1:07pm: Owners approved the proposal for the union, Rosenthal tweets. The league and union are expected to sit down to discuss the proposal tomorrow. Sherman tweets that the MLBPA considers the league’s revenue sharing proposition a “nonstarter,” further underscoring that substantial hurdles need to be navigated.
11:50am: The league is preparing to present the Players Association with a proposal for the resumption of play in 2020, and the team’s 30 owners will vote on the final iteration later today, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Once finalized, the proposal will be presented to the union.
Many elements of the proposal have already been leaked to various media outlets. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich reported over the weekend that a revenue-sharing plan with players was being “floated,” and Nightengale adds that such a plan is indeed on the table today. The proposal would see owners share “at least 48 percent” of revenue with the MLBPA in 2020. Similar setups exist in the NBA and the NFL. Owners will also vote on a universal DH for 2020, as Joel Sherman suggested over the weekend.
A couple of previously reported elements have already been agreed upon, per Nightengale: the expansion from 10 to 14 postseason teams in 2020 and a limited travel schedule wherein teams play only division rivals and the five teams in the opposite league’s corresponding division (e.g. the Padres play only the other four NL West clubs and the five AL West clubs during the regular season). A mid-June reboot for spring (summer?) training and an early July return to regular-season play remain the hope and best-case scenario, though scheduling is still dependent on input from government officials and public health experts.
The owners and commissioner’s office are also hopeful that teams will be able to host training camp and regular-season games (sans fans in attendance) at their home parks. Nightengale does make mention of a possible facility share between close-proximity rivals in the event that one team’s state government regulations render play at its home stadium not feasible. Such clubs could also look into moving games to their spring site, per the report, though in some cases, that would seemingly run counter to the more stringent travel restrictions this proposal seeks to establish.
There’s still no word on what sort of plan is in place in the event of a positive test or tests among active players and coaches — or of a larger outbreak within a tightly packed clubhouse. To that end, Rosenthal spoke with a number of players with underlying medical conditions in order to get their feelings on a return to play (subscription required). David Dahl, Scott Alexander, Adam Duvall, Jordan Hicks, Carlos Carrasco, Kenley Jansen, Anthony Rizzo and Jon Lester all spoke with Rosenthal about their intentions to play despite some current or previous health concerns. Dahl, who had his spleen removed in 2015, acknowledged that it’s “definitely scary” and said his immune system is “pretty bad.” Still, he expressed trust in Rockies medical officials and the broader expertise of public health experts in voicing his willingness to return to the field.
That said, Rosenthal also notes that there are numerous players with underlying medical conditions which are not public knowledge, and there are plenty more with higher-risk immediate family members that are the source of concern. It’s a complicated scenario for players in those circumstances — one that has reportedly led some to inquire with the union about what would happen should they opt not to play in 2020 (via last week’s report from Jeff Passan of ESPN.com). It’s also a reminder that ownership approval of a proposal today is just one of many steps that need to be taken before play actually resumes.
lets all relax everyone, this will probably be resolved at some point soon. lets just let what happens happen.
The players are playing hard ball with the owners . Players want daily testing. That MLB pays for. Wants testing that is approved by MLB PA not owners. The testing that owners one has now been reported to have a 15% false positive rate now. And players do not want to play in cities that have hotspots Northeast to the mid Atlantic region of Maryland Los Angeles county and San Francisco Michigan. And you have close borders were Dominican and Latinos and Canadians cannot cross
Individual players would have to vote due to the fact that this would be a change to the collective bargaining agreement as in a memorandum of understanding
Hot spot. The hospitals in Los Angeles are fairly empty.
San Fran hospitals not close to full as well… In SF there are 765,000 residents under age 60 and three have died from virus. In SF there are 135,000 residents over age 60 and 31 have died from virus.
I thought the mayor banned all sports for 2020
Not to mention the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of false positives of Covid 19. There are thousands and thousands of people being told that they have Covid 19 that don’t really have it. Fruit has already tested positive for Covid 19.
If someone was about to die of cancer and they coincidentally had Covid 19, and they then died strictly from the cancer, the hospitals are being told to list cause of death as Covid 19. Or at least cancer AND Covid 19.
Chief – As I mentioned below in response to you, anyone who had a flu shot is likely to get a false positive for coronavirus.
If someone has coronavirus and gets hit by a bus on the way to the hospital and dies later of their bus injuries, that’s logged as a coronavirus death too. Hospitals get paid more money for every death they can attribute to coronavirus.
That is in no way true. Antibodies are specific. Physical injuries are registered as such. There is no financial impetus for viral deaths. Please stop spreading misinformation, It could harm or kill people.
itsyou – Hospitals get paid for every death related to coronavirus and they have been very liberal in their reporting. That has been widely reported. Do some research before you suggest I am spreading misinformation. This time it’s you.
My sense is that the administration is keen on getting MLB going. If that means sending a C-130 or two to the DR to pick up some ball players (with the Thunderbirds flying cover escort) they’ll do it.
CNN reported earlier today that the White House has called individual owners of all major sports leagues to press them on open up their leagues ASAP.
