I first want to thank you for your continued support of the great game of baseball. This past season, we were reminded of how the national pastime can bring us together and restore our hope despite the difficult challenges of a global pandemic. As we began to emerge from one of the darkest periods in our history, our ballparks were filled with fans; the games were filled with excitement; and millions of families felt the joy of watching baseball together.
That is why I am so disappointed about the situation in which our game finds itself today. Despite the league’s best efforts to make a deal with the Players Association, we were unable to extend our 26 year-long history of labor peace and come to an agreement with the MLBPA before the current CBA expired. Therefore, we have been forced to commence a lockout of Major League players, effective at 12:01am ET on December 2.
I want to explain to you how we got here and why we have to take this action today. Simply put, we believe that an offseason lockout is the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season. We hope that the lockout will jumpstart the negotiations and get us to an agreement that will allow the season to start on time. This defensive lockout was necessary because the Players Association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive. It’s simply not a viable option. From the beginning, the MLBPA has been unwilling to move from their starting position, compromise, or collaborate on solutions.
When we began negotiations over a new agreement, the Players Association already had a contract that they wouldn’t trade for any other in sports. Baseball’s players have no salary cap and are not subjected to a maximum length or dollar amount on contracts. In fact, only MLB has guaranteed contracts that run 10 or more years, and in excess of $300 million. We have not proposed anything that would change these fundamentals. While we have heard repeatedly that free agency is “broken” – in the month of November $1.7 billion was committed to free agents, smashing the prior record by nearly 4x. By the end of the offseason, Clubs will have committed more money to players than in any offseason in MLB history.
We worked hard to find compromise while making the system even better for players, by addressing concerns raised by the Players Association. We offered to establish a minimum payroll for all clubs to meet for the first time in baseball history; to allow the majority of players to reach free agency earlier through an age-based system that would eliminate any claims of service time manipulation; and to increase compensation for all young players, including increases in the minimum salary. When negotiations lacked momentum, we tried to create some by offering to accept the universal Designated Hitter, to create a new draft system using a lottery similar to other leagues, and to increase the Competitive Balance Tax threshold that affects only a small number of teams.
We have had challenges before with respect to making labor agreements and have overcome those challenges every single time during my tenure. Regrettably, it appears the Players Association came to the bargaining table with a strategy of confrontation over compromise. They never wavered from collectively the most extreme set of proposals in their history, including significant cuts to the revenue-sharing system, a weakening of the competitive balance tax, and shortening the period of time that players play for their teams. All of these changes would make our game less competitive, not more.
To be clear: this hard but important step does not necessarily mean games will be cancelled. In fact, we are taking this step now because it accelerates the urgency for an agreement with as much runway as possible to avoid doing damage to the 2022 season. Delaying this process further would only put Spring Training, Opening Day, and the rest of the season further at risk – and we cannot allow an expired agreement to again cause an in-season strike and a missed World Series, like we experienced in 1994. We all owe you, our fans, better than that.
Today is a difficult day for baseball, but as I have said all year, there is a path to a fair agreement, and we will find it. I do not doubt the League and the Players share a fundamental appreciation for this game and a commitment to its fans. I remain optimistic that both sides will seize the opportunity to work together to grow, protect, and strengthen the game we love. MLB is ready to work around the clock to meet that goal. I urge the Players Association to join us at the table.
Manfred
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
I agree on all the points here. Soccer as a major sport overtaking the top 3 isn't happening in our lifetimes. I didn't understand why at the elite level they cant pass the ball to their teammate on the run and hit them in stride. Seems like a basic skill.
Cant play the outfield unless you can make a thrown into a base correctly. Can't play hockey unless you can pass the puck to a streaking teammate. Cant play QB unless you can throw to a spot on the field where your teammate will be eventually. Cant make passes in traffic in BB, your not handling the ball. etc. etc. So even the elite soccer players cant do this, so it must be hard. Still don't understand why its so hard....
Still think the hardest skill to excel at the elite level against is hitting a round ball with a round bat.
Hockey. More specifically, stickhandling.
On skates at high speeds with people trying to hit you and you have to control a tiny little piece of vulcanized rubber while trying to move forward and avoid said people trying to hit you.
And then the guys that can take that same little piece of vulcanized rubber and deke a goalie to create a hole in these giant hockey pads and manage to snake the puck into said hole that's slightly bigger than a coffee cup....good lord.
