10:00am: The league is also in the process of setting up a fund for impacted workers, tweets ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.
9:06am: The Major League Baseball Players Association announced Friday that it will launch a $1MM fund for workers impacted by the ongoing MLB lockout and the cancellation of regular-season games. The MLBPA and the AFL-CIO will administer the fund and provide aid to “stadium workers and others who face financial hardship through no fault of their own due to the MLB franchise owners’ lockout.”
“There are a lot of people who make our game great,” MLBPA executive board leaders Andrew Miller and Max Scherzer said in a joint statement. “Many aren’t seen or heard, but they are vital to the entertainment experience of our games. Unfortunately, they will also be among those affected by the owner-imposed lockout and the cancellation of games. Through this fund, we want to let them know that they have our support.”
“This fund is intended to support workers who are most affected by the MLB-impost lockout but whose livelihoods have been disregarded by the owners in their effort to pressure Players into accepting an unfair deal,” said MLBPA executive director Tony Clark in his own statement.
The ongoing labor strife between Major League Baseball and the Players Association reached a tipping point earlier this week, when the union rejected the league’s “best offer” prior an MLB-imposed deadline to avoid the cancellation of regular-season games. Commissioner Rob Manfred announced Tuesday that the first two series of the regular season will be canceled — not postponed — as the two sides continue to work toward an agreement. The widespread expectation is that additional games will also be wiped from the schedule.
While the players, owners and the negotiators leading these talks have been at the forefront of the labor dispute, the subsequent stoppage has a broad-reaching effect that will impact thousands throughout the industry. There are plenty of team employees (scouts, for instance) whose careers have been placed on hold, but stadium workers and the businesses surrounding MLB stadiums/Spring Training sites that depend on baseball for revenues are, in particular, adversely impacted. The financial impact felt by third parties throughout the sport will only mount as negotiations continue.
Today’s press release indicates that the MLBPA and AFL-CIO will work together to “determine the hardest hit communities and align resource distribution to those who need it most.”
What about us college kids whose dream it is to work in baseball that now can’t get hired because of the lockout?
No not the college kids say it ain’t so who will think of the college kids whose dream it is to work in baseball
$1 million total ? So they’re planning on giving all the workers $8 each?
@Tcsbaseball That was my first thought as well. It’s the right thing to do, but far too little amount-wise
the players don’t owe these people anything so 1 million is better than nothing.
Also, let’s be real. This is simply a PR item. The players want to look like they are the ones who care about the sport and all those impacted. This is more about making MLB and owners look bad rather than truly helping those out who lost their jobs
It’s a brilliant PR plan on two fronts. It paints the players as caring and the owners as greedy. (Probably not incorrect. Both care about the money, but it’s fair to think the players care more about the workers). Best, it puts money in the pockets of workers, and now it’s forced MLB to counter. They’re scrambling to come up with their own plan that will put even more money in the pockets of workers. Every dollar the workers now get from MLB is a direct result of what the MLBPA did here.
When does the great “reset” for baseball happen? With all this garbage going back & forth, I say let’s start it now. Let’s turn baseball away from an “industry” & go back to being a sport.
Really? They don’t owe the workers anything?
players don’t owe them any financial compensation no.
Check the GoFundMe pages. my guess is poor Max will soon be looking for his own handout. Really sad baseball has to play public relations’ games
Agreed and as someone said above the Players don’t owe the Employees anything…MLB does. As with many things, it’s the Thought that Counts. To reach out and put “Anything” in the Workers Pockets is a good thing. MLB hasn’t stepped up and said anything regarding the displaced Workers.
Kudos to the Players
That would be great. The beginning of that is getting rid of the anti-trust exemption that MLB has.
#LordD The players care more about the work. Did I miss where Scherzer gave them a job? You should be in politics….
The players talk about how their proposal to MLB on just one part of their demands, the prearb pool, is ONLY $5MM per team, but to make a PR move can only provide $1MM. Of course, this is to only make it look like they care.
I’m sure there is a earning threshold for disbursements. This fund is most likely for those making league minimum or close to it.
Please read the article. Its not for the players. Its for the stadium workers that will lose income during the 1 week of games the owners cancelled.
Scherzer makes $43 million a year. He had 30 starts last season. So MLBPA is giving the workers less than one of the prominent voices of the negotiation makes per game. Cool.
If those stadium workers had a skill as irreplaceable as Scherzer’s skill is they would make the kind of money he does. That is how a free market works. What the players gave amounts to 20-25% of the money those stadium workers will lose from the week of games the owners cancelled.
At $12,000 per pitch, exactly how does Maz Scherzer represent all of the baseball players? None of the MLB owners have earned their fortunes with skill.. It’s just they play “the game” so they can participate in the fake federal reserve money spigot
Obviously, as many commenters have pointed out, it’s a good PR move (whether “meaningful” or “not,” or “sincere” or “not,” assuming we could even define those terms).
But I’m not sure I follow the reasoning that the amount’s not “meaningful” because Scherzer makes more than that per game.
If Scherzer went out for dinner and left a 25% tip, wouldn’t that make him a cheapskate (assuming the check was under $4 million)? If that tip was, say, $50, that’s less than 1% of how much he gets paid per pitch.
@spoonful your jealously is sad. None of the owners earned the money they have? wow..just wow.
I agree with you that Scherzer should not be expected to leave a thousand dollar tip because he makes a million a start. However, fans can’t take this stance and then take the position owners are greedy SOBs because they operate their business just like anyone else.
This lockout is what really bugs me about people. This is a capitalist society. The owners take all the risk. You say Scherzer is “worth the money”. I happen to completely disagree. Regardless the owners earn their money. I love baseball but the salaries these players make is ridiculous. They are playing a game that all of us fans would love to and would do for free. It cost me money to play growing up. These high salaries need to stop, however the money owners make from lower salaries should make ticket prices cheaper and the stadium workers should be paid much more. I mean Scherzer makes more money in a half inning than probably over 95% of the country.
First, I doubt you would play for free. Miguel Cabrera is getting $30 million and you wouldn’t even ask for anything? Albert Pujols got $25 million from the Angels TO LEAVE. You’d do that 9 months a year, all that traveling, training, practicing – for nothing?
Second, who would WATCH you play? And would it be enough people for there to even BE stadium workers?
About $200 each for the one week of games the owners cancelled.
Totally a PR play. They didn’t give a rats @$$ about the stadium workers. If they did they would have found a way to work with the owners .
Dreams can still come true, just be flexible on your timeline
Are you joking?
Law school! Happy?
That’s really your fault for not being well off enough to have to worry about money in the first place.
get a job in the minors, rookie!
Would have been better if the players took their raises and played ball. Now these people are each going to get what a check for $20 from MLBPA? That is a slap in the face for the workers. This is just a media stunt.
There are about 4500 seasonal stadium workers that this $1 million is going to. The owners cancelled 1 week of games. 6-7 games. You do the math. Since it was the owners that cancelled the games, the players were not required to do anything and if they had not, you would not have called them out.
now this is a wise move
MLB’s PR move: Leak the name of a big-market team that voted against the recent CBT proposal.
MLBPA PR move: Partner with the AFL-CIO to give money to impacted workers.
Kudos to MLBPA’s PR move.
I would not say big-market teams. Only the Angles are a big market team, the rest, D-Backs, Reds, and sadly my Tigers are at best mid-market. I would argue the Reds are small market.
