(SportsRadio 610) -- Major League Baseball could be missing out on an enormous opportunity to remain relevant as professional team sports emerge from shutdowns due to the the coronavirus pandemic.
The NBA, NHL and NFL all plan to have live games this summer and fall.
MLB? Not so much. Commissioner Rob Manfred backtracked on his statement from last week saying he was 100 percent sure there would be baseball. The outlook is much more bleak as of the most recent reports.
Legendary sports broadcaster Bob Costas joined Clint Stoerner and Ron "The Show" Hughley on Monday to offer some perspective.
Here is part of what Costas said when asked to describe the failing negotiations in one word:
"Myopic. They cannot see the forest for the trees. You can win little points of principle or pride at the negotiating table, and still lose the larger battle. If the industry is damaged, and if its reputation takes yet another hit, everybody takes a hit. If the industry thrives, everybody thrives. They had a great opportunity to be the only team sport on the radar for a while.
"If they could've started on Fourth of July weekend, that would have symbolism to it. They could've gotten a jump on hockey and basketball coming back, football far down the road. They could've generated some good will. Everybody understands that it would be under different circumstances. People would watch it. I don't know how many, but they'd welcome it back. Live sports, real competition, even with no fans in the stands, even under different circumstances, even only half a season. They easily could've done that.
"Now, even if they're able to salvage something … so much of this has leaked out. So much of the acrimony, and it has a 'here we go again' quality to it, because people know the history. They've always been at each other's' throats, it seems. The last few negotiations, they've been able to get by without a lockout, or a strike. So that made some of us optimistic. But apparently some of this mistrust, which has passed down from generation to generation, has reared its ugly head again. And they cannot see what everybody outside of the warring parties can see, including 12-year-old children. They can't see their mutual interests. And that what they're doing here, no matter who walks away from the table saying 'we got the better of this' or 'I'm happy we're not playing,' whatever it is, there is no winner here. There are only two losers"
