Category Archives: Labor Talks

Baseball’s Back as MLB and MLBPA Agree to Terms

10 Mar


NYPost.com:

At long last, it’s time to play ball. After a lockout that spanned 99 days, MLB and the MLB Players Association reached a tentative agreement on Thursday afternoon, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed. The two sides finally found the common ground to reach a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement, paving the way for the regular season to begin by next month.

Following a contentious battle that blew past multiple league-instituted “deadlines” over the past week-plus — which threatened to do further damage to the sport the longer it lingered — baseball has labor peace once again. Both sides need to ratify the deal, but that is the expected outcome.

This is great news. And I’m sure that with a few double-headers here and there, they can get in a full 162-game season in too.

The Universal DH Is Officially Here

11 Feb


NYDailyNews.com:

No more pitchers on the bases wearing jackets. No more surprise dingers. No more epic bunts. No more awkward batting stances and related injury scares. It’s the end of an era, but at least we’ll always have Bartolo Colon’s legendary home run.

Major League Baseball has agreed to the universal designated hitter, commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Thursday. The move ends the National League’s 48-year run that forced pitchers to take at-bats. In addition, Manfred said MLB has agreed to eliminate draft-pick compensation for signing free agents.

Well, thanks to Manfred and all these ‘progressive’ scribes out there, the last remaining distinction between the NL and the AL is now gone, us purists be damned and that sucks. By the way, as spectacular and surprising as the Bartolo Colon HR was in 2016, can we take the time to give Noah Syndergaard props for hitting 2 HRs against the Dodgers in a game that same year?