Why are we here? A cry from Atlanta Braves and all MLB fans.

This is terrible. This is unacceptable. This is greed. This is painful.

All these plus a whole lot more can be said about the current state of affairs throughout Major League Baseball. It’s not a good time to be a fan of the Atlanta Braves or the entire game, and it does not look like it’s going to get much better before it gets worse.

We should be nearing the halfway point of the season by now. All-star races should be heating up. Trade rumors should be starting to swirl. We should be realizing who the real contenders are and what teams are still in a rebuild.

Heck, the Atlanta Braves should be on their way to winning another NL East division and knocking off the defending champs, the Washington Nationals, from the perch they are on.

Yet, here we are without a single pitch being thrown at this point yet.

Obviously, some things were just out of everyone’s control. No one saw a global pandemic coming. Nothing anyone could have been done there.

Yet, baseball owners, players, and the commissioner have made this a whole other type of pandemic at this point. The pandemic that we might not be seeing baseball for a long time still, and the ramifications from these um….”proposals” will be felt and harbored for a long time as well.

Make no mistake about it, this is all about money. The simple fact is neither side is really disputing that and they should not because frankly, none of us are stupid enough to believe it isn’t. This has been bundled from the get-go.

While we fans were wondering when baseball might start. It would have been wise to try and get all this handled not in the public or media eye.

Before we go on, both sides have blame to go around. Is one more to blame than the other? Sure, but it is all in how you look at it.

The owners (it seems) saw a chance to shorten the season, taking money away from players and back in their pockets, and tried to expand the playoffs, which is where money is made hand over fist for the owners. The pandemic could have played right into their hands.

The players, however, obviously want as much money as possible and as many games as possible to maximize their income.

For the first time in a long time, it seems more of the public is on the side of the players, but all is not forgiving to either side.

The owners are trying to strong-arm the players and the players association into a deal that would make their collective worth $8 billion instead of $7 billion (Not really, just sarcasm inserted).

The players need to realize though that in the long run, they will need the game more, and taking half the deal is worth better than none. Which is the way this looks to be turning out to be.

Then you have the middle man, commissioner Rob Manfred, who works on behalf of the owners. It does not take a genius to figure out what side he most likely leans toward. Although the title of his job is to make sure baseball is running fluently and making profits for all involved. Guess what is not happening right now?

About a week ago, Manfred said he was 100% sure baseball would be played this year in some capacity. On Monday, he took a couple of giant leaps backward saying it’s not a guarantee anymore.

That’s either posturing to play both sides of the fence in a he said-he said battle or he is basically going ahead and trying to let us down easy.

Baseball, the game that is older than almost anything we still celebrate today. The game that has brought smiles to kids and adults faces for the last century-plus is at a crossroads.

America’s pastime is being run into the ground for greed and all the bad things it stands for now. We need to figure it out … like yesterday.

Hopefully both sides are in an underground bunker right now and won’t re-emerge until a deal is made. And along those same lines, I would be OK if the 2020 season is wiped away but a new CBA deal is reached ensuring it’s a long time before the Atlanta Braves and the rest of baseball go through something similar to this again.

We have a long way to go, and as we said yesterday, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

So blame whoever you want to, but all parties have a hand in this so therefore blame can be spread around.

Hopefully soon we can hear the crack of the bat and see umpires taking five minutes to reverse an obvious call and all will be right again. Until then, try and remember the fun times baseball has brought to us all and not get all lost in these ugly dramatic back and forth spats.

The bottom line is we all want baseball back and we want it back soon. Maybe history will repeat itself and the Atlanta Braves will be victorious when baseball is resumed after a long break like the last time something similar happened.