MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

[MissThundercat]

Owners are talking about playing ball starting in July. However, I have popcorn and really good ginger ale, so I'm going to sit back and watch you have myocardial infarctions about some of what they're proposing.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...preps-weigh-it

[aparch]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

**** the DH.

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

**** the DH.

With a chainsaw.

But I guess a fake season deserves fake baseball.

Won't be tuning in this year anyway.

[The Rube]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Don't care about DH, but it will be interesting to see the player blowback. Sounds like these guys are more concerned about the health risk than the other Big 3 sports.

[mookie1995]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

mookie spotted a local wearing a gray pinstripe Span #2 at the grocery store the other day.

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

The Strokes song "Ode to the Mets" was named because, and I quote, "you give something all your heart but it still disappoints you."

They are true Mets fans.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Blake Snell says he won't play for reduced salary.

A lot of the articles are taking the interpretation that he won't accept the new owners' proposal for a revenue split, but his video makes it sound like he also wasn't a big fan of it being pro rata in the first place for half the season.

I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a bigger issue than the actual safety of returning to play.

[JF_Gophers]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

The thing most players don't like is that they already had an agreement on these things and then the owners tried to change it at the last minute.

[Russell Jaslow]

The thing most players don't like is that they already had an agreement on these things and then the owners tried to change it at the last minute.

This is definitely the main issue. Everything I’ve read says the players are adamant they had a pro rata agreement, and that’s that. Anything new is an absolute nonstarter.

And I agree with them. A deal is a deal. If you don’t like the deal, you never should have made it in the first place.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

What if the Browns had moved to Los Angeles?

I had never heard of this story. It was a done deal, 17 years before the Dodgers and Giants moved out west. And it would've made them the first major league team out there, beating the Rams by four years. Then Pearl Harbor happened two days before the vote.

Rest of the article goes through the possible alternate timeline for expansion/relocation, one of which includes the Giants move to Minnesota, as was their original plan before SF came up (another piece of trivia I learned from the article). That Willie Mays stat is insane, .477 in AAA through 35 games.

[aparch]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

If there is anything to be learned about baseball, it's that each hour, minute, and second related to the sport, and just how that hour/minute/second is handled, can define an entire generation for better or worse.

A dropped pop-fly. A slightly off-throw across the diamond. A fan reaching for a foul ball. An umpire waving safe on an obvious out in a perfect game. Raul Ibanez in LF. Pearl Harbor delaying the westward expansion of MLB as linked above. The NL not adopting the DH because the Phillies owner took a fishing trip during the critical vote and left the decision up to his Vice President.

The Mariners may have "weird sh** only happens to us," locked up (as witnessed by SB Nation's Dorktown series on the M's), but I'll be d*mned if it isn't widespread across MLB. It's so weird to see just a fleeting moment continue to cause decades of upheaval. I know of no other sport where this is the case. It would be like finding out that Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001 was ultimately caused by Bobby Hillin, Jr. being involved in a lap four crash at Dover Speedway in 1995.

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

I'm sure the NBA and NFL have some stories that could play out in their early days. Say if Canton or Dayton have better financial backing in the early NFL days, do they stick around and become a similar Green Bay type team.

Not relocation, but for branding purposes, the New Jersey Nets were supposed to become the Swamp Dragons. The vote passed 26-1, but failed because the lone nay vote was from the Nets themselves. The ownership group took turns at board meeting, and the guy at the meeting that day got cold feet.

For MLB, it's been a continual 150 year story of one city or owner trying to steal a team from another area. The Giants made plans to move at least twice after moving to SF that were stopped by 11th hour lawsuits. They were supposed to go to Toronto in the 70s in a move backed by the Labatt group, but the mayor sued at the last minute and the deal was eventually nixed. There were plans to move to Tampa in the early 90s, also involving a lawsuit that eventually nixed the idea. The White Sox were reportedly close to moving to Tampa as well, though no lawsuit emerged stopping that one, the deal just fell through. As highlighted in the Browns article, the Padres were supposed to move to DC and become the Stars in the 70s, stopped by a lawsuit regarding the lease on the stadium. MLB voted to contract the Twins and Expos in '02, but a lawsuit on the HHH Dome lease kept them around for one more year and allowed for different arrangements to be made.

Then there's the fact that the Mets exist basically to fend off a third major league (Continental) from forming, a campaign spearheaded by someone who wasn't even going to own one of the teams (Shea). That move also gave Houston and the Angels their teams immediately, and the Rangers would eventually come about a decade later as the fourth team, the Senators, failed and moved to Texas.

Funny enough, things have settled down the last 15 years or so, with the exception of the Vegas group courting the Dbacks that leaked last year, while NBA has seen SEA to OKC and NFL has had three relocations in the past four years.

[The Rube]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

I'm sure the NBA and NFL have some stories that could play out in their early days. Say if Canton or Dayton have better financial backing in the early NFL days, do they stick around and become a similar Green Bay type team.

Not relocation, but for branding purposes, the New Jersey Nets were supposed to become the Swamp Dragons. The vote passed 26-1, but failed because the lone nay vote was from the Nets themselves. The ownership group took turns at board meeting, and the guy at the meeting that day got cold feet.

For MLB, it's been a continual 150 year story of one city or owner trying to steal a team from another area. The Giants made plans to move at least twice after moving to SF that were stopped by 11th hour lawsuits. They were supposed to go to Toronto in the 70s in a move backed by the Labatt group, but the mayor sued at the last minute and the deal was eventually nixed. There were plans to move to Tampa in the early 90s, also involving a lawsuit that eventually nixed the idea. The White Sox were reportedly close to moving to Tampa as well, though no lawsuit emerged stopping that one, the deal just fell through. As highlighted in the Browns article, the Padres were supposed to move to DC and become the Stars in the 70s, stopped by a lawsuit regarding the lease on the stadium. MLB voted to contract the Twins and Expos in '02, but a lawsuit on the HHH Dome lease kept them around for one more year and allowed for different arrangements to be made.

Then there's the fact that the Mets exist basically to fend off a third major league (Continental) from forming, a campaign spearheaded by someone who wasn't even going to own one of the teams (Shea). That move also gave Houston and the Angels their teams immediately, and the Rangers would eventually come about a decade later as the fourth team, the Senators, failed and moved to Texas.

Funny enough, things have settled down the last 15 years or so, with the exception of the Vegas group courting the Dbacks that leaked last year, while NBA has seen SEA to OKC and NFL has had three relocations in the past four years.

https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Em-Goodb.../dp/B0036S4B0I

This book is worth the buy.

[Jimjamesak]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

The one thing in baseball that’s not talked about enough is the collusion cases and their impact on the the 1994 Strike. The owners spent 3 years colluding to screw the players out of millions of dollars in free agency, got caught, and less than 10 years later told the nearly the same players “ok, we need a salary cap.” To me, it totally changes the perspective of the 94 Strike but it’s not really mentioned at all in any recounting of the Strike.

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Noah!

What?

It's the (land)lord!

Note: 2700 square feet. $27k a month. New York, New York, it's a helluva town.