Because that’s the best use of the White House’s time right now.
for what its worth though there are a lot of people under the executive umbrella. the president and his advisors are usually doing a lot at once.
Sometimes I wish they would do less. And not just this administration; all of them.
Shut up dumb f&ck.
Yakety, anything involving the economy is absolutely worth the WH time right now. It’s time to move past this facade and return to normal life.
Past presidents have urged professional sports leagues to field games under equally urgent situations (e.g., WWI and WWII).
So while this administration that did not get my 2016 vote and will not get my 2020 vote either, I’m not going to slam the White House over the decision to contact each of the major sports leagues.
It is worth some WH time
Hopefully you won’t be voting in 2020, sleepy Joe the far left socialist is the best they can do our country is in big trouble.
100% concur.
Good. Start spring training tomorrow. Then when pitchers are ready resume the season. No more fear. Be free!
This virus is all a hoax
Big, if true. Source?
Oh.
The virus is not a hoax. A lot of the response in the states and what is in the news media s not necessarily 100% truth and honesty. The Commonwealth of PA keeps “adjusting” the number of confirmed cases and death numbers. For several weeks they listed several counties that the Coroners have no record of Covid-19 deaths as having Covid-19 deaths. The Governor will not give out his metrics for opening up counties again except for 1 county that he will not reopen. The reason given is the number of deaths from 1 nursing home in the county. It got hammered with 61 of the 78 deaths in the county. The reason why the Governor will not open the county up even though it is surrounded by open counties is that the employees go out into the community every day. The problem with that logic is that the nursing home is within a 15 minute drive of 4 surrounding counties and Ohio and West Virginia. All are opening now or beginning to open starting this Friday. Employees live in all of those opening areas. No reason to keep that county still on the quarantine list. The response is the hoax in many places but the virus is not.
Too bad NY had such a bad response (nursing homes and subways) If it had been contained, we’d probably have MLB (or at least spring training) right now.
I hope this is just some trolling and not what you actually believe
You’re a hoax.
See how productive calling anything you don’t like for no other reason sounds?
NODH – The coronavirus has been around for years. The hoax is the unnecessary response.
washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/covid-19-turn…
Agree and I live in that county!
no, varieties of “coronavirus” have been, but this strain (COVID-19) has not been, regardless of whatever fake news you see that says otherwise.
Dark – “no, varieties of “coronavirus” have been, but this strain (COVID-19) has not been”
You say “no” but then agree with what I said…weird. Anyway, as we both agree, coronavirus has been around for years. The current strain is new, which is exactly how the flu behaves. Every year we have new flu strains that are immune to the vaccines that are crammed down our throats every flu season.
I don’t watch the” news” because they are ratings driven and fear mongering drives up ratings.
Correct Chief. Of the reported official cases, how many of those are false positives that they failed to back out of the total number once confirmed to be false? Also, if you had the flu shot, you are very likely to have a false positive for coronavirus. You don’t hear that reported in the “news”.
@prov356
I like how you put the word news in quotes.
I refuse to refer to the mainstream corporate media’s broadcasts as “News,” They are just propaganda broadcasts!
Chief – there is no actual news broadcasts anymore that I’m aware of. All reporting is ratings and agenda driven. I include Fox News in that assessment. I can’t watch any of it anymore.
@prov356
Agreed!
Left wing right wing does not matter, it’s all controlled media.
Not to downplay the fears of the players…. but while we’re talking Pittsburgh area…. Allegheny county. 1.2 million people. Zero deaths of people below the age of 40. Only 27 hospitalizations of people between the ages of 20 and 40. And I’d venture to say that some of those people have other health issues, were doctors or nurses, work at a nursing home…. some other risk factors for at least some of them that lead to hospitalization. I’ve been at work in Pittsburgh this entire time due to having an “essential” job. I’m around dozens of people and co-workers every day. No masks, no gloves. I’m 42. Many I work with are in their 50s. We’ve had zero cases of COVID-19. As long as everyone is smart and follows the rules, no one gets sick. If they players are closed off from most of society and it’s just the MLB types around other MLB types, there really shouldn’t be a mass break out. A player can only spread it if a player has it. Keeping the group amongst themselves at closed complexes should be enough of a safeguard. The simple “wash your hands” thing really does work.
Prov356 What are you talking about, if you got the virus you wouldn’t be talking smack. Your attitude is the reason why we have as many deaths now.
I’d like to see you go to the hospitals who are treating these patients just for one month and then come back and tell us what is really happening besides half truths from your side.
nowhere – I don’t have a “side”. I look at the facts and form my own opinion, not the opinion the media tells me I should have based on fear. The facts are there are an abundance of false positives and an abundance of deaths wrongly blamed on covid19 (I could go on but you get my point). Just today I heard a report that the “contagiousness” of the virus was exaggerated (which is subjective). I have my opinion based on my own sources of information, which does not include the “news” channels. You are welcome to disagree. No criticism from me as long as you do your own research and don’t rely solely on what the agenda driven media feeds you.
BTW – I have 4 friends and 1 family member who have had coronavirus and all have recovered. So I have the perspective that you suggested I should seek.
