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If the players and owners are running out of time to restart the 2020 baseball season by early July, they sure don’t appear to be running out of words. The tense negotiations exploded once more Wednesday night when Nationals veteran pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the Major League Baseball Players Association’s executive subcommittee, tweeted …

What if MLB gets what it wants — players to forego a significant part of their salaries for 2020 — and then a group of players does not show up? That would be victory turning to defeat quickly for the owners, especially if these are star players and particularly since it could spark another round …

I don’t know whether Henrik Lundqvist can reclaim the No. 1 job in nets from Igor Shesterkin when (and if) the Rangers reconvene at some point late next month or in early July. But I do know that David Quinn and the coaching staff would be making a mistake if they enter camp with minds …

MLB and the Players Association are in a familiar situation unfamiliarly. They are fighting about money. Duh. Players and owners have done that since the inception of the game, quite publicly since the Players Association was formally recognized as a union in 1966. Within that frame what occurred Tuesday is as routine as the national …

The NHL’s return-to-play format is officially set. Whether the 24 teams involved get to use it depends on how the next steps unfold. Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday that the NHL’s regular season is officially over and, if and when play resumes, it will be in a 24-team playoff in two hub cities, with dates …

MLB made its financial pitch to the Players Association on Tuesday. The key question when it comes to restarting a season is, how does the union take that pitch? MLB’s plan, as first reported by USA Today, was to have a sliding scale, so that those who make the least in 2020 would receive the …

The Players Association was expected to deliver its response to MLB’s 67-page health and safety manual Thursday while the league is supposed to provide answers to economic questions raised by the union by Friday. One of these issues is more vital to tackle first and completely. Because as the saying goes, you have nothing without …

Should the NHL’s proposed 24-team, conference-based playoff format come to fruition, the New York Rangers would face the Carolina Hurricanes in a best-of-five play-in series to restart the 2019-20 season. The rearranged playoffs would be conference-based and remain bracketed, replacing the wild-card format the league has followed since 2013. The top four seeds in each …

Hal Steinbrenner and Jeff Wilpon DNA-ed their way into jobs. Whatever you think of Jacoby Ellsbury and Yoenis Cespedes, they used talent to gain their contracts. There was no inheritance, nepotism or being born on third base. Players earn what franchises are willing to pay. Scott Boras, for example, has been accused of many tricks …

Alex Rodriguez caused a stir last weekend after calling for MLB players to accept the owners’ offer of a 50-50 split in revenues for games played in empty ballparks. And ESPN Radio host Dan Le Batard says players have every right to be angry at A-Rod, the retired ex-Yankee who raked in roughly $450 million …