-
On the bright side, no one calls baseball “boring” at the moment. These heated negotiations to restart the 2020 season continue to entertain, even as they present absolutely terrible optics to a country coping simultaneously with a social crisis and a pandemic. Here are three thoughts on the latest developments: 1. If you’re wondering whether …
-
MLB and the players association have now swapped financial proposals with each expressing distaste for the opposing plan. And while that keeps the sides far away from an agreement to restart the game, they do continue to heighten a war of words. The players association, represented by executive director Tony Clark and lead negotiator Bruce …
-
MLB and the Players Association would have difficulty reaching an agreement just because of their history of distrust and distaste and because they are navigating around those feelings during a pandemic. But accentuating the problematic relationship even further is that the sides are not even in accord on what they actually agreed to in late …
-
Fantasy Baseball, 2020: On April 1, Rob Manfred and Tony Clark (imaginarily) held this joint Zoom news conference. Manfred: Tony and I have decided to cancel the 2020 Major League Baseball season today. We see too many hurdles to clear, too many logistical dilemmas to ponder, too many people suffering. All tickets purchased for the …
-
The growing expectation is that the Players Association is not going to deliver a financial response to MLB’s initial proposal in time to reach an accord before Monday’s soft June 1 deadline to restart the game by Independence Day weekend. So let’s start a game of seven questions on that subject: 1. Does the deadline …
-
Dear Adults: You are in the room, right? This isn’t all just going to be “take my ball and go home” day, is it? Name calling? Intractability? There is going to be a moment in which a leader or three rises above the familiar roles, the rhetoric, the threats, isn’t there? It should start with …
-
Since negotiating sessions have been rare despite much to do and a ticking clock, Rob Manfred and Tony Clark have time to take a plane flight together. That actually could help the negotiations. Especially if they see the world from 20,000 feet. Because they have myopically (and instinctually) locked into their antagonistic comfort zones — …
-
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 …
-
A smoking gun potentially exists that the union knew another negotiation needed to be had beyond a March agreement with MLB about how the players would be paid in 2020 if games were contested without a paid audience. An email from an MLB lawyer to top league officials dated 10:41 a.m. on March 26 was …
-
A 2020 without Major League Baseball would lead to losses for the industry that “could approach $4 billion,” commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday night. In an interview on CNN’s “AC360” with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Manfred also expressed hope that he and his Players Association equivalent Tony Clark could find common ground on …
On the bright side, no one calls baseball “boring” at the moment. These heated negotiations to restart the 2020 season continue to entertain, even as they present absolutely terrible optics to a country coping simultaneously with a social crisis and a pandemic. Here are three thoughts on the latest developments: 1. If you’re wondering whether …
