What's Wrong With This Picture?

I'm starting to view Major League Baseball owners & players as little kids fighting over a toy. The REALLY need someone with authority to step in and settle this once and for all.

Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong. But there HAS to be give & take here or baseball is not only killing off this season but it's future as well. Has neither side learned anything from history?

There's a class at the University of Wisconsin that I wanted to take as a "senior guest" student. Old folks can do that -- one course per semester with the professor's approval, no cost. The beauty is, you do the readings, listen to the lectures BUT you don't do the assigned work or take the tests. (Among my friends and family, I'm sure many thought I did this all through my four years at UW-Oshkosh! My GPA begs to differ, but that's another issue.)

Tried to get into the class, Baseball & Society Since World War II, but it was not in a lecture pit, and with limited space, they prof couldn't let me in. But he did provide me with the reading list for it. One text dealt with breaking the racial barrier, starting with Jackie Robinson. Another was Ball Four, the tell-all diary by Jim Bouton from the early 1970's that changed the way a lot of us looked at professional athletes.

The third was The End Of Baseball As We Knew It: The Players Union, 1960-1981 by Charles P. Korr.

It's an eye-opening, detailed look at the nastiness that has been part of the relationship between MLB's owners the the player's union for well over 40 years. Seems like there has been bad blood forever.

Both sides have an opportunity to set some of that aside at the negotiation table and work through this.

As fans, we need to it to be sooner rather than later.

Please?