Major League Baseball has been considered “America’s Past Time”. The oldest professional sports league in the world has shown that changing the game over time is not an easy thing to do. Whether that is by paying players more, creating a pitch clock, or making minor league baseball a better product. As the MLBPA (Major League Players Association) and the MLB Owners and Leaders meet to compromise on a staged lockout prepared by the league it is vital that they come to an agreement quickly. There has only been one other instance that a lockout has occurred and that was the 1994-1995 season.
Why it matters: Fans need baseball and baseball needs its fans. Commissioner Rob Manfred wants a fair deal between both sides but as he lets days go by and games be missed, the result will be baseball will lose its fans. MLB players have long been controlled by billion dollar owners that claim owning a team isn’t a profitable investment. Raising the minimum salary on young players from $500,000 to $700,000 is not something that MLB owners should be worrying about.
Driving the news: Players and Owners met in Florida for a week leading up to the strict deadline that was implemented by Manfred. As talks went on through the week things started to progress well until the waining hours of the deadline. So, as we stand Players and Owners met in New York City on Sunday to reconvene on talks that have stalled.
Protest outside of MLB headquarters in Manhattan, New York. pic.twitter.com/hPF4FnANGj
— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) March 2, 2022
What they’re saying: In a meeting on Sunday in New York City the MLBPA proposed a deal to the league.
MLB Official, Glen Caplin: “We were hoping to see some movement in our direction to give us additional flexibility & get a deal done quickly. The Players Association chose to come back to us w/a proposal that was worse than Monday night & was not designed to move the process forward”.
MLBPA said in a response that they “strongly deny” all reports that the union move backward in talks on Sunday.
Jay Tobin a Diehard Mets gives his opinion on the MLB Lockout…
What’s next: Both sides will have to meet in the coming days in order to prevent more games from being cancelled.
Go deeper:
As someone who knows practically nothing about sports, I found your lead and why it matters section very succinct. It gives the perfect amount of background for someone like me to understand what is going on and why I should care.