News About Labor Negotiations
The Players Association counter offered at 70 games plus a split of the playoff revenues. The parties to the negotiation are moving closer together. Apparently Rob Manfred had to do a lot of hand holding with certain reluctant owners even to get to the 60 games. The owners are supposedly so angry about this counter proposal that they won’t answer for a while. Tony Clark has elaborated upon the MLBPA position that there is no agreement of any kind. “This needs to be over.” Says Rob Manfred, who is auditioning for the role of Captain Obvious. It looks like we’re back to “Agree with me or I will implement the shorter season without your input.” These guys are really passive aggressive.
Junteenth Related News
Howie Kendrick appears in a video with other black baseball players supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Torii Hunter elaborated that racism isn’t confined to Boston or to Boston Red Sox fans. It’s family and society. At 5:30 P.M. eastern time the MLB Network will air “MLB Tonight: A Conversation” to honor the Juneteenth holiday. This is the holiday regarding the official end of slavery in the United States. Torii Hunter, Cameron Maybin, and Tony Reagins will be in it. Clayton Kershaw issued a statement on the eve of Juneteenth that he is committed to taking a stand and “affecting change.”
Bad News and Sad News
Miguel Sano is in trouble again. This time it’s for allegedly kidnapping and threatening to hang a guy in the Dominican Republic. Mike McCormick, former Cy Young award winner died at 81.
Something To Do
Here is the recipe for Jaye Maddon’s Savory Sopa. It looks simple enough.
MLB.com has an article about “late bloomers” which somehow doesn’t mention steroids, even in the Big Pill Popper Ortiz writeup.
Also, Leon Wagner!
Blue Jays camp and Phillies having Covid outbreaks. Like I said months ago, there will be no MLB in 2020.
I don’t trust these people. For all we know it’s a ploy to get the union to say “ok, 60”. Which they should do, anyway.
Or it could be real.
Clemson football just said 23 players. Auston Matthews, one of the best players in the NHL.
uh oh
If we just stopped testing, we’d have very few cases, if any.
ha! only a fool would say something like that!
anyway, this is promising
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-2020-season-update-owners-will-not-approve-more-than-60-games-players-will-likely-vote-saturday/
I believe the players will vote to accept 60 games and we can start getting ready for baseball.
Everything is shutting back down:
I’m not sure any of this will matter in a few weeks. As people begin to resume their normal lives, cases are going to explode. It blows my mind how many people I see not wearing masks.
This will happen constantly even if MLB gets going. The virus is being *brought* to the team facilities because players are young, wealthy and a lot of them are politically on the Right which comes with skepticism about the virus/masks/social distancing etc. Unless the union agrees to some kind of social quarantining during season, players will find a way to screw it up.
At this point I expect to either get the bug or get herd immunity…. you know, like with ALL rhino and corona viruses ever. What blows my mind more than people not wearing masks is people thinking if we futz around with this constantly we will do more than just slow the impact, which we’ve already done. It just doesn’t seem realistic, given what we have seen so far, to expect human animals to wear masks and live in a twelve foot wide bubble until we create and distribute a vaccine for this type of virus (for the first time evah, if we evah really even get an effective vaccine).
People keep internetting about how other people aren’t “grasping the reality” of this virus when I honestly think those same people aren’t grasping the reality of how actual piles of humans live and act, what their actual needs are, etc. I’m just glad the virus isn’t nearly as deadly as I originally feared cause it looks like all the rules and mothering and plexiglass in the world isn’t going to stop it from making the rounds.
At least I finally got a hair cut before the next round of shrieking for everything to shut down again starts. If more facilities close, etc over the next week and fear abounds there will most likely not be a 2020 season…. and as both sides starve for their millions they will get more cut throat about the CBA. So I hope our love of baseball is strong enough to stomach a work stoppage next Spring too.
Hey bud, eat a snickers, you’ll feel better.
And just wear a mask, it’s not too hard. A small thing to do for your fellow human.
United States has been unusually bad at slowing the spread. The Europeans didn’t do well, but their numbers are now way down. Not so in US, on the whole, and CA is esp bad (even more disturbing since we began making noise much earlier than others…)
With all due respect, please don’t bring politics into this.
is the subject of masks a matter of politics or health?
Uh, health. That’s kind of my point, if it wasn’t clear.
Union isn’t worried about it outside of a minority % with pregnant wives like Trout or compromised family like Doolittle. This same union rejected the idea of eliminating travel with NBA-like quarantine–even temporarily–and mitigations like wearing masks at the park in favor of creature comforts with all the extra travel and added risk. Then pushed for a season that extended through November when Cold/Flu season and weather changes make ALL viruses more transmissible.
MLB has been gross through all of this but their consistent callbacks to a second wave, quarantine proposals etc. probably gives them a leg up against any grievance for COVID cancellation. Union can’t really argue they were focused on health/safety.
Hunter is correct, it is a family and social issue. Kids chant that word because they’ve learned it. Parents laughing is an endorsement of that behavior. He’s smart keeping his family away from that pervasive behavior.
I think it’s cool we’re celebrating Juneteenth. Last week was Loving Day, celebrating the SCOTUS decision that struck down laws preventing interracial marriage, paving the way for many of our marriages (including mine).
We’re far from perfect here in the US but we do have the highest interracial marriage rate by far, 1 in 6 last year and that rate is climbing quickly. And to go back to Torii’s point that’s a family thing too. It takes parents teaching and showing kids that character trumps all, that they are free to love whoever they choose.
To be honest, even just staying quiet and not addressing it is an implicit endorsement of that kind of behavior.
Not imploring people to get into fights with racists in the stands, but if you’re out with your family and friends, make it known to those people you are with that it is not acceptable behavior. Go and tell security, use that text line that stadiums have. Speak up or intervene if you’re comfortable doing so, but at least do the bare minimum.
Completely agree. I’ve long said the fact it repeatedly happens in Fenway is an indictment not just on those yelling but also on all those sitting quietly by, not trolling them to pipe down, not calling security.
I’m 100% confident fans here have said offensive things, it’s just a mathematical certainty at 3 million a year. I’m also confident that behavior is not tolerated and tacitly endorses here, that people are removed when it happens.
Grammar cock here. In this case, it’s actually “Effecting change”.
That’s why I put it in quotes. He means well, though.
You should tell Kershaw since he used “affecting” 😉
I should have put (sic) but I was in a hurry. I had a busy day yesterday.
I believe that makes you (and me) a vocabulary cock, not a grammar cock.
Word Dics
Word Willies