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First of all, enough with the spitting. I get why we’re all so fascinated by the notion that coronavirus baseball will be expectorate-free. Spitting is as synonymous with baseball as are home runs, stolen bases and poverty-crying owners. Guess what, though? Most players, understanding the logic behind the banishment, will go along with it. Those …
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Part 21 in a series analyzing the New York Mets. It’s been a long time since Amed Rosario was the Mets’ top prospect. Now that distinction belongs to Ronny Mauricio, the 19-year-old who finished last season at Class-A Columbia. Since the Mets signed Rosario for $1.75 million in 2012, he’s shown glimpses of promise, like …
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The answers just might be in those 67 pages. Unfortunately, so are all the difficulties. MLB sent the union a “2020 Operations Manual” to cover the protocols designed to restart the game with health and safety. The 67 pages delivered Friday night are an exhaustive effort covering items as large as testing for COVID-19 and …
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MLB delivered its 67-page “2020 Operations Manual” to the Players Association on Friday night in which the league provided guidelines, from no spitting to discouraging players from leaving hotels on the road. MLB had briefed the union on many of the items in a Tuesday tele-meeting and in subsequent follow-up discussions. The commissioner’s office still …
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Alex Rodriguez’s bid to become an MLB owner may be over for now, but the former slugger sure is acting like one. And that might make some baseball players livid. Rodriguez, who recently flirted with buying the Mets, implored players on Friday to cave into the owners’ demands and accept a 50 percent split of …
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Think of health and safety as Mount Everest and how to pay the players as Mount Kilimanjaro — or vice versa. These are the mammoth issues confronting MLB and the Players Association, when it comes to re-starting the game (they hope with spring training in less than a month). MLB has opened with health and …
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“Because I said so!” may have worked for our dads and for drill sergeants, but it’s terribly ineffective in medicine. As a practical matter, does the practical matter? So let’s say the MLB season — the MLB often so short on foresight — begins this season as per whatever format and schedule agreed upon, say …
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A 2020 without Major League Baseball would lead to losses for the industry that “could approach $4 billion,” commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday night. In an interview on CNN’s “AC360” with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Manfred also expressed hope that he and his Players Association equivalent Tony Clark could find common ground on …
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MLB’s proposal to start the 2020 season is widely known at this point — and Trevor Bauer sees that as a big problem. “I don’t think any of this should have been made public, that’s the most concerning thing to me,” the outspoken Reds pitcher told CBS’ “Tiki and Tierney” on Thursday. “I haven’t even …
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Versatility has proven a trademark of the Tampa Bay Rays, who unleashed super-utility man Ben Zobrist on the baseball world and introduced us to openers. I doubt they’ll take any credit for Blake Snell’s words and actions Wednesday. Yet the Rays southpaw managed to establish a novel versatility plateau. Who knew one could exhibit tone …
First of all, enough with the spitting. I get why we’re all so fascinated by the notion that coronavirus baseball will be expectorate-free. Spitting is as synonymous with baseball as are home runs, stolen bases and poverty-crying owners. Guess what, though? Most players, understanding the logic behind the banishment, will go along with it. Those …
