Major League Baseball, players union reach tentative agreement to salvage 2020 season

[Edgy MD]

You're assuming that, given a chance fuck things up, we'd somehow not.



I'm no pessimist, at least I thought I wasn't, but it seems dysfunction is baked into the cake these days.

[metsmarathon]

now imagine a long, high fly ball being hit deep into the stands, right smack down between two sets of social-distancers...

[Ceetar]

=metsmarathon post_id=36745 time=1589252508 user_id=83]
now imagine a long, high fly ball being hit deep into the stands, right smack down between two sets of social-distancers...

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: You're assuming that, given a chance fuck things up, we'd somehow not. I'm no pessimist, at least I thought I wasn't, but it seems dysfunction is baked into the cake these days.

I get more and more pessimistic as this all progresses. But that's why I'd tie tickets to testing, hopefully that way when it all gets fucked up it just means no one gets in or they fail to implement it properly or whatever. But it seems like they're not even really going to try that. There seems to be no real plan for the way forward at all, by anyone, even outside of baseball.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=Ceetar post_id=36742 time=1589250797 user_id=102]
assuming we're not just ignoring testing and tracing altogether, which i'm not convinced can happen, it doesn't seem like they _have_ to play empty stadiums. Test people. You could probably socially distance 2000 people, maybe more if you factor in families that don't have to be distanced, fairly easily in the ground level of most stadiums. keep all the concessions and such closed, have a handful of mask-laden guards for security. Only allow day-of tickets purchased that require proof of a negative test. (or perhaps a positive antibody test, depending on if we have info on that being meaningful)



No one would come in contact with players. Chance of anyone being infected is low, and if you mandate masks worn to come and go from your seat things would be pretty safe. It wouldn't be the same, but there'd be enough crowd noise from that, noises in the right spots even if not as loud, to make things feel a little more normal. I think it'd help. Ultimately baseball doesn't really care about making it feel normal for the players, and the mesley income from that, perhaps merely $40k or something is junk change to them anyway. Unless they made this a super-premium experience I guess, and they probably could, and milked it for like $100 a ticket. You could probably get a few hundred thousand that way.

[Ceetar]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=36749 time=1589257716 user_id=68]




This is way too much to expect from a cruel and incompetent banana republic. Like Trump's America. Plus, regular people can't get tested unless they're on death's door but suddenly, if you buy a ticket to a fucking baseball game .....?

[MFS62]

Fangraphs' take.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/after-years-of-profits-mlb-owners-ask-players-to-subsidize-potential-losses/https://blogs.fangraphs.com/after-years-of-profits-mlb-owners-ask-players-to-subsidize-potential-losses/

Basically what I said, the owners are trying to screw the players.



Later

[Frayed Knot]

I'm have a hard time buying the idea that, even if the owners lose half the season and then lose out on something like 40% of revenue from the half they do play, every team is still going to be awash

in cash. I think sometimes some writers start with the premise that the teams make so much money (although if the sport is the mega-profit machine some claim there'd be no reason for anyone to

ever get out of the business) that they go about concocting scenarios to prove their predetermined conclusion that there's no way they ever could lose money ... even in the short term.



Look, I've generally been on the side of the players in most of these labor wars during my lifetime, but I think the union needs to carefully consider how they handle this particularly because it seems

to me that their biggest fear is that the ghost of Marvin Miller is going to smite them all in their tracks if they agree to even a temporary fix that smells like a salary cap.

And, yes, limiting overall pay to a fixed portion of revenue IS a form of cap no matter how much the NFL (or the folks who shill for it) sell it as if it's an act of Christian Charity when they raise the roof

by 2% at the same time the players agree to a season that will be 6.25% longer. But this would be just for one season and only for the most unusual season in the sport's history. And they need to

decide whether they REALLY want to be standing on a principle which no one cares about (keeping their cap-free streak intact) during a time of 'Hooverville' unemployment figures and deaths that

will likely be into six figures before they get around to starting this thing.



This doesn't mean they have to bite at the first bait the owners dangle at them, but the voices we've heard from so far have all said that the issue of pay has been pre-decided and that the idea of

even discussing anything beyond the part about prorating salaries based on the length of the season is a complete non-starter to which they have no intention of hearing. This even though the March

26th agreement clearly (in my mind anyway) had a clause indicating that the two sides would at least talk "in good faith" about what to do in the event of a season with reduced revenues. They

obviously couldn't nail down any terms like that in late March because no one had any idea what the conditions would be like at that point.



So the union might go all out to try and win their battle here but that win could come at the expense of:

a) their entire 2020 salaries (I think they get 4% in the event of a canceled season) if the owners decide that they'd lose less money by ditching the entire season

a lot of bad PR as a season gets scuttled because your guys can't take a partial pay cut off your multi-millions while millions of others have lost their jobs completely



Both sides have a lot to lose here. It would be nice if they handled it like adults.

[Edgy MD]

Curious if there'll be a presidential first pitch.



With nobody there to boo him, he can pretend that everybody loved it and tuned in just to see him.