I still like what MLBPA did even though it is a small gesture.
tigerdoc616,
LordD99 said, “Leak the name of *a* big-market team.” I agree only the Angels are a big-market team. Why Moreno is opposed to this is beyond me. Maybe because he’s jealous of his neighbor in the LA market, the Dodgers, and their ability to actually contend when spending big?
Moreno is angry with himself over the Albert contract, and probably a few others. The hard low cap keeps him from going over it…that will be his response to every request for $.
It’s not a small gesture to those workers and their families that need it.
Moreno is a owner of a big market team and expected to spend, so the higher the CBT threshold the more he is pressured to spend.
Pretty much it goes to show that Moreno uses the CBT threshold as a hard salary cap.
Or mad about Josh Hamilton or CJ Wilson or wasting Trout’s prime with no pitching or playing in a dump stadium in a parking lot or maybe knowing he’s a laughing stock among the other owners?
he wants cbt raised.
Yeah, that $20 will really go a long way.
/s
I think Moreno wants to keep Ohtani. Ohtani wants to stay on the West Coast. He signed with the Angels because the A.L. had the DH. The N.L. is getting the DH. The Dodgers now have a D.H. Spot.
Do the math.
When I do the math, the answer I get is, “Pay up, Arte.”
not this upcoming season(?). he has to spend on pitchers. the team seemed to go as high as $240-250 mil with the pitchers they were going after. they supposedly placed the second largest amount for scherzer. maybe $40 mil per.
Gary Mathews, Josh Hamilton, CJ Wilson, Anthony Rendon….. The list goes on and on. Maybe Moreno should let his baseball people make the baseball decisions. He seems to have a hard on for plucking has-beens from the Rangers.
rendon is healthy and hitting lasers as he always has.
CJ Wilson made the all star team, was a work horse his first three years and was far from a bust. Mathews got caught taken PEDs while with Texas after he signed with the Angels.
The Story of Rendon has not been written yet, but led the team in WAR in 2020.
It’s obvious Moreno regretted signing Josh Hamilton.
Vizionaire, you can’t let partial seasons ruin a good narrative. Rendon obviously is done as a productive major leaguer, same thing with Lindor. Every long-term contract should be evaluated based on a player’s most recent cold stretch.
I find it self-serving. The amount is too small, the number of affected people far too large, for it to be anything but a gesture. And in announcing it, of course, the players association neglected to point out that the imposed lockout would end immediately if the players accepted the owners’ proposal.
realsox, the owners also are creating a “self-serving” fund for staying workers. Maybe together this will add up to real money that will help people.
Also, the imposed lockout would end immediately if the owners accepted the players’ proposal.
gbs: I agree with you on both counts, though because the pool of affected persons is, and will remain, ill-defined, it’s impossible to know how much money it would take to make a difference. Beyond that, I wonder how either the players or owners could have set up an operation that requires a government-like administration of what is, after all, a welfare program.
“ the answer I get is, “Pay up, Arte.”
Lol….perfect
You can do something good for selfish interests.
Money is money, whether it comes from the owners or the players it spends the same.
I’d just feel better about the givers if they didn’t dislocate their shoulders patting themselves on the back.
I don’t want to get political, but that is what I absolutely hated about Trump. Politicians do that all the time, but Trump was king… Look how Great I am… Oh brother.
4500 people who are losing a weeks pay because the owners cancelled 6-7 games. If I was one of those people, I would be grateful that my co-workers stepped up and gave me about 20-25% of my lost pay.
OutinLeftField, et. al.: The irony of people condemning players for paying relatively minimal amounts compared with what they make and assigning motive to said action, so these people can dismiss said move, speaks volumes about the confirmation bias that exists.
Owners make far more than players, for they are billionaires. And, it is their employees to whom they actually owe a duty, a responsibility, yet they are given a free pass because they hired them in the first place? That’s downright comical.
It’s almost an embarrassingly naive take to say that an owner of a business gets a pass on helping their own workers they decided to put out of work so they may gain a greater financial advantage, yet hold their coworkers (also out of work) in disdain for not helping them enough, because of how much they’ve been paid to do what they were hired to do.
It’s a vivid example of why our country is insane. Everyone argues everything regardless of how ridiculous their perspective. Gone are the days of truth, common sense, and stability.
The MLBPA’s move just got even better. They’ve forced MLB into reactionary mode to match them. The winners: the workers. Of course, if MLB hadn’t shut down the game down, none of this would be necessary.
ah, those billionaire cheapskates!
Yes, they should give all their money to charity and take care of the poor.
Those cheapskates.
People are really good at spending other people’s money.
aha! maybe you haven’t found jesus and must be a cheapskate yourself!
You should read the Bible and see what Jesus says about people who make their good deeds public.
You should read what he says about not doing good deeds.
Does it say anything about being a narrow minded know-it-all dooshbag? Asking for a friend.
Maybe read it. It will tell you if you are a narrow minded know-it-all. Or if you are a narrow minded know-nothing-at-all. Telling you for a friend.
It also says to love one another – and it says that multiple times. That seems important.
I know what it says. What does one have to do with the other?
I’d say one takes priority over another. And it applies to a later comment about the Guardians name.
GBs… it’s pretty clear.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.
I don’t really see how that’s confusing.
I’m not confused. But if the option is give and tell people vs. not giving at all, I prefer the $1M and the press release.
And I understand there was a third option, to give it quietly. But their press release is getting the owners to donate, too so I think the greater good was achieved.
That’s fair.
And I did say this earlier. Money spends. It doesn’t matter if it comes from the owners or the players.
The greater good was achieved. I’m think it was more about buying good publicity. Money well spent by the players. Cheaper than taking an add out on the super bowl.
Now you have me thinking about the players taking out an ad during the Super Bowl. I can only imagine what that would be like.
@lordd
yep its all the owners fault they want their business to make money. How dare them!
It just makes the MLBPA look cheap. There are at least 300 stadium workers plus all of those working concession. around the league. It is about a few hundred dollars each coming from Scherzer and the other fat cats. MLBPA has a $2 billion pension fund. They should use that.
remember mlbpa is not yet paying them for a month. only a couple of weeks.
That is more like 300 per stadium, because it also count ground crew, security, ticket punchers and parking attendants. A million is just a drop in the bucket of how much an owner pays out for all the personal.
but owners are not paying out yet.
Actually, they are. Grounds crew just don’t work during the season. Some have to work in the off-season. Grass doesn’t take the off-season off. Additionally, there are security personnel, maintenance, front office, scouts, etc. Some may get laid off during the shutdown, but others continue to work. It takes a lot more than owners and players to make MLB successful.
Owners also generate revenue during the offseason by hosting weddings and corporate events at stadiums. I was at a bar near the stadium in my city last month and was sitting next to/talking to a guy who just got done with his maintenance shift at the stadium and one of the things he mentioned was that there is typically as many if not more events every offseason as there are home games during the season.
Boras should cover the full salaries of all the stadium employees for as long as there is a work stoppage.
why? he is but an agent! do you think he is that rich? he has nearly 300 employees helping the players perform better.
Visionaire, there is a report going around that it’s because of Boras the deal was rejected by the players earlier this week. Not sure if it’s true or not but there are a lot of Boras clients that are player reps. Most notably, Scherzer who in the report was being a real ass during the negotiations.
Scott Boras has a personal net worth of $450M. So yes he is that rich.
Scherzer has almost as much money as the owners. But players should make more…
look cheap? they don’t owe these people anything.
1. They don’t usually pay these people.
2. Players were locked out.
1 million may be cheap, but it is 1 million more than these people ever get from players normally.
