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In the second Cooper tweet above, Manfred talked about comparing ideas with the other sports leagues. At least baseball is more naturally socially distancing for the players compared to football, hockey, basketball, etc.
I play and follow tennis closely, which is an ideal social distancing sport. Tennis had its first mini-event last week in Florida where four fairly high ranked players competed. It kind of served as a test case for moving ahead. They competed without line judges and ball boys/girls, using just the chair umpire to oversee the match. Players called their own lines.
Manfred also mentioned the possibility of considering how rules could be modified to help the situation. Perhaps Matt Carpenter could suggest they ban the shift since it forces infielders to bunch together too closely.
Here is an article on Fox News this morning about MLB and the players feelings on the 50/50 split. Read the comments below the article as well and you will see how poorly baseball fared with this writing.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/players-ask-mlb-for-slew-of-financial-documentsAnother article on the debate between MLB and the union:
https://tinyurl.com/yameayw7Euro –
Per the Department of Labor Statistics, postal workers are not considered federal employees. However they qualify for federal benefits and are required to follow federal guidelines. So the key question is whether federal guidelines today require federal workers to wear face masks when interfacing with the public. Can you find out?Ken Davidoff: Doctors give MLB's coronavirus restart plan mixed reviews https://t.co/36q49g9pPt via @nypostsports
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 16, 2020
https://t.co/j0rWwoSSyU MLB’s health/safety protocols left me both impressed and depressed. They were thorough and detailed, but in that showed just how many needles will have to be thread in how many places to get the game restarted.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 16, 2020
I have read MLB’s 67-page proposal and it is exhaustive/thorough. What stands out is huge hurdle is going to be road trips, trying to enforce players not leaving the hotel without permission, limiting exposure to a greater influx of people than you can control at home games.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 16, 2020
Trouble on the horizon…
Though stay-at-home orders could go deep into July in LA, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has recently spoken to California Governor @GavinNewsom and word is they had a positive, productive talk about baseball there, if not right when MLB starts up possibly soon after. https://t.co/xegsMR4BoW
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 16, 2020
Lotsa details here…
MLB's return-to-play protocol is a massive, ambitious undertaking. Much, much more to come later in a fascinating look inside what it will take for American team sports to restart, but for now, a news story at ESPN that covers details — and skepticism: https://t.co/g6gWRIS7rT
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 16, 2020
City by city details regarding how soon MLB might be allowed to begin play. Still many questions remain.
Anybody taking bets on who and when will be first violation occur. I predict on the first day of spring training and practically everyday thereafter. No doubt many violations will not be reported. MLB has not filled in all the ‘what ifs’ yet.
On second thought maybe they should just try a virtual electronic baseball game to work out the bugs. I bet it would be easier to run a game that way. But you would need a lot of simulators which probably do not exist.
I wonder how may players on NY teams (or road teams) are ready for this?
New York State is ready and willing to partner with major sports teams that are interested in playing games safely, without fans.
If our professional sports teams can make it work (& be safe) on their end, we’re supportive.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 18, 2020
Today on ESPN 101, Buster Olney predicted the two sides will come to a financial agreement but sees the season as a long shot. At best it will start but have to be truncated early due to a group of positive tests. He thinks it will be really hard for all the players to stay in the bubble.
Having to cancel the post-season could be a worst-case scenario for owners. MLB can sell additional media rights for the new playoff games and always get significant revenue from the entire post-season. Scotty B’s hopes to play until Christmas got filed away with his other “good” ideas… 😉
MLB’s latest plans call for postseason to end in late October (as usual) or early November at latest. Recent talk of second wave of Covid-19 has scuttled thought of play going later into November for now. Clubs big concern: playing regular games, then having to cancel postseason.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 19, 2020
The idea of a 50-man roster with a 20-man taxi squad is intriguing, but with so many active players, they should find a way to bring more order to how the players are used. Maybe it would work to have two designated starting lineups with only one or two substitutions to each of those starting lineups allowed per week. Fans will have to get used to one or the other being on the field. The manager would be allowed to make as many substitutions as he felt were necessary while the game is being played, but only after the players in the designated starting lineup have played at least five innings. I would say, also, that for playoff games, the designated starting lineups would alternate with each other.
#Cardinals also reopened their Jupiter facility today for 'very limited' access to baseball activities. #stlcards #MLB https://t.co/qLEbZVkg6e
— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) May 21, 2020
Brian, great article on ‘Avoiding Sympathy….’. Makes a lot of sense and lays out the difficulties that need to be faced if even one game is to be played. As you said, I am one who hopes to see a game this season but I would not be surprised if we didn’t. If we do not have a season then it is my fondest wish that all that noise about DH in the NL goes away for 2021. But if they manage to jam it in to something they call a season in 2020 it will be a permanent fixture. We do have some pitchers that can hit and it sure puts a lot more strategy in the game if the DH is not used but then we all know that huh?
This is the kind of mask Cards players should all have when the season starts (if it starts):
I just watched johm smoltz on tv doing an interview with cowherd. He had an idea of going forward next season of having split seasons like that year back in the 80s I believe when there was a midseason strike. I tend to be old school but I actually think it might be a great ideal. It sure a lot better to me than adding more wild card teams but it stil opens up more opportunities and could keep more fan bases tuned into the season and drive up attendance in a lot of cities that tend to struggle with attendance. id rather have winners facing off in the playoffs than teams that didn’t win anything. Im not sure what happened if a team won both splits, its been a while plus there was only two divisions in each league but those things can be worked out. I think it would be great. A lot better than things they keep proposing anyway.
New odds courtesy of BetOnline (www.BetOnline.ag, Twitter: @betonline_ag).
Will there be an MLB regular season?
Yes -500 (1/5)
No +300 (3/1)Major League Baseball made official what was expected since Sunday in formally rejecting the MLB Players Association’s 114-game proposal, sources tell ESPN. MLB is not countering, which brings the possibility of it implementing a 50-game season into play. First: @Ken_Rosenthal.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 3, 2020
Are the players contractually bound to play under this arrangement (e.g. no further bargaining allowed)?
I don’t think the players are bound. The late March agreement was reported by Passan. I’m not sure if the actual agreement was ever made public, so I’m going with what Passan reported. He reported the agreement on prorated pay, but said there were qualifiers to beginning the season. One qualifier was there would be no bans on mass gatherings limiting play in front of fans, otherwise they would have to come up with solutions that were agreeable to BOTH sides. One of the other qualifiers was that “medical experts determine games will not pose a risk to health of teams and fans.” That qualifier, taken literally, means they would never start the season. At a minimum, I would take it as an easy out for either side in these negotiations.
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