Heck, he can even pre-record it and edit it to look like he zipped it in straight for a strike.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If I was the catcher who was designated to receive a first pitch from this president, I'd step aside as the threw it and just let the ball roll to a stop, untouched. And I'd walk away without even looking at it.

[Edgy MD]

I demand that Ben Grimm be signed by the Mets as their opening day catcher.

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I was the catcher who was designated to receive a first pitch from this president, I'd step aside as the threw it and just let the ball roll to a stop, untouched. And I'd walk away without even looking at it.

I'd put on a medical mask and gloves and then pick it up. And make sure the cameras were watching. And then I'd place it in a medical disposal bag and drop it in the garbage.

Later

[metsmarathon]

i'd fall over laughing after he ineptly, gracelessly lobbed it fifty feet, many of them in the wrong direction.



the giggling would not end for days. weeks, even.

[ashie62]

I find it hard to imagine more than a few thousand fannies in the seats.



So, the economic viability of the baseball business is at stake

[MFS62]

i'd fall over laughing after he ineptly, gracelessly lobbed it fifty feet, many of them in the wrong direction. the giggling would not end for days. weeks, even.

That's probably one of the main reasons why he has never thrown out the "first pitch".





Later

[Edgy MD]

Oh, he has, just never as president.



[YOUTUBE]645cNMYN2mU[/YOUTUBE]

[nymr83]

=ashie62 post_id=36776 time=1589320090 user_id=90]
I find it hard to imagine more than a few thousand fannies in the seats.



So, the economic viability of the baseball business is at stake

[nymr83]

Edgy MD wrote: Oh, he has, just never as president. [YOUTUBE]645cNMYN2mU[/YOUTUBE]

I've seen better but I've also seen much worse. That was probably in the 75th percentile for (then) 60 year olds throwing 1st pitches.

[Frayed Knot]

Mark Teixeira, now with ESPN, suggests that the players accept the proposal of of a revenue split for this season only but https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/mark-teixeiras-mlb-proposal-stance-just-so-stupid-dodgers-alex-wood/that's not going over too well with at least one player.



Alex Wood (LAD) Tweet: “I refuse to judge someone I don't really know off of one comment but damn this statement is just so stupid"



Teixeira: “This is unprecedented in the history of the Major League Baseball Players Association ... every other year, I would stand together and say, ‘The owners aren't going to do

this to us and we're going to get paid our full fare. If I'm going to put myself out there, I'm going to get paid a full day's wage.'

“Players need to understand that if they turn this deal down and shut the sport down, they're not making a cent"







Talks on the owners proposal began on Tuesday but reportedly they haven't gotten to the revenue splitting topic as of yet.

[Ceetar]

they talked logistics though, that's the important part. I haven't seen (though I haven't really hunted for it either) if there have been any leaks into specifics. It does seem testing everyone is part of the 'plan'.

[metsmarathon]

how much money could the owners possibly lose this year, if they ended up paying the players for 50% of their salaries?



maybe they could apply for some of those small business aid grants...

[Frayed Knot]

=metsmarathon post_id=36800 time=1589389629 user_id=83]
how much money could the owners possibly lose this year, if they ended up paying the players for 50% of their salaries?

[Edgy MD]

Players should totally not be having this conversation through the press.

[Benjamin Grimm]

One interesting tidbit that I read somewhere is that the owners prefer playing in their home ballparks because of the advertising revenue. They'll still get money, apparently, from Dunkin Donuts and Budweiser when the ads appear on television. I wonder if those rates will be reduced, and by how much, or if they're primarily intended for the home viewers anyway.

[metsmarathon]

maybe they could recoup some of the attendance cash by selling advertisements on tarps that could cover the empty seats.

[Ceetar]

we really don't know for sure what the economic hit is, as we're not privy to the private negotiations the owners have with various places, and we don't know if certain deals with TV/etc will be halved for a half season or if they play they get the full kitty, etc.



I think the empty stadiums is a concession to the idea that they've be playing in locked down states. by not opening up, they're just filming an internal company meeting or whatever, not opening up a public building?

[MFS62]

they talked logistics though, that's the important part. I haven't seen (though I haven't really hunted for it either) if there have been any leaks into specifics. It does seem testing everyone is part of the 'plan'.

There IS a safety plan:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/report-mlb-outlines-player-safety-160030365.htmlhttps://www.yahoo.com/news/report-mlb-outlines-player-safety-160030365.html

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

That article mentions the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. They should totally write off the All-Star Game this year.

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: That article mentions the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. They should totally write off the All-Star Game this year.

And then tear that place down because it isn't being used.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS and Turner Sports, according to sources, have experimented with the idea of using virtual reality to enhance the at-home viewing experience, by superimposing realistic-looking fans

onto screens. The idea is in its infancy and there is a mixture of opinions toward it, but it is something the networks are playing with as fan-less games appear to be the immediate reality.





https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/espn-fox-bracing-for-unprecedented-sports-broadcasts/https://nypost.com/2020/05/13/espn-fox-bracing-for-unprecedented-sports-broadcasts/