Unless youre David Robertson
Wait, Bob, so owners should give players nothing, but players should give stadium workers everything? Your thought process is very…..different.
This is nothing but a PR stunt by the MLBPA. The MLBPA felt like the owners threw them under the bus when they said a deal was close only to see the Union rejected the owner’s offer. This is their way to get back at the owners. While it is a nice gesture and better than nothing, a million dollars will not result in any one worker “getting by” given how many stadium workers there are across MLB. It feels like both sides are spending more time trying to figure out how to win the battle of public perception versus actually trying to finalize a deal. They should still be meeting every day in order to get a deal done. Instead, they are spending time on items like this. Again, a very nice gesture but it doesn’t fix anything. It just puts a final resolution even further away.
I am quite sure that the 4500 stadium workers that are employees of owners that cancelled the games are really, really happy with the players/co-workers who just pitched in to give them about 20-25% of their lost income for the week of cancelled games.
Better than nothing, but wouldn’t be needed if both sides weren’t so greedy. People are struggling to buy groceries and fill up their cars with gas. Then you have baseball players and owners acting like fools while the rest of the world is dealing with legit issues. So tired of all this crap.
More great writing- thanks Steve- appreciate it. Hahahaha- $1 million- what a trivial, pathetic, insulting gesture obviously strictly designed for PR purposes. $1 million is NOTHING… Owners: You know that the season could be completely cancelled and that the country would hardly care or even notice (because baseball is culturally irrelevant- and that’s why, for example, the recent cancellation of games was hardly a blip on the radar, that’s why very low tier NFL games regularly clobber MLB playoff games, etc) and you also know that you could easily find much better ROI’s than MLB. MLB players are already extremely well paid, treated great in general, ungrateful, greedy, and selfish in exchange for playing a game with a stick and a ball and mittens 7-8 months per year and you know it. Lifetime benefits after 6 weeks on a MLB roster, many of them receive signing bonuses (frequently major bonuses) before ever playing their first professional game, entry level salary is in the top 1% of incomes, average salary (more than $4 million!) is in the top 1/10th of 1% of incomes, playoff bonuses, awards bonuses, free tickets for friends/family/etc., daily food allowance, luxury hotels, luxury travel accommodations, etc. Enough is enough- stop being weak and stop allowing MLBPA to make you look like chump pushovers. Hold the line! Stop giving in! BREAK THE MLBPA UNION!
This is one of those times where I think it’s a proper time to quote the movie Billy Madison. “What you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” I get it. The players make a lot of money. As do the owners. Personally, I blame both sides. But, man, your answer? I’m otherwise speechless.
He’s right, though.
No one reads these pompous essays.
so far 4 people gave a “thumbs up”
and I’d wager all four of them are from other accounts that the voice also uses on this site….
I gave a thumbs up because the other poster commented on the upvotes. No other reason.
his own from different accounts he has.
Up to 13 with mine
@thevoiveofinsanity
You must be dictating this to your “bunk mate” because there’s no way you can get out of your straightjacket you lunatic. Ahahahahaha!
You seem pretty impassioned about something you deem culturally irrelevant.
Keep fellating those billionaires. I bet you simp for your 1% annual increase every year.
How Much are you giving the Workers? It’s only a Million, Right?
It’s sad that the players are extending the goodwill to the stadium workers and not the owners. That being said, stretching one million over thousands of seasonal workers who will not have employment is not going to make a significant dent for anyone.
Agree with you on all points. Max S, Boras, and a host of other players could have done this out of their own pockets. Same thing could be said about any of the owners. PR stunt that won’t make a dent to all the employees that this debacle is impacting.
Its about $200 per person for the stadium workers that have had 1 week of games cancelled by the owners. About 20-25% of their income paid by their co-workers.
The players don’t owe these workers a dime but they are reaching out to support before the owners do.
Very smart and well calculated PR wise.
Both the players and the owners owe those workers a lot. Without these workers, the league doesn’t happen, the profits for owners don’t occur, and the salaries of the players are not possible. The workers are not responsible for their lack of work due to games cancelled. The responsible parties are the players and the owners. The workers are just collateral damage. Rather like that old saying when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.
The owners locked out the players and the owners cancelled the games. The responsible parties are the owners. Full stop.
Nice gesture, that 1mm isn’t going to go far though. Hopefully some players step up to do the same
Games missed due to players strikes. about 1700
As of today, games missed because of owners’ lockout…. ZERO.
Both sides are full of crap.
Cancelled games from a few decades ago are how relevant to today?
Also, Manfred has said those first two series have been cancelled, not postponed, so that’s 91 games missed because of owners’ lockouts.
And cancellations going forward almost certainly will be due to lockouts since that’s now how the game is played.
They didn’t care then. Do the players all of a sudden have a heart now? I doubt it.
But I honestly don’t care. Both sides are full of it and are pandering to the public. The last thing either side wants to focus on the issues.
1) The Owners are screwing good young players. They don’t want to pay them, they want them to choose between life changing money or leaving tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. These good young players are exploited for 6+ years. They are the owners’ cash cows.
2) The Players don’t give a crap about the game, or competitive balance. They want the big market teams and arbitrators to drive up salaries, so it explodes salaries.
It’s a business. No side is bad, no side is good. Most fans are emotional and get confused by all the noise. This is noise. Almost all of it is noise.
Just curious what players that were playing in 1994 are still playing today?
How about members of the MLBPA leadership or negotiating team?
Zero? Then stop mentioning it. It’s completely irrelevant in 2022.
The players are saying that their failures in past negotiations are relevant today.
The players are saying the inequity in the last CBA is relevant today.
Actually dozens of games have already been missed – Spring Training which has an impact on the communities hosting them in AZ and FL – including mostly retirees who work those games to supplement their incomes. They apparently are not covered by the players’ PR initiative..
Well, if they are covered and the players didn’t announce it, then I would respect the gesture. But I wouldn’t know about it… Which is what magnanimous gestures are all about.
I’m glad they did it. But to announce how great they are… come on.
Been reading all I can find on this and only you are saying how great the players are.
The MLBPA held a 5 minute press conference to announce the fund and that was it.
Games lost from a strike this season, ZERO. Games can only be lost from a strike if a season starts.
He is never going to understand that. He is still living in 1994.
How noble.
MLB Fan Association (MLBFA) Launches Fund For Fans Impacted By MLB Lockout.
Is this a fund we fans are going to pay into to relieve our bulging bank accounts from the money we would’ve spent on MLB if the games weren’t canceled?
Solid move by the MLBPA. Meanwhile, the billionaire owners who have locked out the players and are robbing fans of baseball have brought the sport to its knees because they refuse to negotiate on the CBT all because they don’t want the Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, etc. to spend an extra $10M.
MLB is slowly trying to implement a cap without a corresponding floor and without a corresponding increase in that cap as revenues rise.
We would had spring training, but the MLBPA invited Scott Boras into the room and of course, he told the MLBPA to vote it down. Also, think about it. Who will want higher CBA, Boras, so he can get more money from the Yankees, Mets and Dodgers, while leaving the mid and low market teams in the dust. Also, look who is the agent most players have contracts with, in the MLBPA, It is also Boras. I think Boras should stay out of the room and have just the players and owners make a deal that will benefit both parties. The other agents are very pissed off at Boras what I been told.