The fact that these guys can take a cross ice pass at high-speed and just have it stick to their damn sticks somehow is amazing to me. Then to actually do something with it and control it the whole time. It's ridiculous. [Reply]
At what point in that process was the puck curving in mid-air, looking like its gonna brain you, only for it to land in the strike zone and all your teammates laughing cause you cant hit a curve ball?
Dont even get me started on sliders.
Baseball will always be the premier skill sport and I wont have this hockey talk.
People are endlessly amazed by deflected goals in hockey, because of how much skill it must take to get the stick on the puck in mid-air. Guess what? That's every pitch in baseball. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch:
At what point in that process was the puck curving in mid-air, looking like its gonna brain you, only for it to land in the strike zone and all your teammates laughing cause you cant hit a curve ball?
Dont even get me started on sliders.
Baseball will always be the premier skill sport and I wont have this hockey talk.
People are endlessly amazed by deflected goals in hockey, because of how much skill it must take to get the stick on the puck in mid-air. Guess what? That's every pitch in baseball.
Most hockey fans aren't all that amazed by deflections. They're just deflections and very few guys have the ability to actually control them (merely getting them on net is good enough).
As you're swinging at this ball, are you on ice-skates while moving at high speeds with large men trying to hit you while also hooking at you with sticks of their own? And again, do you have to keep a frozen hunk of rubber stuck to a stick as though it is on a string while all this is going on?
I mean you're really going to cite the fear factor of a curveball when trying to contrast it to hockey? Where guys actively put themselves in the path of pucks traveling at 100 mph? [Reply]
Yes, I will cite the fear of a curveball cause I've had it happen when it doesn't curve and maintains its trajectory. One detached retina and a gaggle of wailing mothers later, a hockey player blocking a shot does not impress me. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch:
Yes, I will cite the fear of a curveball cause I've had it happen when it doesn't curve and maintains its trajectory. One detached retina and a gaggle of wailing mothers later, a hockey player blocking a shot does not impress me.
Bryan Berard scoffs at a mere detached retina.
Shit, I can name 3 NHL players just off the top of my head that have had that or worse happen to them. Berard, MacInnis and Okposo.
Chris Pronger got hit in the chest with a puck and his heart stopped. This is a non-starter, man. [Reply]
I'm well aware of the dangers of skating near the boards. Are you aware of Ray Chapman?
Edited to add: I watched that full Chris Pronger video and that was rough. I'm glad he lived cause it looked dicey there. You made your point. Hockey is for tough guys, baseball is for skilled guys. [Reply]
I will give you credit for one thing, DJ. You didnt bring up the Todd Bertuzzi incident. You could have, and it would have sent me into a frenzy, but you showed restraint. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch:
I will give you credit for one thing, DJ. You didnt bring up the Todd Bertuzzi incident. You could have, and it would have sent me into a frenzy, but you showed restraint.
Nah - Bertuzzi isn’t hockey anymore than Roger Clemens going roid ragey and throwing a bat at Piazza is baseball. That’s just a shithead being a shithead.
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Nah - Bertuzzi isn’t hockey anymore than Roger Clemens going roid ragey and throwing a bat at Piazza is baseball. That’s just a shithead being a shithead.
Bertuzzi can eat all the dicks.
It's on now. Steve moore shouldn't have thrown an illicit elbow into Markus Naslund's head, concussing him and ushering in paramedics.
But that done, he could have turned around and fought Bertuzzi with gloves off like a man. But he ducked and ran.
Nobody wanted anyone in a wheelchair, Bertuzzi included. But theres a code in the league and Steve Moore flaunted it. [Reply]
Hey DJ, you follow the sport at all? There's a guy playing for Detroit, first name Tyler, middle name controversy, last name....you guessed it. Bertuzzi. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch:
It's on now. Steve moore shouldn't have thrown an illicit elbow into Markus Naslund's head, concussing him and ushering in paramedics.
But that done, he could have turned around and fought Bertuzzi with gloves off like a man. But he ducked and ran.
Nobody wanted anyone in a wheelchair, Bertuzzi included. But theres a code in the league and Steve Moore flaunted it.
Moore was your average 4th line pest, no more, no less. He wasn’t even a Tom Wilson level goon. Just a fringe player who was going to bounce up amd down for a few years before vanishing. Leagues had 100s just like him.
Where in ‘the code’ is it okay to grab him from behind and give him a flying rabbit punch to the back of the dome and then drive him face first into the ice.
It was a bitch move by Bertuzzi. Criminal? No - but I couldn’t stand the guy before he did that because he loved toeing that line. But when he drove his forearm into the Moore’s neck into the ice, he very clearly crossed it. [Reply]