Fox News is straight facts and Don Lemon is a terrorist and a commie
I wouldn’t know. I don’t watch Fox or CNN.
This is an op-ed in a stridently right-wing newspaper. Please do better.
b-rar – “This is an op-ed in a stridently right-wing newspaper. Please do better.”
By “doing better”, do you mean you only consider information to be “better” if it’s sourced from liberal left-wing sources?
I try to discern what is fact from agenda from all sources. Ideology is irrelevant.
Says the person who hasn’t had a family member die of it yet.
Have you had a family member die of covid19?
according to the headline, they might play today
lol, they were hiding it right before our very eyes!
SSSSSSHHHHHHHHH They are playing now (in my best whisper) Don’t tell anyone but the Reds are lading the Cards in the 8th 6-2
Oh, look! The Cards scored seven in the ninth! Looks like they’ll be sweeping the four game series!
July 14th is the earliest.
A universal DH would be huge for a guy like Puig in terms of getting a job.
Which is exactly the reason it should not be implemented….
It would also be beneficial for the Mets, especially for guys like Cespedes, Davis and Smith, because it’s clear they can hit, but they’re not very good defensively, especially when you put Smith in left field, because he was an absolute butcher there last year, but was good at his natural position of first base.
The DH would be a huuuuge boost to the Mets this year
Not really since that means Cespedes will get more money and Wilpons don’t want that
I want to see what they have to say about a resumption of play, interesting to watch this play out.
Let’s get it voted on and over to the MLBPA so we can at least know whether we’ll have a season or not. Yes or no, just let us know so we can either celebrate or move on.
The players will not accept this. Why? It is the opening offer. But will the Players make another offer or will it the original deal or no baseball?
Probably not. But hopefully it is a negotiation and not a take it or leave it proposal. But bottom line, not playing will be less of a loss for a lot of teams than playing any number of games without getting salary concessions from the players. So to have any season, the players will have to give up some pay.. Revenue sharing is a fair way of doing that.
There a certain teams (especially the Orioles ( Chris Davis) and Tigers ( Zimmerman and Cabrera)) who would benefit by not playing. Add to that the Mariners,Padres, Rockies, Giants and Pirates, maybe the Marlins as well.
Genuinely curious, what is the theory here on how those teams benefit from not playing the season?
If they’re still getting TV revenue and the players are getting paid a pro-rated amount or take a paycut, these teams should still be profitable even without gate revenue depending on their TV deal.
If you’re talking from a competitive standpoint, actually this year with an expanded wild card would basically increase a team like the Padres chances of making the postseason since they can’t realistically beat the Dodgers outright to win the division. Frangraphs projected them to be 84-78 in a full season, which probably wouldn’t normally get them a wild card, but with 4 wild card spots they’ve got decent odds to land one of them if they’re just slightly above .500.
Players aren’t going to take a pay cut based on revenue. Teams get around 40% of revenue from game day but they’ll also have less TV money too. The local TV contract isn’t paying the same amount to broadcast 75 games as they paid for 150. If you’re playing half the games and without game day receipts, revenue could be 30% of 2019. Will players take that kind of pay cut?
So you’re suggesting the players would rather not get paid at all? I think they will bargain for whatever they think they deserve, but just refusing to play over revenue doesn’t seem likely. 30% seems fair for the highly-paid players; though players are the lower end of the pay scale should probably get a higher percentage.
NYY, no one benefits from not playing. That’s such a moronic statement.
it has to be a negotiation. the owners dont have that much leverage. who else are they going to play if not for the union guys?
If the union plays “hardball” and doesn’t agree to a deal, the owners leverage is with public opinion. It will be hugely against the players, and the owners would then likely try the bust the union altogether.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. There are a few weeks (at least) to sort this out. And I think it will get sorted, If there is no MLB this year, it will be due to concerns with the virus.
They already agreed to play for pro-rated amounts based on the number of games played. So in the proposed 82 game season, they’re already playing for about 50% of what they normally do.
I’m not suggesting that they don’t play at all, or “play hardball”. but they should definitely counter this proposal and attempt to stick to the original deal.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I do believe the March deal was predicated on fan attendance.
How dare you bring in common sense to this arena smokin Joe
This is opinion only here, and your facts are completely tearing holes in the many they float abound! Go away!
If anyone thought owners didn’t take games without fans into consideration they’re dumb.
The March deal is not actually “predicated” on fan attendance. I believe what you are referring to is language in the March deal which essentially states that the players will agree to engage in good faith discussions about whether it is economically feasible to still have games if there cannot be any fans in attendance.
Thats very different than the deal being contingent on fans being in the stands. It’s also very different than the amount of pay being contingent on having fans in the stands or the deal being invalidated if fans are unable to attend.
The owners just don’t like the original deal and they’re now trying to renegotiate it.
They’re has to be a starting point. The owners know that as do the players.
What a shock that players and owners don’t care about the fans whatsoever. They did nothing about steroid scandal and nothing about Astros scandal.