Nah, as the OP is suggesting, we could have had Spring Training if the owners hadn’t locked out the players, didn’t delay in putting forth their proposal for six weeks, ignoring the players attempts to meet earlier, then created an artificial deadline, then tried to ram through a CBA in the early morning hours while trying to sneak in other items in fine print. MLB has now taken to canceling games. Fans are “locked out” by the owners. The players will show up right now if the owners lift the lockout.
As for Boras, I’m sure he and other agents are advising the players. They should be. No one understands the economics of what’s caused player salaries to decrease than the agents. The CBT, however, has been item #1 going into these negotiations. The idea that Boras stormed in at the last moment and stopped the deal is a myth propagated by the owners who know Boras is disliked by low-information baseball fans. The idea that a deal was close on Monday night was only being pushed by the owners. The players all night were saying there was progress being made (there was) but a deal was never close.
Fans need to be smarter in assessing the information and spin.
Regardless, I remain confident a deal can be had sooner rather than later.
Boras should receive a lifetime ban.
CuddyFox, do you have any sources for these Boras rumors?
Scott Boras could not enter the room for the negotiations between the MLBPA and the owners.
Federal law prohibits it since he is not a member of the MLBPA, nor employed by the league, nor is he a federal mediator.
There are 1200 MLBPA members and Boras has 178 clients. That includes those in the minor leagues that are not even members of the MLBPA yet.
All that hate and no facts correct. Maybe swallow a bit of that hatred for Boras down and read what actually happened.
Stadium workers (and minor leaguers) – all paid poverty wages by ownership. No doubt some solidarity between them and players because they’re negotiating against the same bosses.
They don’t have to work there. It’s their choice to work for the money offered. No one forced them to.
The same could be said of the ballplayers….
The same could be said for the owners. No one’s forcing them to own their clubs.
Most of those workers have other jobs and this is just a side job to make extra money. They work a few hours approx 81 days out of the year. This is not the primary income.
Meaningless. As if any of us are swayed by naked manipulation. They expect this to engender goodwill? What a load of pompous crap.
Look at some of the posters in this comment section…it certainly works on some, but seems like only those that are already solidly on their side.
I am 100% sure that the stadium workers that just got 20-25% of the income they will be losing after the owners cancelled a weeks worth of games, are grateful that their co-workers stepped up and helped them. The load of crap is your comment here, not the player’s actions.
Cool PR spin, but I still blame players about as much as the owners. Don’t need your charity donation to also be a jab at the owners, nobody with a brain is impressed by that
I blame the fans and the workers
It is clown world – how much money per pitch will Max Scherzer make for the New York Mets? Answer, about $12,000 for each pitch he throws. Is he some kind of hero? I am much more impressed by the 29 year old father of two children who has to work a second job at the ballpark to support his family. Poor, poor players – does anyone remember what a great sport this used to be? bats are not supposed to make a high pitched sound when it strikes a pitched baseball. Yet, for some reason, it makes that sound in college baseball. Braves don’t even make the playoffs if there was a DH in the National League. Expect more of this from me. I am disgusted.
And yet it’s the owners that are in control of doing right by that 29 year old father but you take your frustration out on Scherzer????
You are disgusting? I agree.
It is a nice gesture. But $1M divided by 30 teams is only $33,333 per team. There are literally a hundred or more stadium employees when you include food vendors, ushers, ticket takers, clean up crews, etc. That is not going to go far. Hopefully they chip in more from their strike fund if this drags on, which I suspect it will.
The reason for the loss of games is a lockout by the owners. It should have been the owners who furloughed, read laid off, all these people that should have stepped up from the beginning and said they would help take care of them financially. Instead it was the players who opened their wallets to help. What do you think the payroll for ushers, ticket takers, etc.. is for a week? Only the first two series have been cancelled so far. 6-7 games.
This is smart and just a generally good thing to do. MLBPA seems more prepared than in years past.
Why? Where were they when these workers were paid so poorly? All of a sudden they care? Bull*hit. It is the kind of cold manipulative marketing people think works. Like when politicians say “what about the children. . .” Good grief wake up people!!!!
Are the players supposed to lobby for everyone involved in Major League Baseball?
No, of course not. They’ll just use them for sympathy points when it suits their agenda. I don’t think anyone is deluded enough to think the MLBPA actually cares about these workers for anything other than the positive PR they can provide.
I bet those people just hate being used by . . . Being given money.
Just like the greedy players hate to be “used” by……having their pay being upped from $570k to “ONLY” $700k. Disgusting.
The players collectively bargained for those benefits and work for them. On the other hand, MLBPA is just giving this money away. How isn’t that difference obvious?
So what you are saying is that the owners don’t care about those people even if it would have been the right thing to do and a great PR move? The owners put those people out of work in the first place. Its a lockout by the owners that created the loss of games, remember?
Players who are NOT responsible for the lockout by the owners took it upon themselves to pay out of their own pockets the other employees of the teams and somehow that is a bad thing? flamingbagofpoop describes not only your capability for logic, but your heart as well apparently.
Why should the MLBPA ever look out for others? Typically unions only have one purpose. Also, where were the owners on this? They didn’t do anything until the players basically forced them to from a public perception standpoint.
Even if it is cold, calculated manipulation, it still helps people.
How is it MLBPA’s job to pay these people? If the owners of MLB teams are ripping these people off, isn’t that the fault of the owners? The MLB team owners are the ones that instituted this lockout and cancelled the games and these people’s jobs. How is that the player’s responsibility or fault? Its not. All the fault lies with the owners. Yes, its an absolutely brilliant PR move for the MLBPA to do this for those workers. That doesn’t make it wrong to do it. It just means the players are both doing a very magnanimous and smart thing.
How much did the players step up and pay during the prior 1700 games of players strikes?
Yes… players are such an altruistic group.
Yes, it’s always nice when people make public announcements of how great they are. It’s always so sincere.
And I still want to know about those bases and how an expired agreement prevents players from striking.
Until then, you are about as credible as the owners and the players.
No one is arguing that the players are benevolent. Just that the MLBPA did something good. I’m sure the money spends the same even if they announce it or you don’t like it.
You might want to do a little research about that before commenting. You look bad enough as it is. What does 1994 have to do with 2021? That was the last player strike and most of the players today were pre-school children or not even born yet 28 years ago. You are correct. Players ARE such an altruistic group. They just gave money to co-workers that they had no requirement to give money to. Federal law prevents players from starting a strike when they are not currently working. That means the players can start a strike ONLY during the regular season. Its really not that hard to look it up. I know research is EXTREMELY difficult for you with your low bandwidth, but at least try BEFORE you comment.
So the players are offering to help these workers instead of their actually employers? I get it might not be much the players are giving, but still, this doesn’t exactly make the owners look good
It doesn’t? When you think about how little $1m actually does, it certainly puts into perspective some of the other costs that ownership has to cover besides just player salary.
Repeat after me:
It wasn’t the player’s responsibility to pay these people, it was the owners of the team’s responsibility.
It wasn’t because of the players that these people will be out of work the 1st week of the season. It was because of the owners who instituted the lockout and cancelled games.
That the players did anything at all shows a huge heart. It doesn’t matter how much it was. It only matters that they did something they had no responsibility to do anything. No one would have thought worse of them if they had not stepped up and put $1 million in a pool to help pay these people for a week. Just because it also happens to be a brilliant PR move also, does not lessen the impact for those people that the owners put out of work or basic goodness of what they did.
Yes the players have a huge heart. How much did they give when they went on strike for those 1700 games?
And of course, announcing it so loudly shows exactly how wonderful they are. What great guys.
