At today’s press conference announcing the end of the lockout, Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that reporters would have access to major league clubhouses in 2022 (relayed by Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post noted last month that MLB had expressed its support for the return of clubhouse access but that had been subject to approval from the MLB Players Association.
Apparently, the union is on-board with the development. For the past two seasons, reporters haven’t had clubhouse access on account of the COVID-19 health and safety protocols. As with the pandemic inspired on-field rules changes, the ban on media personnel in clubhouses will be dropped this year as concerns about the virus’ impact on the sport have lessened.
The return of clubhouse access figures to be a welcome development for reporters. Expanding individual access to players and avoiding possible technological difficulties associated with speaking over video chat are among the potential benefits for reporters speaking with players and staff for stories. Shortly after MLB first suspended clubhouse access, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote about the advantages he felt it afforded reporters, which he opined has a trickle-down benefit for fans consuming their stories.
NBA will do away with locker room access soon
I guess all the talk about “teams making back channel deals so they could get a contract signed 5 minutes after the lockout ended” was a waste of time. A lot of people spent months talking about that. The transaction freeze was lifted about an hour ago and still no deal to speak of.
@Steve Nebraska
It’s possible that they just don’t want to make it look so obvious…
That sounds like a conspiracy theory. This has been over an hour that players have been able to freely talk with other teams with no restrictions. If there were some deal set up weeks or months ago it would be signed by now. Many players have signed faster than this from the start of normal free agency. If they were trying to cover it up they did that over half an hour ago.
I think 48 team is right.
I expect a lot of signings within the next 30 hours.
don’t forget the physical required before signing can be announced.
@Larry48 This.
Was anyone serious about that? It always struck me as more of a joke.
I do think there was some talk going on, but teams would likely wait at least 24 hours before announcing any deal.
Steve, it is a bit anticlimactic.
I think they are just waiting on the A’s to trade half their infield to the dodgers for Pujols.
that’s bad in pandemic. build interview rooms.
pAnDeMiC!!!
yawn
I always loved dropping my towel accidentally
This was likely the one issue holding up the entire CBA.
It looks like the Executive committee voted 8 to 0 rejecting this contract. The teams told their “golden boys” to screw off, and then voted 26 to 4 to accept.
Looks like they had the wrong players in that committee.
Those “golden boys” led the players to get a pretty decent deal. Had the reps been more pliable, the players would have been worse off. As someone else posted in another comment section, the executive committee fought for the best deal possible, which is their job, and they presented it to the player reps who largely – but not unanimously – decided it was acceptable and time to play ball.
I missed the club house interviews. The ones on the field just don’t hit the same.
On field interviews are always so knee jerk and often generic, the time to reflect is what really makes the clubhouse interviews that much better imo.
Where are the transactions?
Good for the reporters. Many of their stories require direct access to players and clubhouses. As fans, we’ll benefit.
Is it just me or has the quality of the commentary on MLBTR been slashed about 3 letter grades and 90 IQ points since the lockout first started??
It’s easy to create free accounts here, so that does benefit the low-IQ set. There have been a few pro-owner accounts that showed up with the lockout. I suspect some were the same person, but my guess is many of those will quickly fade away now. (Note: I’m not saying anyone who was pro-owner is low-IQ. It was the type of commentary coming from those accounts that was suspect.)
The_Voice_Of_REASON has entered the chat.
@LetThereBeBaseball,, I just muted Voice of Reason, and the world seems like a better place now.
Are we sure? I mean this is the guy who said the MLBPA had a deadline, and then another one, and then another one and then another one still? Did I miss any?
Does anybody think Bauer comes back ( with time served) and do the Dodgers keep him.?
The Dodgers have been done with him a while ago.
The Dodgers may be “done” with Bauer but that contract and money owed are not done with them!
I think his teammates should all get a punch in before he’s accepted back…
after his 100 game suspension.
Thank goodness. Please tell me broadcasters will be able to go on the road again too. What a disgrace it was having them call games from the studio. They weren’t fooling anyone.
A disgrace? That seems to be overstating things.
Some team will sign somebody, or make a major trade, and there’ll be a big investigation that leads nowhere. I suspect about 40 signings are just waiting for the weekend, and about 10 decent sized trades.
What’s Manfred going to do, give them a good talking-to?
Assuming that they weren’t talking about this stuff during the lockout is truly bizarre.