To be fair. a lot of people made alot of money during the steroid era. why would any of the people involved care to stop it?
So cheating is ok if you make money off of it?
Maybe they should have stopped it because it causes major heath issues and kids started using because they saw their “heroes” using
As for the post you were replying to, mlb allowed steroid use to last because it was having a hard time recovering from the previous work stoppage and the HR increase from steroids were bringing a new crop of fans to the game
Oh the irony
Oh boy, so much revisionist steroid history here. I’m old enough to remember when steroids were legal, and when any high school football program worth anything could get it’s players juiced up,
A better explanation about why steroids persisted in MLB is that 1) the health risks were not well known and were thought to be temporary, 2) steroids didn’t really help baseball players anyway and 3) the ethics of baseball mostly resembled the phrase “you are not trying if you are not cheating.”
Maybe some casual fans tuned into MLB because of the home runs; my sense is just as many prefer a well-played pitcher’s duel.
Ehh I think the risks were well known-
Steroids wasnt just about the Hrs , they help with everything ( strength recovery focus drive fear confidence energy etc etc etc
Anyone whoes ever done a 10 week cycle knows that steroids is no doubt 100% cheating in all regards and forms – The difference can only REALLY be explained by someones whoes done them, THEY ARE INSANE and work better than you could ever imagine anything working in your whole life outside Jimmy Paige and a guitar
The problem I had is by allowing them you are putting the players who were clean in unemployment lines or bagging your groceries at the store in many many cases- Not to mention it props them up to said High School kids
I think it’s important that they come to some sort of agreement. Regardless of their agreement, it’ll still ultimately be up to local and government officials for the resumption of play due to safety and health concerns. It’s just very important to have an agreement before any of those larger decisions are made. It be good to see a plan in place.
Seems to me MLB could ask Govs like Pritzker very nicely if he would allow a ball game to be played in the state he governs . And if Gov Prtizker says no, well, MLB probably knows some good attorneys would could craft a compelling lawsuit. Just my .two cents … …
I’m watching Pritzker right now—just announced that the Illinois prediction for peak is now being pushed to mid-June. I think his agenda is to make Illinois the last state to open and wag his finger and say “na-na-na, told you so.”
This virus is gong to be with us for awhile. So we have to find a way to live with this and move forward with life. Societal closure was only supposed to be a temporary measure to keep us from overwhelming our heath care system. It is not a long term solution. So glad to see baseball working on the problem. Baseball is not just a game, no sports are just a game. They are industries that employ millions collectively.
This virus will be with us forever. Has any virus ever been completely eradicated? Even polio and smallpox have made come backs.
The CNN virus has been around 40 years. Nobody has found a vaccine for that.
Funny! I don’t have a vaccine but I do have a cure … it is called y remote control (I’ve not punched in the number for CNN since the Gulf War).
haha!
nobody has prosecuted fox or senators for bribes. should be thrown back to down way under.
Part of the reason polio and smallpox have made some comebacks is because of anti-vaccine ideas. The viruses never completely went away, and now you have more people who refuse to vaccine their kids.
There will eventually be a vaccine for this virus too.
I hope you are right about a vaccine, but I not optimistic. 50/50 at best. And even then, how many won’t get vaccinated? Less than half of Americans bother with the flu vaccine.
There is no small pox comeback.
Maybe there will, but there is no guarantee. There really isn’t a vaccine for the flu, I know they give one, but it’s usually less than 40% effective
for what its worth, we dont know if it cycles as regularly as the flu for example, and the flu vaccine is less effective because of its many strains. COVID-19 is just a strain of coronavirus, not a virus with strains unto itself.
“COVID-19 is just a strain of coronavirus, not a virus with strains unto itself.”
Can you explain that more? I’ve not seen a description like that elsewhere.
There are at least 2 confirmed strains of COVID-19. If you believe reporting from China there are at least 30.
I’ve read that too, but also read that the strains are similar enough where a vaccine, if developed, could contain all of the known strains.
i mean it would follow. the difference is the flu vaccine isnt a simple flu vaccine but a vaccine for a certain type of flu. its very possible to create a broad-spectrum vaccine. i think the flu is so hard to handle because the strains vary so much. the flu isnt nessicarily the rule on how diseases function. in many ways its success and adaptability makes it an outlier.
But that’s because there are multiple different things called “the flu”. It’s not a problem with the effectiveness of the vaccine itself. Please stop spreading disinformation about how effective the eventual vaccine will be.
I hope MLB and the Players Union will step very carefully into this. While I’d love to watch baseball, I also don’t want to see players (or other personnel) get sick, possibly die.
Pete, honest question. If this virus becomes seasonal, like most doctors think it will, do we just do away with professional baseball for good?
Oh, that would be terrible. And I don’t think it will happen. Not only will scientists find a preventative and a cure eventually, but there is too much at stake for both the owners and the players. But the short term is grim, and it could easily wipe out both the 2020 and 2021 seasons. I hope not, but this virus is a killer.