Maybe they’ll have a press conference where they are shown handing checks to people. What great guys.
You may want to look that up first. Even after you look it up, what does 1994 and before have to do with the lockout today? How many players were even out of diapers when the last strike happened. They had literally nothing to do with that strike. So why do you keep bringing it up as if it means something? It means squat. What means something is the players putting up what amounts to 20-25% of the 4500 stadium workers salary for the week of games the owners have cancelled. THAT is what matters. That they had a press conference doesn’t make it a bad thing. The bad thing is what the owners had done for those stadium workers to that point. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. THAT is a disgrace.
1M is peanuts for the amount of workers lol. Good, cheap PR move though.
After a 30 second google search (so maybe the number is wrong) there are about 40,000 stadium workers. So that’s $25 a person. More than I gave, so who I am to talk
You’re an Orioles fan – at one point in time, there was no better franchise in baseball – that’s what gives you the right
Its not the players responsibility to pay these people. They didn’t put them out of work, the owners did. So anything they games is an incredibly nice gesture. There are only about 120-125 people stadium workers are the employees of any individual team based on the 2 teams that we can see their financial statements. Including people that are not really there to serve the fans and there is maybe another 20 or so. So maybe 150? Multiply that by 30 and its about 4500 league wide. So about $220 each. If you were out of work for a week from a job that paid you maybe $75-100 a game in salary and someone that was not part of the company that laid you off came and said here is $220, would you be grateful? I know I would be.
In the PR battle…which does have value…the owners are getting their butts kicked.
Every corporate owner of a MLB team could afford to fund their seasonal employees, but the players have beat them to the punch..even if in the end it is more symbolic than meat and potatoes.
It leads me to the question of who the heck is in charge of the owners battle plan. Manfred is merely an employee, not the decision maker. MLB pays millions of dollars for PR people to put a best face on the league. They are failing.
What a nice gesture for their tax right offs
Of course it’s PR, who cares, except the commenters who hate the players. But, wait, I’m hearing something from my producer. Ah, MLB will do it as well. Now, when they do it, it will be generous, warm, nurturing, altogether wonderful.
Not everyone is as dogmatic as you in owners vs. players debate.
If the MLB owners decide to also give $1m, it’ll be equally as hollow. If they decide to give substantially more, then sure maybe it could reach your sarcastic adjectives.
There are plenty of pro-owner anti-player commenters on this site. They are not unrepresented, nor are they shy about their views. Which is as it should be.. My primary beef about the owners isn’t whether there is a free agent who wants 8 years at $30M per, it’s about the treatment of younger players and the propensity to tank. These teams owe it to their fans and the taxpayers who dole out goodies to have a strategy to compete.
I hope Scherzer steps up and matches the $1m. If he does that then the impacted workers could at least get $16.
There are at max 150 employees of each team that are seasonal stadium workers. Its more than $200 each for the week they are going to be out of work. The players didn’t have to do anything. The owners cancelled the games. Those people being out of work for that week is 100% on the owners of the teams. That the players did anything at all is simple awesome.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the two sides started trying to one-up each other with this, too?
Stadium workers et al could get -relatively- rich!
Here’s one: “Owners who received generous tax breaks, infrastructure and subsidized stadiums contribute to a fund to “give back to our community”)” Free Turkeys for the first 500 fans…”
Free Turkeys for the first 500 fans…..dropped from a helicopter (the turkeys, not the fans).
Army Surplus (Korean War) turkeys. A little freezer-burned, but, if you cook thoroughly, no substantial risk.
Live …fresh …or frozen?
I’m trying to decide how to dress!
Live. They’ll televise the hunt to make their money back. Each turkey will come with advertisements on it.
I have a feeling I maybe the only WKRP fan here,
“Oh the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!”
“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
Nope, at least one more fan here. On of the greatest sitcom episodes ever!
Les: It’s like they organized a counter attack!!”
I agree…a classic episode and based on a true story (except the DJ was tossing turkeys from a pick-up truck, not a helicopter. It was a great TV show.
“The crowd is curious but well behaved.” Laughed so hard the first time I saw that episode.
WKRP in the house!! That is frickin funny!!.
Lol. Rising inflation is causing many Americans to be falling further and further behind and you PR move is to create a fund for players who make more than a half a million a year at minimum? If you’re looking for public sympathy, try creating a find where you help the Americans who support your sport.
read.
Read the article please.
I got an idea, instead of both sides now pushing the PR “we are good guys and care” move.
Maybe this is a reach, but maybe if the REALLY care about the stadium workers then maybe get the the negotiating table and work out the CBA? I don’t know, if they do then those stadium workers they care about so much will get their FULL PAY!!
I’d gladly help with this fund. Let’s say that in return they play a baseball game, and I’ll buy admission, a hotdog and a beer in return.
Wander is a wonder – when I’m a 100, I’ll still remember his first at bat
It was an at-bat made for Hollywood!
$1,000,000 doesn’t scratch the surface for all the workers, businesses who depend on baseball . Now the smart thing to do if they can’t come to an agreement is for mlb to at least unite with the union(yeah right lol) and kick in some $.
many more than 4 owners would oppose cbt beyond $220 million. it’s not just players agreeing to mlb offer. some owners are being cheaper than cheap.
Its about $200 each for the week they will be out of work. Considering the players didn’t have to do anything at all since the owners of the teams are the ones that canceled the games and put these stadium workers out of a job, I would say its incredibly generous.
Wait, so no $150m pool for the workers?
You are absolutely right!! The people that cancelled the games should put together a pool to pay these stadium workers for all lost wages. That would be the owners of the teams!!
As of this writing, it’s a million bucks more than the owners are offering by way of help…
By the way, I’m sorry to say but from
What I see, the small market teams seem to push around the big market teams in all these labor disputes… anyone care to venture a guess how much money is made by small market teams when big markets come to town? How about the revenue sharing $? Big markets should put their foot down and get rid of revenue Sharing if they cannot agree with small markets. You can’t hack it in Florida? Relocate … can’t hack it in Pittsburgh? Relocate…etc… as for the angels voting against, what in the hell were they thinking? Maybe don’t do 10 year contracts with aging players(see pujols)
Where does money come from? it’s all just a bunch of zeroes and ones. If they had to pay athletes in gold, sports would return to the truly worthy athletes.
There are large market owners who want people to think the small market teams are the problem so they can spend less themselves.
Can you say Arte Moreno? Over $500 million in revenue and $182 million in payroll. He cleared some hefty profit. I love the Angels, but Arte needs to step up and increase payroll since he can obviously afford it.
@bigtmeyankeefan
Most teams are already in the larger markets. Should they move to even smaller ones? Is that your solution? Markets have different sizes. 30 teams on the top 27 markets still ends up with a substantial difference between the size of NY and the size of Cincinnati or Minneapolis. Unless you want to add additional teams to LA and NY to make their markets more in line (and it not fair to be asking a city for infrastructure changes for a third team), there really isn’t a larger market a team could move to, that doesn’t have major obstacles. Las Vegas has the heat to deal with. Montreal already failed once. Most other markets really about the same size or smaller. The revenue sharing still gives the large markets an advantage, but the small markets are supposed to be equal partners. Should NY really need to spend 3x Tampa in order to come in first?
Smaller markets means smaller in comparison to the other ones that are in MLB.
Should small market teams just exist to be the Washington Generals for the big market Globetrotters? Should there be an MLB contraction to get rid of smaller markets?
If not, they need something in place to allow and incentivize all teams to compete.
