Baseball has the support of the Trump administration, which has privately exhorted the players to serve as “the pied piper” to “bring the country back,” a union source told ESPN. But guidance from the White House on the return of sports has been “confusing” and, at times, in conflict with the advice of public health experts, according to multiple sports executives who participated in conversations with the White House.
On separate occasions in late March, representatives of sports unions, including the Major League Baseball Players Association, were told by administration officials that the threat of the virus was exaggerated and testing “was not the end-all, be-all,” as one union official put it, contradicting the advice of the White House’s own task force.
They expect a union to lead working folk, like a “pied piper”, into unsafe working conditions? WTF is going on?
I don’t have a lot of respect for the MLBPA, the next time they honor someone else’s picket line will be their first time… but they just got to say “no” to this crap. They know they’re being lied to, they know they’re being asked to do something wrong. Just say “no”.
Is it just me or are these Korean baseball broadcasts really hard to watch. I mean they’re awful. Between Eduardo Perez’ horrible voice and Karl Ravech not giving a crap, its brutal. Hard enough to watch Korean baseball I guess, but the broadcasts just seem so bad.
… The Nippon Professional Baseball season will begin on June 19… The 2020 NPB campaign will begin without fans in attendance during the early stages… NPB normally plays 143 games during the regular season, but Saito said clubs would be aiming to complete 120. They have… assured that a season will be held, and they will declare a NPB champion… interleague play between the Pacific League and the Central League has been eliminated and team will play exhibition games from June 2-14…
The Major League Baseball Players Association and the league ironed out the final details on Tuesday ahead of a return to play, one that will see players report to camps by July 1 and play a 60-game season starting on either July 23 or 24.
The last hurdle – an agreement on health and safety protocols – was cleared Tuesday night – some three-plus months after spring training was stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
So I’m assuming players have the absolute right to sit out this season citing health concerns, and then keep from burning a service year, right? It would only take a few high-profile guys opting out to make this already-joke-of-a-season look even more so. Combined with the inevitable additional outbreaks during spring training I think there’s gonna be huge pressure to cancel.
This is correct. This source sez at risk players who sit out will be credited with a service year and also get paid. However, players who sit out because family members are at risk are guaranteed nada.
The other thing that is lol-tastical is MLB is planning on playing in the MLB stadiums. Even considering that they aren’t going to even try to “bubble”… WTF about travelling all over the country, during a pandemic, simply to play in empty stadiums?
NY, NJ, and CT are quartantining visitors from like 10 states for 2 weeks. So how are the Rays gonna play the Yankees or Marlins the Mets in NYC? Or the teams in Texas?
The schedule has you playing only your own division and the crossover division in interleague games. So it’s very much a regional schedule. 19th century baseball!
This obviously sucks for teams in the West who still have to travel long distances. But that’s always true.
Looks like MLB is slipping in what may be the dumbest rule of all time. That would be putting a runner on second at the start of every half-inning in extra innings. The runner would be whoever made the last out in the ninth. I’d rather have them declare ties after 12 innings like they do in South Korea.
Yeah I was thinking the other end of it, where a veteran on his last big contract would rather get an extra full year instead of a pro-rated one. Motivations would be different for everybody.
When I heard that in the 60 game season, teams would be playing their division opponents ten times each, naturally I thought that meant they’d play five at home and five on the road. They could do five game series and limit travel. The only weird thing would be that some series would probably start on a Saturday or a Sunday. As it turns out, MLB doesn’t want to give up the Fri-Sun series…even without fans in the stands.
So the Red Sox will play the Yankees ten times, but only three times in Boston. The other seven games will be in New York. I guess without fans it doesn’t matter that much except some teams are tailored to fit their ballparks…and being able to sleep at home etc. Plus there’s now extra travel involved.
As it goes, you play one division opponent three times at home, another four times at home, another six times, and another seven times. I’m having a hard time believing the season is going be to played out anyway as planned without at least one team being overwhelmed by the virus, but we’ll see.
Yeah. I guess the schedule weirdness is kind of moot. They have to be reassessing everything given the fact that hospitals are filling up in various spots around the country, and even some star players like Freddie Freeman already have the virus. I haven’t heard of a Plan B is the virus starts running wild in a clubhouse, and that seems inevitable doesn’t it?