MLB, as expected, imposed a schedule of 60 games to begin on or around July 24th. If the PA signs off on a couple of points (health and safety protocols for one) then the players will report to their home stadiums on July 1st.
The whole thing could still be scuttled if the COVID-19 infections continue to increase. Brewers pitcher Brett Anderson tweeted "What happens when we all get it?"
This whole thing has been a bad time for baseball. They might have been smarter to simply cancel the season from the get-go and then spend the time carving out a new agreement. Baseball shot itself in the foot and then shot itself in the other foot! I hope the games resume, I think some baseball (at this point) is better than none. But the sport--perhaps I should say the industry--did itself serious harm. All those pointless "negotiations" accomplished nothing. The players are still stuck with their plantation system and the owners get to put their heads back in the sand (or their heaping piles of moo-lah).
Anyway, GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
UPDATE: Here's a FAQ from MLB re the upcoming season.
9 comments:
There will be continued contentiousness between MLB and MLBPA. Even if they pull off a shortened season this summer the stakes will be higher for 2021 and beyond. It won't be pretty. Baseball could look very different in a few years what with contraction in the minors and the collapse of the FA market. Teams will slash costs and focus on player development. There will be a quicker path to the majors but fewer opportunities and older players (who dominate the union) will fade from the scene. Only the superstars will remain (and get big bucks). The PA needs to re-think their entire approach to negotiations. Ownership, at some point, may just throw in the towel and stop giving a shit about the product on the field. If the turnstiles are turning in 2022 they'll be happy even if the entire league is 16-year olds plucked out of Venezuelan slums.
OR--people who care will sit down and hammer out a proper contract that keeps the fans interested and keeps the game healthy!!
I'm hoping for the latter.
After the pandemic, a weaker product, will lead to weaker attendance, and an eventual collapse of MLB as we know it. The fans are used to seeing top talent, and the prices they pay are for top talent. Over time, and not over a long period of time, if the product put on the field is inferior, MLB will collapse. Both the owners, and the players union need to hash their proposals out very carefully and anticipate the impact of their decisions ahead of time. For each alteration in the system that is proposed, the most likely effect(S) those changes would cause, need to be considered.
Agreed. I've always believed that the players and owners would ultimately settle. They both would see that the game could be hurt--irreparably--by their actions (or failure to act). They would hammer out a compromise. But it never happened. It was all a shit show from the start.
The owners don't see themselves as stewards of the game. The franchise is just a nice piece in the portfolio, like the garage full of Ferraris or the barn full of racehorses.
I don't know.
The players, man, they fucked themselves up. They were too busy protecting the old guys and left the up-and-comers behind. It's a classic union failing: undone by success. The argued about stupid shit like "draft slot bonuses" and failed to address the basic inequities, namely that teams had too much arbitrary control over players. They saw the trees but missed the forest.
I hope this half-assed maybe-season works. Maybe the fans will get excited again and we'll get to have some fun watching weird fan-less games.
I don't know, man.
The NBA Re-Start (w/ 'bubble' in the latest COVID hot spot) is turning into a frickin' fiasco - people justifiably opting out to protect their Families' health, people testing positive, etc.. This is a pointless exercise, & people are going to get sick (or worse).
MLB should observe this, & say: 'You know what, forget it - see you in 2021.'
It's hard to see how MLB can coordinate over so many jurisdictions. Every state is doing its own thing, each county in the state is doing its own thing. How do you get any kind of consistency? For example, they had an anti-mask rally in Scottsdale today! How does MLB implement safety plans in places that are hostile to the whole idea?
I suppose seeing other countries like Korea and Germany get their sports going has Americans all fired up. If they can do it, we can do it better, by golly!
I hope it works.
Here's a bit from the ESPN article about the 60-game plan:
The larger problem is not specific to baseball: What happens if the numbers return to a pattern of exponential spread? For now, baseball and the other sports have to proceed as if they are going to be able to play in a newly reopened country. However, the specter of the pandemic rendering all of these plans moot hangs over the sports world like the sword of Damocles. With a number of positive tests coming to light in the baseball-verse the past few days, it's clear that MLB and the MLBPA will be battling the pandemic as much as they have battled each other the past few months.
Comparisons to other Countries are irrelevant:
- Other Countries have taken this seriously.
- Citizens of other Countries don't have a selfish false choice on their minds: Do I protect Society as a whole, or do I whine about infringements on my personal 'freedom'? Citizens of other Countries know what a National Emergency is, & the associated sacrifices.
- Very importantly, in other Countries, COVID Testing is available on a widespread basis from coordinated health systems. Aside from protecting the greater population, that renders moot the argument that Athletes are being treated better than the rest of the population. For example, in the UK, the NHS affords testing to all. No one can say that all of the testing resources are being sucked up, just to get the Premier League going again. (That said, I still think that they could have canceled the rest of that Season, & people would have understood.)
Most other countries have a nationalized approach. We have a catch-as-catch-can approach to the pandemic that varies from state to state and even county to county.
Ideally, you would have varied regional strategies because every place is different. What's needed in LA is different, for example, from what's needed in Siskiyou County. But there has to be some co-ordination and consistency of messaging, and that's getting drowned out by the politics, unfortunately.
I see the sports stuff as the laboratory. If they can pull off this big logistical challenge and keep people relatively safe, it could be a model for pulling off other, more important stuff. But I'm increasingly pessimistic when you have idiots like Novak Djokovic around!
I hope the games can resume and we can get some baseball, no matter how weird.
Farhan Zaidi on that asshole city councilman in Arizona:
“I mean, fuck that guy,” Zaidi said Thursday. “You can quote me on that. Fuck that guy.”
Yeah.
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