The Angels are a top 10 revenue team. They were over $500 million in revenue. They can certainly afford to spend over $210 million or even $250 million. Arte is taking a huge profit by limiting MLB payroll to under $180 million.
Meanwhile the owners offered their butlers 1-day off per year.
Without pay.
YAY!! The workers get like 1/100th of their pay while both sides continue to battle how many million each side should get..
HEROS!!!
The players didn’t cancel the games. The owners did. That they are giving anything at all is awesome! There are maybe 150 stadium workers that are the employees of each team. That means this $1 million the players are giving is about $200 per employee for the weeks worth of games that have been cancelled.
Nothing from the owners? Interesting…..
They will do it too and give a bigger amount so they can say “We care more than the Union about our workers”
The whole thing is stupid and insulting.
remember arte moreno even cut scouts during 2020 without any compensation.
Right.. That’s the move of someone who isn’t making money.
have the angels produced an ace? a catcher? shortstop?
yeah, being cheap has consequences!
Everyone knows what this move really is.
Yes we do. Its an incredibly generous move by players that have no responsibility for these people being out of work. The owners cancelled the games. The owners locked out the sport. That the players did anything at all for stadium workers is fantastic.
A French fry walked into a bar and asked for a menu. The bartender said, “Sorry, we don’t serve food here.”
I offer my deepest condolences to anyone who took the time to read this. However, it has wasted far less of your time than this lockout has wasted of everyone’s.
hey, we were supposed spending these many hours on baseball anyway
LOL. Here’s $25. Please support my efforts to make 400 million instead of 300. MLB probably going to have to follow the NBA to China to sustain its greed
the thing is players are willing to pay the small guys and mlb don’t. if the lockout lasts much longer mlbpa will come up with more.
I’m sure they can’t wait for another $25. It will no doubt make a huge difference in their lives. Maybe they can go invest in bitcoin with all that extra cash
bitcoin is too expensive.
The way is has been volatile lately, who knows. Value may make it the new Dogecoin. soon………………
Since there are around 150 seasonal stadium workers employed by each team this is around $200 each for their lost week of work. I think all of them will be exceptionally grateful. Considering the fact that the players were not the ones that laid these people off, its an incredibly generous action.
I have a good idea – I kinda hate to tell the rest of the world about it – it’s called the Cape Cod League – check it out this summer if you love the game of baseball
Or you can just watch Summer Catch…
Actually I’d be okay if teams wanted to pay whatever they want. Yankees dodgers 500 million? Fine. Steve cohen’s Mets a trillion? Fine. Other teams 25 million fine. No revenue sharing? Fine. Some players earning 500 million fine. Others earning 100000? Fine. Yankees dominated baseball for decades. People still watched the bad teams. So what? Go libertarian. There are few players who make a difference.
“Yankees dominated baseball for decades.”
Incorrect. There was no free agency when the Yankees won those 20 championships in 40 years (1923-1962). Since then they have won back-to-back in the ‘70s (1977-1978), four of five starting in the late ‘90s (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000) and then one more title in 2009. Sure, that’s better than any other team in the Divisional Era but it hasn’t just been constant dynasties.
“AlienBob”, “PlayersCanPoundSand” & others: My goodness, so many blind mice.
You two, along with others, complain the players were just pandering & offering a few dollars to stadium employees who are being screwed By The Owners.
Well, if the players are just “pandering,” nitwits, what does that make the Owners, who have basically told those same people & their families to go F-themselves.
Moreover, the stadium people are NOT the players’ employees. Their the Owners Employees & yet the Owners have offered those lowly paid people Zero Dollars & Zero Cents!
But people like “AlienBob” & “PlayersCanPoundSand” knock the players for offering Something, instead of Nothing, like the Owners? Wow, you guys are Really Gullible!
If they want to win points , offer to pay for say 1,000 tickets for each city. Tickets to be distributed to the poor. Family of four who could never afford a game. 100grand a team. Player pool 3 mill.
Rewards the fans , does a good deed. Scores points. Little cost
MLB caught off guard by the MLBPA’s move, immediately announces they’re also setting up a fund. That’s the minimum they can do since MLB is the one locking out the players and cancelling games. Here’s what they should do and hopefully will: Pay all salaries. They’re going to for the players eventually (zero chance full back pay is not part of the final deal), so add in full pay for all team non-player salaries, and the cost-savings for owners takes a hit. Brilliant move by the MLBPA backing MLB into this corner.
The greedy players are the ones responsible for no baseball by not agreeing to the more generous MLB proposal. No way for full back pay for the players. No play=NO pay.
Or maybe the owners are announcing now because they already did it and the players are pandering to people like LordD99.
If players really cared, they would have just done it without the announcement.
Halo11Fan: OMG, what an Absurd display of Logic. The Owners didn’t announce it because they didn’t do the same thing, despite the fact those people are THIER employees, not the players employees.
Look at History, Halo11Fan, the Owners did NOT compensate stadium workers, etc. during the last lockout for all of the revenue they lost. So, why in the world would you even hazard an ABSURD guess that “maybe the owners are announcing now because they already did it.”
Yes, players are highly paid. But they make Less Than Minimum Wage in the minors pursuing “a dream”.
Entertainers, like Madonna, have been paid a Billion Dollars or more in their careers. (Her current net worth is approximately $590 million, which excludes what she’s spent over the years.)
So, why do people begrudge players, who are also Entertainers, for making similar money when they finally make it big in their industry.
Do the same people that call the players greedy go on the internet & blast Actors, Musicians, & Movie Producers for making Millions & Billions? No, but athletes, OMG, lets blast them, not the Billionaires who employ them.
To those who feel sorry for the Billionaire Owners, I have one question: Would you pay $75-$100 a person to watch Hal Steinbrenner hit or throw a 100 MPH fastball? Of course not! Because Hal couldn’t do it. It takes exceptional physical abilities that 99.999% of us don’t have.
You pay to see the Players, not their Billionaire Owners, and all but a few of the Owners are Billionaires.
To side with the Owners, when their Revenues are Going Up Drastically is Absurd.
Has any Owner announced that they’ll lower ticket prices if the players take less? No. So, you’re not saving yourself money, you’re just putting more into the pockets of Billionaires.
Face it folks. Team owners in virtually all major sports are in it for 2 reasons:
1) Long-term appreciation in their franchises For example, the Yankees were sold to George Steinbrenner for $19.5 million & now their worth about $5-6 Billion.
2) For Ego gratification. You’re a Billionaire, what’s left? To say, look I’m the Owner of team XYZ & I just won the World Series or the Super Bowl or the NBA Championship.
Owners want it both ways, they want to make Huge Profits every year & make hundreds of Millions or Billions when they sell their team. An these are the folks some of you are feeling sorry for?!
So MLB players announced it, then the owners got on the phone… All 30 of them, and then agreed that they should do the same thing.
So which of our opinions is far fetched?
What’s really funny, is you think the players motives were pure,
you lose!
I wouldn’t send any funds to Atlanta. After all, they had enough money so that the community didn’t need the 2021 All Star Game. Besides, with inflation as it is, that $1 million isn’t going to go very far.
MLBPA keeps playing this like a fiddle. Doing everything right. Going above and beyond. While the owners keep doing everything wrong. I started out on the owners side, that shifted about the turn of the year and keeps on growing for the players.
