Baseball Negotiations Reach 9^th Inning

All sports in America have been all constructively planning or have already finalized plans for starting or resuming their playing seasons except for Major League Baseball.

The parties to America’s pastime haven’t been able to reach an agreement, perhaps pushing this logjam into extra innings. If you’ve been following this frustrating issue then you’d know that what was true yesterday is no longer true today. Actually, a decision is supposed to be reached by the close of business today or else.

The MLB and the Player’s Association have been throwing numbers at each other for weeks. The key issue is that the MLBPA would gladly play if they were given the money the players believe they deserve. MLB – the owners – keeps suggesting pay cuts. I see both sides of the story. It’s not the MLB’s fault that COVID-19 changed our lives on and off the field, so the players should get the money they want.

However, the MLB says it doesn’t have enough money to give to the players. Really? Look around, sports fans, baseball is a major industry.

Let’s recall some of the events that have happened and some of the comments that were made. The MLBPA wants a longer season (for the MLB) and full salaries (for the players), then the MLB wants a shorter season (for the players) and smaller salaries (for the MLB). According to Yahoo Sports, MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark said: “Since March, the Association has made it clear that our No.1 focus is playing the fullest season possible, as soon as possible, as safely as possible. Players agreed to billions in monetary concessions as a means to that end, and in the face of repeated media leaks and misdirection we made additional proposals to inject new revenues into the industry – proposals that would benefit the owners, players, broadcast partners, and fans alike.”

Let me clean that up for you: Tony Clark speaks for the whole MLBPA. Players want to play, and he’s saying that the players want their money and that the MLBPA has agreed to keep coming towards the MLB’s expectations in further negotiations. But, as we see what happened today, with the MLB proposing a 72-game season and the players bringing in about 83 percent of their prorated salaries, the MLBPA rejected this idea and doesn’t want to negotiate anymore. Now, we’re going to get a season soon because all the MLB has to do is fill in the blanks with how many games the season will have and paychecks and health assurances.

The commissioner, Rob “Bozo” Manfred did promise a season (and the season is looking good). The MLB does have the power to throw the player’s association’s thoughts down the drain, but it probably won’t do that yet. If they did, the player’s association could go on strike and what good will that do?

We’re hearing things like former MLB player Mark Teixeira saying “…players won’t be getting a cent, they should rather be getting cents on the dollar.”

I’m not a player but I do agree with him. I would rather make some money than no money, I would rather have one cookie than no cookies. Now we’re just looking at the details of the season: like the duration of the season, the salaries and the playoff format (that will be interesting) and if the NL could finally have a DH!

All American sports were suspended due to coronavirus. But I have this to say, when all the other players are playing, and baseball isn’t, there will be something wrong, something won’t feel right, something will be missing. Baseball has had so many disturbing and great moments, football and basketball have had these moments, but baseball is America’s pastime, American sports need baseball, it just feels right with it, so make an effort to bring back baseball!

The situation is desperate for all concerned. As Buster Olney, ESPN senior writer, wrote in his column today, “The house of baseball is burning and somebody needs to put out the fire immediately.” I totally agree with Olney. Someone bigger than everyone involved in the negotiations needs to step up to the plate and will hit a walk-off homer that will save the game. The MLBPA dropped the ball so now we’re only left with the MLB to crunch the numbers so the fans finally hear “Play Ball!” after such a long silence.

If not, baseball fans will be stuck with repeats (I’m actually sick of them, the 2000 Home Run Derby? Really?) and the Japanese and Korean baseball leagues.

Let’s look at the other two sports that I cover. The NBA has a set date to play in Disney Land, “This is Anthony Davis, and you’re watching the NBA playoffs on Disney Channel!” on a tentative date of July 30 with 22 teams playing and the teams will start training on July 9-11. The NFL is planning to make all 32 teams go to training camp and act as if COVID-19 never happened, (not the way you should be going). Coaches have started coming back to their stadiums to practice – but not all. Their wives aren’t letting them, ha-ha. The NFL might be the only league not worrying. Their preseason starts in August, so they have more than enough time to start and end their season. The NBA will go on, with them planning to have a 22-team tournament to see who gets in and then have normal playoffs.

It will be interesting to see what happens after this long coronavirus break and then having everyone playing at full speed.