money or my attention.

Is it difficult? Sometimes. Especially when one of my old favorite teams is doing well. But I have a lot more free time in the spring and summer now.

Will I ever come back? Maybe—if the players and owners ever start putting the welfare of the game ahead of their own selfish greed. But that hasn’t happened yet.  

So whether MLB players and owners get their act together this year or keep squabbling over money doesn’t matter much to me. I won’t be watching anyway.

Part of this article is drawn from information in the following Wikipedia article: “MLB Lockout.”