This lockout is not about the minimal $10M it will take to close the gap between the first year CBT proposed by owners and players (220 vs. 230). We don’t know where the players will settle, but $230 million feels about right. This is about MLB trying to creatively implement a creeping salary cap over the past two decades by slowing the CBT to below both inflation and revenue growth, eventually squeezing payroll. The overlords of MLB would get an effective salary cap, but no salary floor, they don’t have to open their books to the union, and the salary cap (CBT) doesn’t rise as team revenues rise, as they do in the NHL. This is heinous and the fans are the ones paying right now.
CBT data courtesy of JoePos (they’re public numbers, so I don’t feel guilty for lifting them):
2017: $195 million
2018: $197 million
2019: $206 million
2020: $208 million
2021: $210 million
2022):$220 million
2023: $220 million
2024: $220 million
2025: $224 million
2026: $230 million
Now by percentage increase:
2017: $195 million
2018: 1.0% increase
2019: 4.6% increase
2020: 1.0% increase
2021: 1.0% increase
2022: 4.8% increase
2023: 0% increase
2024: 0% increase
2025: 1.8% increase
2026: 2.7% increase
One small snapshot: Over a seven-year period (2017-24), MLB is only proposing a twenty-five-million-dollar increase in the CBT, including completely stagnant for the first three years of this proposed deal. This while MLB revenues continue to rise at a very healthy rate (while franchise valuations are off the chart). MLB is looking at a 40% increase in existing TV contracts, not to mention $85-100M in additional postseason revenue, plus a pending Apple TV deal, a pending NBC deal, advertising revenue on uniforms, and gambling revenue. MLB’s response? A $25M increase in the CBT over seven years. WTF?
This is not about the CBT even though it is about the CBT. This is about an non-negotiated, and thus illegal, salary cap the owners are trying to force on the players. The players finally woke up, and yes, they will sacrifice the entire 2022 season to fight the salary cap, and they are funded to do it.,
It won’t come to that, though. The owners love their money, and they will lose boatloads if they don’t bridge the gap on the CBT. You can blame the players; you can blame owners. The players are the product. The owners will lose either way the longer this goes on. My fear, however, is this will drag on for at least three more weeks. April 25th, or thereabouts, is when rebates on local TV deal will become due, so build in Spring Training and we won’t have a deal until late March. That’s when the owner pain rises.
great post!
Good post, but your fears will come true but I don’t think it will be longer than that.
Long term we will forget the first month of the season being missed and also this could bring actual change that could improve the game for the fans too.
The owners and Union need to get this sorted out and build a good relationship and work together if they ever want to bring strong growth to the game. Jeff Passan had a good article about this the other day.
That was an incredibly good, logical, thought provoking post.
@LordD99
Please feel free to post cost data for the same period. These isolated looks at a single stat do not show a comprehensive picture of the industry. Its would be like only looking at the wage increases for Max Scherzer over his career as to why the players shouldn’t complain. How about posting the changes in the payroll floor for each of those years.
Overall revenue increased by more than 30% over the past 5 years. The public, and the players for that matter, only know the costs incurred by the 2 teams that are owned by publicly traded companies. We know that the increases in profits mirrored the increases in revenue for those two teams. Overall costs were up 3% over the last 5 years for those two teams. The largest costs, leases and debt service, went down as a percentage of revenue. Wages for players in MLB decreased by >20%. We know that because for some reason all player salaries are released to the public by the teams while the team’s own financial statements are not released. There is no payroll floor. Teams can spend as little as they want.
Lord, thanks for something that’s actually informative. I too think a lot of the griping on minimum salaries was a bit of a misdirection. The CBT is what it’s mostly about. The owners are using the players as shields to fend off their real foes, owners in bigger markets.
For Arte it’s the Dodgers, Yankees and now the Mets. For Dolan and Nutting etc it’s everybody else. They won’t play fair with each other in their extremely well funded sandbox so they have to take it out of the player’s backs. Such a waste.
Better idea, LAUNCH THE SEASON.
Looks like the owners are prepared to break the union and that is a good thing. College baseball season began two weeks ago so I’m good until the players are crushed.
Update: “The league hadn’t thought of this and is scrambling to put something together because they kind of have to now.”
Absolutely!
That’s why up above I said while this was likely designed as a PR move by the MLBPA, it was a good one because it was going to put money in the pockets of the support staff that the owners have also essentially locked out. It’s even better now because it’s forced MLB to respond. They’re backpedaling and in reactionary mode. Look at it this way…MLB was trying to include player meals in the CBA calculations. No way they want to pay money for support staff while they’ve shut the game down. Great move by the MLBPA.
It does reflect how cheap the owners are though. When one considers the arguments of both sides, owners keep saying they’re not being cheap, yet the players are the ones helping out coworkers. Owners were letting them sink and it’s, again, a terrible look.
Owners were destined to lose this from the start. It was a bad fight to take up regardless of the outcome and the lockout secured a loss in the public’s perspective. Manfred is unappealing and typifies cold, detached elitism.
100%. Usually the owners are better at controlling the narrative. But, they seem to have underestimated how unpopular the lockout would be, the player’s resolve and their ability to stay connected to the fans via social media.
“We must counter this PR stunt with our own ‘I care about you’ schtick. Hmmm…what’ll it be?”
“I know! Let’s start a fund that gives people MORE than their measly 1M, and let’s give it to…um…the players! And we could even set up the fund to increase each year!”
“Brilliant! Those idiot players will never see it coming.”
(Lockout Ends)
They should have had Dr Evil announce this .
As long as Mini Me was along for the show 🙂
The owners had Dr. Evil announce that the games would be cancelled. Manfred even laughed while he was announcing it.
We agree on something. Manfred, What an idiot!!!!!!
When I do call a public figure an idiot, I’m really saying their action was imbecilic. I’m not calling anyone an idiot.
Not nearly enough, but a very nice gesture, especially considering it’s not really on them to look out for these employees. If anyone should be doing this, it’s the owners.
A nicer gesture would have been to keep it quiet.
It’s a publicity cost.
The Bible, whatever your religious beliefs, is a very good book on philosophy.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.”
This was not a philanthropical gift. This was a publicity stunt.
Ah yes, Christians are known for their quiet generosity.
Thanks for pointing out that these folks are employees of the owners.
Comes to about $200 per worker in my estimation. A nice gesture but that’s it, maybe a couple days pay for some of them
As of today they are only out of work for the week that the owners cancelled games. Considering it was their co-workers, not their employers, making this gesture, its incredibly generous.
The PR engine continues.
I’m not buying any of this bull$hit by either side. Harry the hot dog vendor, neither side gives a crap about you.
We all know this is “the great negotiator” Rob Manfred versus Scott Boras. They both can go choke on Harry’s effing hot dog.
If it’s Manfred against Boras, then MLB should begin discussions on MLB’s surrender.
You’re right about the PR engine. That’s why MLB is trying to suggest Boras is in control of the MLBPA. Boras as well as many top agents are information advisors to the MLBPA, but MLB is trying to find someone who is as hated as Manfred, hence Boras. MLB is losing the PR war that they’ve had on their side in prior labor shutdowns. I doubt it will make much difference. They are going to settle at some point, which his why I still remain positive, even if I have dislike what the owners are doing to the game.
Bravo for the union. They did the right thing. Taking care of the people that take care of fans! Made MLB owners look really bad at the same time. Big one up in the PR battle. Even the owners coming out later and saying, “oh yeah, we are going to to that too” doesn’t soften the PR blow they just took. Brilliant!!
This is a good thing!
Does this include the mascots?
Mr. Met’s out on the street, holding out his tiny hat.