All virus’ can be killers. As a country, we need to learn to deal with this virus instead of cower from it. I don’t know who has disappointed me more, the media for being so willing to prefer clickbait to real reporting, politicians for trying to capitalize on the virus for votes, or for the general public for being so willing to give up their livelihood and civil rights.
this country doesn’t depend on baseball played. only some rich people and one fake billionaire
Well said.
No one has had their civil rights taken away by any shelter in place order. This is about safety. What one person does impacts another in this instance, and nothing guarantees anyone the right to endanger another’s health or well-being.
I’d see a number of players not willing to play in July and that’s their option. So if one team loses seven players for not willing to play, then what? what happens if one player gets the virus and spreads it in the clubhouse to five or ten others, the season is immediately cancelled. I’ve watched baseball for fifty years and I say restart in 2021 to be safe and save the game.
Pete – Respectfully, the only people dying are those who are in high risk categories defined as people who are elderly, obese, or suffering from an underlying medical condition including heart disease, diabetes, respiratory issues, and compromised immune systems. MLB players are the opposite of that. Coaches and managers could have issues but they are easier to protect in a game setting.
Totally not true people in their 20;s all the way up are getting the virus. There’s now a new strain affecting young children. Ballplayers have some serious decisions to make, to play or not to play, that’s their choice.
nowhere – you must have misunderstood my comment to Pete. This is what I said:
“Respectfully, the only people dying are those who are in high risk categories defined as people who are elderly, obese, or suffering from an underlying medical condition including heart disease, diabetes, respiratory issues, and compromised immune systems.”
The key word that you missed is “dying”. I understand that people of all ages can contract corona, the flu, or whatever virus comes along. Unless you are in a high risk category as defined by the CDC, you will experience mild to moderate cold or flu like symptoms.
Hope this clarifies what I said so you don’t misrepresent my comment again.
Prov356 – Unfortunately, that’s not true. But even if it was, think of players parents and grandparents, and older members of team personnel. As much as I miss baseball, I could not in good conscience trade lives for entertainment. The time will come that we’ll have baseball back.
I get it Pete. But I believe that falls under the category of personal responsibility. If you are in a high risk category for corona, which is identical for the flu, you and your loved ones should take personal precautions. My mother in law is 80. We haven’t visited her since this broke out to help keep her healthy. That’s what you do. It doesn’t even require critical thinking, it’s common sense.
I can tell you that if they do not play due to greed instead of safety I am probably not coming back in 2021:,I essentially quit the NFL after the Kaepernick incident, and will rely on College Football, the New York Islanders and the PGA Tour for my sports fix.
your absence here will be appreciated by many.
48% revenue for the owners would mean significant salary reductions beyond what’s already been agreed to. Starting point but the PA will shoot this proposal down.
What is the percentage during a normal season?
I’ve read it is between 42-46 %. It depends on which revenues are included. When I first read the owners offered 48%, I was encouraged. Of course, revenues are going to be reduced. I believe the previous agreement included ticket revenue. So with no ticket revenue, a new agreement is needed.
It is hard to even know what 48% of revenue means and what it includes without seeing how “revenue” is defined. Expanded playoffs could bring in extra TV money to offset some of the losses, will that be included? Sponsorship money or other derivative revenue? I think the definition of “revenue” will likely be very narrow.
The optics of doing revenue sharing for one year, a year without any gate revenue, are not great. Players have little to gain in that situation, only an opportunity to take losses.
Are you saying the players are better off financially by not playing as opposed to playing half a season? That doesn’t really seem to make sense ….
They might be better off with original deal. What is 48% of Marlins revenue? Not to mention do they get 48% of YES Network revenue?
No, you’re right in that something is better than nothing. That being said, the players already agreed to pro-rated salaries based on number of games played at the end of March, so its not like they’re demanding all or nothing in terms of pay. They don’t have to agree to temporary revenue sharing, they could counter this offer or just tell MLB that they won’t play unless MLB honors the original deal.
My point is the owners are asking the players to subsidize the losses this year, but not allowing them a share of future revenue increases that would amount to profits. For that reason, a one year revenue sharing deal is a likely a bad deal for the players.
It’s up to MLBPA to negotiate something that they can live with, but they need to be mindful of what counts as “revenue” under this proposal and very cautious considering they’re only going to get a share of revenue for this one year where revenue will be lowered, not a share of any future years where it may increase.
I believe I read that the March agreement was predicated on ticket and attendance revenue. Hence the offer to share revenue, since the attendance revenue may not happen at all. Seems fair from where I am sitting.
CNichols – I’m not sure I completely understand your comment. If revenues (however they are calculated) are shared with the players, how is that worse than if they don’t play at all (assuming it is safe to play)?
What you are talking about is the false dilemma fallacy, or the “either-or” fallacy. There is flaw in that logic because you’re assuming that there are only two options: 1) revenue sharing for exactly what the owners propose 2) don’t play at all this year.
There are countless other options (honor the March agreement, the players agree to take a bigger pay cut that is not tied to revenue sharing so they have more certainty, players take revenue sharing now in order to get it in the future, players get higher revenue sharing percentage, etc…).
There’s going to have to be a negotiation and give and take on both sides. We shouldn’t look at it as a false dichotomy where there are only two possible outcomes to this situation.
