• 7 key questions in MLB’s bid to save its season: Sherman

    7 key questions in MLB’s bid to save its season: Sherman

    The growing expectation is that the Players Association is not going to deliver a financial response to MLB’s initial proposal in time to reach an accord before Monday’s soft June 1 deadline to restart the game by Independence Day weekend. So let’s start a game of seven questions on that subject: 1. Does the deadline …
  • Baseball needs an adult to step up and stop this madness: Sherman

    Baseball needs an adult to step up and stop this madness: Sherman

    Dear Adults: You are in the room, right? This isn’t all just going to be “take my ball and go home” day, is it? Name calling? Intractability? There is going to be a moment in which a leader or three rises above the familiar roles, the rhetoric, the threats, isn’t there? It should start with …
  • Baseball’s leaders are pushing sport towards a bottomless pit of bad: Sherman

    Baseball’s leaders are pushing sport towards a bottomless pit of bad: Sherman

    Since negotiating sessions have been rare despite much to do and a ticking clock, Rob Manfred and Tony Clark have time to take a plane flight together. That actually could help the negotiations. Especially if they see the world from 20,000 feet. Because they have myopically (and instinctually) locked into their antagonistic comfort zones — …
  • MLB-union salary war will end if they clear this hurdle first

    MLB-union salary war will end if they clear this hurdle first

    The Players Association was expected to deliver its response to MLB’s 67-page health and safety manual Thursday while the league is supposed to provide answers to economic questions raised by the union by Friday. One of these issues is more vital to tackle first and completely. Because as the saying goes, you have nothing without …
  • MLB thinks this email is smoking gun in salary fight with players

    MLB thinks this email is smoking gun in salary fight with players

    A smoking gun potentially exists that the union knew another negotiation needed to be had beyond a March agreement with MLB about how the players would be paid in 2020 if games were contested without a paid audience. An email from an MLB lawyer to top league officials dated 10:41 a.m. on March 26 was …
  • MLB doesn’t make economic proposal in lengthy union meeting

    MLB doesn’t make economic proposal in lengthy union meeting

    MLB did not make a formal economic proposal as part of its presentation Tuesday to the Players Association on how it sees restarting the season. The sides met for 90 minutes, broke, then continued for another hour, with MLB focusing heavily on the protocols for how it believes it could keep the players and support …
  • Clock is suddenly ticking on MLB’s 82-game season proposal

    Clock is suddenly ticking on MLB’s 82-game season proposal

    A virtual meeting was set for Tuesday afternoon at which MLB would present its proposal to top officials from the Players Association concerning how to return the game to the field. The expectation was that the meeting would begin at 2:30 p.m. with an MLB group led by commissioner Rob Manfred taking the union item …
  • MLB 2020 season threatened by utter compensation nonsense

    MLB 2020 season threatened by utter compensation nonsense

    They can’t do it. Right? There is no way — regardless of both the historic and current bad blood — that MLB and the Players Association are going to shut down the game this year over player compensation. That would be so shoot-yourself-in-the-brain, assure-the-negative-first-line-in-your obituary stupid that not even these two hostile sides can navigate …