The answer is simple. Tie the CBT into revenue growth. Guaranteed increases proportionate to revenue growth. It will encourage MLB and the MLBPA to form a partnership that ensures that they work together to increase revenue. Now, MLB won’t agree to this because they prefer to take an increasing portion of the profits. That’s the way they’ve had it for the past decade.
You know, for someone who makes a lot of intelligible posts, I gotta say, you’re handle is a bit disappointing. I hope that is your actual name.
It is my name, but no, the “M” does not stand for Manfred!
Have to know exactly what that revenue is to tie it to revenue growth and since 28 MLB owners refuse to do that, its not possible right now. We can guess and guess pretty closely on most subjects regarding revenue in MLB, but we only know for sure about 2 teams that are owned by publicly held companies. We do know that total revenue growth over the past 5 years was a minimum of 30% and we know that revenue increased $1.6 billion since 2019 because of publicly disclosed TV, streaming, and licensing deals. Using those numbers, a CBT that went up at the same rate as revenue over the past 5 seasons starting at the 2017 CBT of $195 million would mean that the CBT would be at $253.50 million for 2022. Isn’t that what the players union asked for initially?
I look forward to the people whose tongue smells of owner sack defending teams laying off employees after taking taxpayer money while paying no taxes as good business men and it’s the players who are greedy.
For wanting a fair share of revenue they solely generate.
I think these are the same people, including MLBTR’s Steve Adams, who argue that Rob Manfred is doing an excellent job because he’s maximizing profits for the owners. When it’s brought up that Manfred is labeled the “great negotiator” yet cannot close the largest negotiation in his MLB career, the answer is that it doesn’t matter as long as he makes money for the owners.
The unwavering support for the owners and Manfred and the blindness to what they (and the players) are doing to our wonderful sport is nothing short of shocking.
And BTW, I’m not a player apologist and believe both sides need to take off their training underwear and come to the table as adults. The margins are within distance, let’s go.
I find this funny.. teams are owned by a group of owners that pay players billions a year and also directly employ thousands of full-time workers that receive decent salaries. They are cheap. But the players, who are collectively worth billions of dollars.. dole out a sum of $1 million and everyone is inspired by their generosity.
Truly a nice gesture by the PA and I definitely applaud them for it. I just find the double-standard amusing.
How much of their money do you want to give away on their behalf? Those workers are the employees of the OWNERS. Shouldn’t the owners just pay them their regular pay since they are the ones that instituted the lockout, literally furloughing all of these workers you’re so worried about?
I was just commenting on the perception that was humorous. One group of billionaires employs many thousands of people and pays them billions of dollars a year.. they are cheap and evil. Another group of billionaires pays a million dollars and they are perceived as extremely generous.
Again, I applaud the players for doing it.
But I’ll ask you a similar question.. what percentage of their revenue do the owners have to pay their employees to not be cheap? 50%, 75%, 90%?
You have never worked in a stadium or for a MLB team. That much is obvious. Most stadium workers make much less than $100 a game in salary. You are also missing the most obvious point, the OWNERS put these stadium workers out of work. Not the players. The players had no responsibility to reach out and help their coworkers. Yet they are providing what amounts to $200 or more per person for the week they are currently out of work.
Each team carries 28 players by season’s end. Obviously rosters expand, but let’s make it easy and say 28 players.
28 players x 30 teams is 840 players. $1,000,000 divided by 840 is approximately $1200 per player.
So this token of generosity is about $1200 from each player.
A higher CBT and player salaries inevitably means a less competitive league. It means a league dominated even more so by the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, etc.
The Rays, A’s, White Sox, Cardinals, Nationals, Indians, Royals, Brewers, Indians, Twins, and Rockies would like to have a word with you about your misstatement. Those are the teams that are outside of the top ten in revenue and made it to the playoffs 2 times or more over the past 7 seasons. 6 other lower than top 10 revenue teams made it at least once. A higher CBT simply means the players get paid what they are worth.
Not necessarily… Teams can spend 300 million if they wanted to, but they’d get penalized… Raise the CBT abruptly and it will create an imbalance.
Raising the CBT will only benefit the 30 mil a year players and Scott Boras, who is the agent of 5 of the top 8 MLBPA representative and singlehandedly turned down MLB’s latest offer.
There is no imbalance now and hasn’t been this century. Revenue went up. ALL teams can afford to spend much more. The CBT should go up to match the increases in revenue for ALL teams. Raising the CBT means that teams can spend more on players. PERIOD. Not just top of the market guys, EVERYONE. There will be more guys kept around that make $1 million and $2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13, etc…million. There is nothing saying that money only goes to the top players and its ludicrous to try to suggest it does. That money is spread around to ALL the players on the team. If a team can keep 6 guys that make $3 million a year or 3 extra guys that make $6 million a year because they can spend $18 million more without CBT penalties, then it benefits all of those extra guys.
SMASH THE MLBPA UNION!
I’m wondering—how many members does the MLBPA have? What are the membership requirements? How much do members pay in dues? What are all the benefits?
About 1200. All members of each team’s 40 man roster in addition to any players on the Injured List. Players pay $85 per day on the 26 man roster for union dues.
How long until replacement players can be used?
a Whole Million Dollars….
Wow…
It’s Split a Bazillion ways but Still…
I’m going to Disneyworld!!!
Its $1 million split between the 4000-4500 stadium workers in MLB. About $200 per person. There have been 6-7 games cancelled so far. A week of lost salaries by the stadium workers.
I understand that people are going to moan and complain about things (until a season can start). Any help towards seasonal workers and contractors will be beneficial and there is no reason why these funds can’t grow until the lockout is over.
There is nothing wrong with giving. I just have an issue with the dislocating shoulders patting themselves on the back.
In what world is a 6 minute press conference considered “dislocating shoulders patting themselves on the back”?
If a player handed you used toilet paper, would you consider it memorabilia?
if a billionaire owner handed you a scraped penny, is that a trickle down economy?
It will be a long summer. There will be no season.
There may not even be baseball until there is a salary cap.
Kinda feel sorry for these guys who work at ball parks — the ones who don’t get a minimum salary of $570,500 for 172 days of “work” throwing and hitting a ball and running about 90 feet every hour or so. Unless you’re a pitcher. Then you “work” every 5th day or 3-5 innings a week and you don’t run at all.
The downside is most of them don’t have a very long career and only make $3-5 million total, then have to actually work for a living. Of course, some get that much for a signing out of high school.
What’s the purpose of the PR battle in this little dogfight ?
Is fan pressure seen to be a factor in the negotiation ? Is it an attempt from both sides to not have fans disengage ? Is it just because high profile people like to look good in the eyes of the public ?
Genuinely curious as to why it’s happening.
Our whole society is based on social media and being “liked”. The players are disillusioned if they think this little PR stunt will change many minds.
That. is $33K per team. That will buy a lot of food, diapers canned goods and what have you That they can distribute to people who work at the various ballparks. They’re not going to be giving these people money.. It’s to help with things that they took the jobs to help pay for.Not everyone of them took the jobs out of desperation. Some took the job for extra spending money.
Who decides who gets how much? Scherzer, Borass, Stripling????? What an obvious publicity stunt.
The MLBPA appears to be using people such as low wage stadium workers in an attempt to boost their image as reasonable and thoughtful..
$1 million spread out would provide very, very temporary relief..
If you’re going to do something, do it the right away, or you may end up looking worse than you did previously.
I hope MLBTR’s gets some… maybe they will stop begging for subscribers.