I’m saying the players should be weary of revenue sharing for just one year, unless they can get other concessions from the owners because it looks like a raw deal. Ultimately it might be better to agree to some other alternative.
While all these talks for mlb, nhl, and the nba have been going on, only Oneish sport has been going on, and that is wrestling. It’s interesting to see that wrestling has been decently consistent.
Thanks to your leadership Mr. McMahon. 🙂
Horse Racing says hello.
That’s kinda why I said oneish. I don’t really care for horse racing but at least it’s something else. I say this and more people will say what sports are on.
It’s never going to happen. It’s never going to be safe to play this year, and I’m not getting my hopes up about next year either. The players aren’t going to want to take any undue risks to themselves and their families, and why should they? For the economy? So the owners don’t have to take such big losses? Oh, please. The rest of the world, the players included owe the owners exactly nothing.
Frankly, if these owners can’t absorb these losses then they’re pretty lousy at being billionaires and they deserve to lose their teams. I don’t see why ANYONE, not the players or the stadium employees or the government or anyone at all should have to subsidize them.
That is certainly a hot take. My sense is that if athletes didn’t want to take “undue risks,” they would not become athletes, But you right that players do not owe anyone anything, But if they want to continue as professional baseball players, at some point they have to play professional baseball.
@ Joe
You’ve just absolutely nailed it. Accidentally.
“My sense is that if athletes didn’t want to take “undue risks,” they would not become athletes, But you right that players do not owe anyone anything, But if they want to continue as professional baseball players, at some point they have to play professional baseball.”
I’d guess they’re happy to risk their own bodies. I’d guess they’re less willing for their bodies to transport a disease that might risk their partners, parents etc…
To Kreckert
If the owners don’t open the game, tv advertising money will not be paid.
The players will take a cut in pay.
All directly employed workers will be unemployed.
the suppliers of items teams use will no longer be needed.
Sports oriented media will cut back with no sport to cover.
Cable and streaming devices will have less content to deliver.
Could go on mentioning the collateral damage. With each having an negative effect on economy. Less sales, less spending, less income, less taxes paid, etc.
The real issue is a choice of which potential disaster will be the worst.
Potential death by the virus or a slower yer real death by economic depression.
I personally think it is ridiculous to use one’s political opinions, real or imagined, to
be the basis for this.
Kreckert, I agree with your take on the matter. I see 10 to 15% of the players not willing to take the risk. That kills the season for sure. Many of the ballplayers have young families and their wives are not to excited about the outline thus far.
the chemistry these teams are missing out on this time of year will be rough when they resume
I don’t see how games will be played. They can devise plans, negotiate all they want to…… It won’t matter if the health scare is too large. The States have to allow.
I am to the point that I just don’t care. I am of the belief the owners probably should pay the players pending any wording in contracts that gives them an out.
The players need the owners just as much as the owners need them. In a world where there are millions laid off or furloughed or having there businesses closed…….. The public will not support either side of this. Billionaires or the millionaires. battle.
I for one am sick of it already and have no issue losing the season. Or seasons.Let the players be furloughed. Let the owners lose revenue. These sports teams are getting out of hand. A reset would be a good thing. Call it a purge. Or a cull.
I hope your onto something, might not be that drastic but I agree the salaries asked for are insane these days-
They need a cap so teams can say we need to spread the money around to fit under the cap when denying this 6 figure payouts ….With no ceiling you get the ignorant fans who just attack the owners and call them cheap for not signing 200 mill guys when in fact its the right call- Then you just end up getti g the same 5 big players signing all the good free agents
Cap and floor…has worked wonders for NBA and NFL ……..MLB falling farther behind every year
$150 mil lower threshold and $230 mil upper threshold. any team going lower than low point pay penalties to match $150 mil and any team going over will pay. heavy penaties.
And the NHL. A 50/50 split on revenues with a payroll cap on both ends. High and low caps within 20% of each like the other leagues. 150/175 or something similar.
No play no pay, but I agree Big John, I really see its too big a risk for some of these players to play. They have families and no one wanted this virus but its here. The damage is not over, this could explode again in the fall. The players are all taking a big chance. MLB has hundreds of millions in reserve, if the season fails they divide 75% of the reserve monies to all 30 teams. The owners in turn take 50% of the monies and divide it equally among all 26 players on the current roster. This should be the direction for a lost season.
I think the players have a lot more to lose here than the owners. Besides lost salaries, older players lose playing time and may not even get another shot. Younger players need to develop i order to help reach a peak in their pay and some players are shooting for Hall-worthy status can be hurt. To give this all up in order to get a few extra percentages of revenue is not the strategy I would take.
In addition, the players may even be in a worse position if fewer fans show up to games when everything is finally opened. I suspect gate revenue is going to stay low for a long, long time (especially if we have another outbreak). If this happens, I have a hard time seeing teams giving out big paydays, especially if 2020 is scrapped.
