TORONTO – Take a step back from the rage triggered by commissioner Rob Manfred essentially threatening to cancel the 2020 season, and breathe for a minute.
That collective pulse of anger was pretty intense, and suddenly it feels a lot like it did back in 1994, when the ongoing threat of a salary cap forced players into a mid-August strike that eventually led to the cancellation of the World Series.
Those were dark days. That darkness is back in a depressing way, remarkably in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, not solely because of it.
Just brutal.
Still, let’s stay rational and dispassionate, since emotion is the enemy of good decision-making, gospel among the game’s executives these days. Going on about how “these (expletives) are gonna burn it down,” as one text message I got read, can blind you from what really matters.
And what really matters from Manfred’s comments to interviewer Mike Greenberg during ESPN’s ‘The Return of Sports’ special Monday, isn’t that he’s “not confident” there’ll be a 2020 season, and that “I think there’s real risk, and as long as there’s no dialogue that real risk is going to continue.” (Even though, inconceivably, that walked back his draft day boast that, “I can tell you unequivocally we are going to play Major League Baseball this year.”)
No, the crucial stuff is in here, and it explains exactly where we’re at right now: “I have been hopeful that once we got to common ground on the idea that we were going to pay the players full pro-rated salary, that we would get some co-operation in terms of proceeding under the agreement that we negotiated with the MLBPA on March 26. Unfortunately, over the weekend while Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union’s top lawyer was out there telling reporters, players and eventually getting back to owners that as soon as we issued a schedule, as they requested, they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars. Obviously that sort of bad faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances.”
For clarity, we’ll run that through the lawyerese-to-English dictionary: The union’s threats to file a grievance are preventing us from setting the schedule.
Or, more precisely from Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times:
Source: In a letter today, MLB told the MLBPA there would be no 2020 season unless the players waived any legal claims against the league.
So, to review, owners are now willing to pay players their pro-rated 2020 salaries under terms of the deal the sides reached in March as part of a season length they determine, but are demanding a promise from the players that they won’t litigate a claim that MLB is violating an obligation to stage as full a campaign as possible.
And given that they’re worried enough to demand such an assurance, clearly the owners believe the players have a case with enough merit to pose a substantial risk.
Simple, right?
If your head isn’t spinning, then ponder this — the parties are basically at the same spot they were before the weekend when, unable to reach agreement on how many games the season should be, the union threw up its hands and said to MLB, impose your season, we’ll be there.
This, then, is just a way to force the union back into negotiations, which is an excessively generous way to describe what’s taken place thus far. Only now, there’s even more acrimony and mistrust in the process, the opposite of what you need to stage a season amid the highly contagious coronavirus back on the rise in multiple spots across the United States.
To some extent, things are in the players’ hands right now, and let’s give union head Tony Clark credit for cleverly fending off the initial attacks from ownership and stewarding the players into a position with some control, as Cincinnati Reds ace Trevor Bauer laid out so well.
So, Rob, explain to us how you can be 100% sure that there’s going to be baseball but not confident there will be baseball at the same time? hmmm. What changed between those statements Players told you to set the season, but it’s too early to set the season right now,
Now, though, isn’t the time for Clark to overplay his hand and test whether owners are willing to follow through on Manfred’s veiled threat to cancel the season.
There’s been a middle ground in the 70ish-game range all along and it’s time for the bridge-builders on both sides to find each other and pull everyone back from the precipice.
Players have every right to be, as Clark put it in a statement, “disgusted,” and point out that “this latest threat is just one more indication that Major League Baseball has been negotiating in bad faith since the beginning.”
“This has always been about extracting additional pay cuts from players,” he added, “and this is just another day and another bad faith tactic in their ongoing campaign.”
In that way, all this has been illuminating for the union, revealing how much power the hawks among MLB owners currently wield. That information will come in handy when the current CBA expires after the 2021 season, as will the indoctrination of an entire generation of players never before pushed to the brink.
The cost will be far too high, though, if the season is lost. Both sides will already pay dearly for wasting the goodwill a smooth return into a barren sports landscape would have offered, and the legions of new fans that could have created.
At this point, having squandered the chance to generate millions down the road, they need to stop fighting over relative pennies in the present.
“It’s just a disaster for our game, absolutely, no question about it,” Manfred said of the damage caused by the public dispute. “It shouldn’t be happening and it’s important that we find a way to get past it and get the game back on the field for the benefit of our fans.”
NEW YORK – Toronto Blue Jays reliever Chad Green and Canadian slugger Tyler O’Neill of the Boston Red Sox were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players’ Association’s American League comeback player award on Monday.
Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet was the other nominee.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. were named player of the year finalists.
The award winners, selected via player voting, will be named Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Green, who missed most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays this past season and filled in at closer over the second half of the campaign.
The right-hander converted his first 16 save opportunities and finished the year with a 4-6 record, 17 saves and a 3.21 earned-run average over 53 appearances.
O’Neill, a native of Burnaby, B.C., also endured back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in ’22 and ’23.
After being traded to the Red Sox in the off-season, O’Neill set an MLB record by hitting a homer in his fifth straight Opening Day. He finished with 31 homers on the year and had an OPS of .847.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
