Unable to reach an agreement with its players, Major League Baseball chose the nuclear option on Tuesday, with owners continuing their lockout into the regular season by cancelling the first two series on the 2022 calendar.
Officially dooming Opening Day leaguewide, there's no telling now when the season will begin, if it even does at all. With owners withholding player salaries no longer a veiled threat, the ball is now in the MLBPA's court, to decide how long the union can withstand future financial losses.
As millionaires argue with billionaires, it's the game, its fans and, most tragic of all, all the stadium workers who are really losing out.
For Nats fans, Tuesday's cancellation was an especially bitter pill to swallow, as it marks the third-straight Opening Day cancelled at Nationals Park.
Opening Day 2020 was wiped out by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which ultimately crunched the baseball season down to 60 games. The pandemic robbed the Nationals and their fans of their victory lap season, never able to celebrate their 2019 World Series title together.
And then there was Opening Day 2021, which was postponed for the Nats along with their entire opening weekend series against the Mets due to a Covid outbreak in Washington's clubhouse.
That brings us to Opening Day 2022. The Nats were once again scheduled to play the Mets, games that have now been cancelled by MLB owners.
At this rate, Nats fans may never see Opening Day again.
On the bright side, the Nationals are still the last team to win the World Series playing a 162-game season (the Braves played 161 games in 2021).
For another year, at least.
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