This should be the only post in this whole thread
Totally agree, the players better watch their long term backs right here, but the dirty little secret has always been they are just as greedy as the owners
I should have added that franchises are eternal, players come and go. Can you imagine that both this and next season are canceled. Players such as Pujols and Verlander would be out of the game forever. Younger players would lose their prime earning years and no team would be interested in handing out a big contract to player who hasn’t competed in one or two years.
In the end, the teams will always get new players as talent graduates up. In fact, they may even prefer this route if local government keeps them shut and fans are scared to return.
not to mention all of the egocentric fallout on the part of the players if one or two seasons are lost, complaining about the hardship of lost income.. Juxtapose that with WWII where scores of players lost their prime years to serve their country, and did it proudly. Professional sports and the culture surrounding them need a serious reality check imho
crap, I meant to reply to bigjohn in above post.. nevertheless
This is a really stupid take. “Egocentric fallout”? Vomit inducing. You are Xabial.
I thought I was dynamite drop in monty
Darth, your wrong, you’ve never owned a business. The owners not only lose major revenues but you lose leverage and equity value as an owner. Players only lose one year salary, the owners would probably need three years going forward to recapture their loses. Besides what trades that were made before this came to be would not have been made. What FA’s would not have been signed for one or two yrs.
Let’s side with management because the players are greedy but get pissed when we ask for a raise and are denied.
Just as every person has to make decisions how they treat this virus. The reality comes down to there is a virus that produces serious consequences verses an economy that if not opened will produce serious consequences. Everyone, including, at some point, the fans will have to do a pro verses con analysis about what they are willing to personally do.
Is it greed to want to maximize your income. Is wanting a raise at your job greed?
In a struggling economy where unemployment numbers are at an all time high- and in a business that relies on the fans in order to pay threyre bills…. yes it is greed.
The paying customer , the fans , won’t stand for it. Even when the economy bounces back. Long memories will keep fans away. MLB is a sport who’ve been struggling with declining fan base for years as it is. Lay off all the players and start over next year I say. See how quickly the time changes.
In this time yes its morally wrong. What if all the care keepers suddenly asked for a 25% raise? they went on strike until they got their demands. Patients would die by the thousands.
Millionaires versus billionaires again. And just like in 1994, the fans just want to see the game.
I’m glad baseball is owned and played by rich people. Imagine going to a game if baseball was owned by poor people who couldn’t pay for elite talent.
Baseball gets 30% of their money form the gate, and the NFL only gets 7%. If they play half a season I think everyone will be happy at this point. No fans, 50 players per team, and a 16 team playoff in Oct. , but the virus still is in control of all sports. At this point i am no too optimistic.
todays game has been postponed due to covid19
Any talk of the networks and regional carriers getting together to make all games available on cable free for everyone?
Since the Tigers won’t be coming to Boston or NY I can’t see them. I can pay through the nose for the season pass with Dierect TV, but this new format means games between the Cubbies and Tigers or Astros and Dodgers or Yankees and Nats should appeal to all fans, not just the the respective team’s fanbase.
I understand that the vast majority of revenue this season will come from live streaming/TV ratings. Home teams naturally want to play in their home time zones. The amount of travel to accomodate that is too risky. The whole point of ST clubs only plan was to limit the number of hotels & such to control. When you expand that to multiple hotels across 30 cities control obviously weakens. Trying to accomodate both ST clubs & 30 cities only further weakens control.
Eastern Time teams should play in the GL parks, MIA, & TAM, & ATL. Travel is limited to 2 states.
Central Time teams should play in KC, STL, HOU, DAL, & the AZ parks. Travel is limited to 3 states.
I don’t believe either IL or CA will approve the use of team parks in their states by July.
The only Western Time state likely to approve such play by July is NV. These teams can choose college/minor league NV parks or their ST homes. That limits travel to 3 states.
All total FL, GA, MO, TX, AZ, & NV are the only states involved.
I’m surprised to learn about several MLB players have poor immune systems & being at high risk. I’m not surprised that some of their family members at high risk. No one wants to say it but prior to July 1st it needs to be said.
Any player in a high risk category can’t be allowed to play. It’s fine if players test positive for Sars-CoV-2. It’s not fine if they develop COVID-19. It’s terrible if they go critical from COVID-19. As for their family members, that’s on the player. If the player is a low risk of getting COVID-19, then I think the league can effectively control the player to minimize the risk to their family even if their family is a high risk.
What matters most as play resumes is what do players that test positive gain? For players that suffer little, after 2 wks of quarantine they should have antibodies sufficient to provide immunity for 2-3 yrs. They should have T-cells that are instrumental in producing antibodies for 10-20 yrs. Some MERS patients from 2012 still have T-cells specific to that disease & some SARS patients from 2002 still have them. Even players who might suffer more because of over-active immune systems are likely to suffer less if the virus should strike again because there are treatments that can better manage the immune system response now.
The liberal media in America seem uninterested in reporting on immunity. All the NBA players who tested positive
in March, should now be immune for years. For the vast majority of Americans & players there is little to no risk
in getting the virus, & immunity to be gained.
For the small % who are a high risk, they are in a high risk group for influenza as well.
