DALLAS — Major League Baseball remains in limbo, after the players association and team owners couldn’t come to terms on a renewed collective bargaining agreement, resulting in the fourth lockout in MLB history.

On Dec. 2, team owners unanimously voted to enact the lockout, leaving some MLB players with the inability to be traded or signed and preventing the use of work facilities. 

Mike Bacsik, a current radio host on 105.3 The Fan’s “The K&C Masterpiece” show in Dallas, Texas, has been outspoken about the owners’ decision not to compromise with most of the players association’s requests. 

“Players want a free market. The thing that we want is what is considered to us the ‘American Way’” Bacsik said. 

Bacsik used the word “we” because he too played Major League Baseball during the early 2000s. 

The former MLB pitcher spent time with the Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Washington Nationals and even had a short stint with the Texas Rangers, which was the same team his father, Mike Bacsik Sr., played for in the 1970s. 

Bacsik recalls his professional career, which ended in 2008, as a rollercoaster.

“Exciting, disappointing, and not the way I wanted it to turn out.” 

He now provides personal insight and expertise of the MLB world through the weekday “The K&C Masterpiece” radio show. 

Bacsik says the revenue that the MLB has brought in has grown, but it hasn’t equated to more pay for its players.

“If you just look over the last ten or so years, baseball is making a lot of money.”

While Bacsik never experienced a lockout, his father endured it in the 70s. He also knows many individuals who have had to go on strike and speak out for fair pay. 

Whether a strike or a lockout, Bacsik says players wear their experiences of taking a stand as a badge of honor, passing down that mentality to each baseball generation. 

“It seems like baseball players are the last player association that really fights for their rights,” Bacisk noted, comparing the MLB’s players association to other major sports league associations who tend to let the owners make the majority of the decisions. 

The increase in pay would help professional baseball players, who aren’t seeing the big contracts, the opportunity to be taken care of, according to Bacsik. 

“Right now, it’s your time to have to sacrifice to make sure that the players have the rights and free market that they deserve,” Bacsik said. 

Bacsik believes the lockout could come to an end closer to February or March. He’s hopeful it won’t impact the start of the season in April.