For every person who dies having tested positive for COVID-19, there are at least 2 or more who are now in rehab
with an assortment of problems including swallowing, breathing, & kidney function.
I’m sorry, but you can’t quarantine the world to keep these people safe.
They in a high risk group for all coronaviruses & most viruses in general.
DH. pffft.
Might as well play wiffleball
I still don’t agree with players receiving service time even if the season is cancelled. If that’s the case then the teams have a choice to resend the trades they made before Feb. of this year. Something is not right, who was the one that agreed upon the service time. Absolutely crazy.
Right, Toasty! They are sneaking this DH crap in while nobody is paying attention! Only one comment on this whole thread (that I saw) before yours. I hate replay and I’m gonna hate the DH even more!
I don’t hate replay, but I’m not too happy to see the DH sneaking through, if there is a season. The problem, of course, is putting balls in play, which is a problem a lot of MLB players are having, not just pitchers. Still, there’s no denying that pitchers look worse at hitting than ever before. I hate to sound like a grumpy old guy, but years ago many pitchers were able to make contact. But DH in the NL will mess with strategy. No good answers.
Hey Pete,
I’m with you on both fronts. I think replay is inevitable in all major sports but it’s the execution that makes all the difference and baseball still has some tweaking to do
I too was not very fond of the idea of DH throughout baseball. It struck me as a way to say next year “oh we’ll just keep that way since it worked ‘so well’ in ’20”
The ONLY reason pitchers look so poor hitting is because they don’t get to hit in the youth, Babe Ruth, College or minor leagues. LEt ‘ew hit till at leaset college and you will see less hitting injuries and better hitters. If you are worried about injuries hitting don’t make ’em bunt.
The 50 / 50 split the owners are proposing for revenue sharing for this year is a very good deal for the players. Last year the average revenue for a franchise was $ 330 million, whereas the average player payroll was 110 million. That’s a 2/3 to 1/3 split in favor of owners. The players union would be foolish not to take this deal.
webmd.com/coronavirus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus
Having read through most of the posts on this page and seen how polarized the conversation is. I am sharing these two neutral links and hope the light of factually based truth can shine some light on us all…
It is better if we do this together. Like the song says
“Untied we stand
Divided we fall…”
I just listened to Blake Snell, and he stated he was going to get his. I think that is pretty immature for a pro athlete who gets paid by the fans and their support. these guys have accesss to the greatest medical care in the world, in the greatest shape and all they can think of is themselves. I have been a die hard Yankee fan my whole life . I just cannot understand for the life of me the the state of todays players and the lack of who pays them stupid money, it’s, me me me. The nation needs sports for a diversion , however it seems all the players can think about is themselves. I spent 27 years in the military going to every disease ridden country that still had all the nasty diseases that we have been isolated from in our country yes I chose to serve my country I had a promising future in the game until I got a lottery draft number of 14 so my destiny was changed these guys do not have the limitations the older people in our country had to live with. Wake up and smell the roses you players have worn out your selfishness, At this point I I think the owners should hold their ground and halt paying people who do not want to do their jobs. I f I did not want to do my job the only alternative was jail and we made a whisper of what these prima donnas do
A thoroughly disgusted and disappointed fan of the game
We have REAL data now on the virus (SARS-V2) & the disease (COVID-19).. The infection fatality rate is no more than 6x influenza or 0.06%. Unlike influenza, 45% of the people that get it will be asymptomatic (zero symptoms). Another 35% will experience light symptoms. The largest group of the remaining 20% are those who
are at a high risk of going critical with influenza too. The 2017-2018 season of influenza in America took 61K lives & required nearly 1M hospital beds.
Influenza attacks more organs of the body whereas COVID-19 attacks the lungs.
That’s the main reason why influenza will likely always kill more children, teens, & young adults than COVID-19.
Soap removes these viruses from the skin but some amount of bleach can wreck their RNA. That inhibits their ability to multiply. So don’t just wear the mask or wash your hands. Spray a little bleach on both. Even if SARS-V2 somehow got on your car, railing, door knob & camped their for 4-5 days, if you have even a weak solution of bleach on your hands you can weaken the virus.
Herd immunity can further lower COVID-19’s infected fatality rate. All those in the 45% group are a good source of blood plasma rich in antibody producing T cells. Most in the 35% group are as well. Even some in the 20% qualify. For someone critical, a ventilator keeps the breathing going but this plasma can greatly weaken COVID-19.
We need to quickly move away from fear of infection & concentrate on immunity.
All the data points to the body having a more persistent immunity vs SARS-V2 than 22influenza. That means antibodies will last years & T-cells can last decades. Some who got SARS back in 2002 still have T-cells today. That means all the sports professionals who got it in Feb, Mar, Apr, & early May are now great sources of blood plasma to help treat the critical group.
Right now both IL & CA seem unlikely to approve this plan. What if athlete’s that tested positiive this year agreed to donate their blood plasma? When you consider all the athletes in these two states that would surely provide more a lot more help than the potential harm of playing these games in those states.
We are in the midst of an economic Depression right now that rivals the one of the 1930’s. Collecting blood plasma from the recovered should be mandatory.