1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Wednesday. “Baseball is Back–With All Its Problems On-Off Field”
-0-
“Baseball is Back-With All It’s Problems”
-0-
Here comes baseball, back effective July 1st for Spring Training Camp 2.0…and then in late July for what they hope will be a 60-game season.
No one knows what this summer will be like, because the horrors of the Corona Virus sit atop the baseball standings.
Baseball wasted 6-weeks of a potential schedule with the war between Owners and the Union.
So we have a 60-game schedule, the DH added to the National League, a 30-man roster, and a bunch of rule changes for extra inning games.
But we don’t have any control of what the virus is doing, where all time daily highs reached 23-states on Tuesday.
And there is no labor peace either, just a lot of ill-will, and the threat of a 1B-dollar grievance still looming out there because of the obstinance of the Union and the beliggerance of the Owners.
Someone will have to explain to me how the Players Association would turn down 300M in extra benefits, thru salary, playoff bonuses, increase TV playoff money, the dropping of the 16-team playoff format, that would have raised even more shared money…..this after all the offers from the hated owners and after all the weeks of animosity.
They also gave up something huge, the dropping of draft pick compensation next winter for the 200-free agents out there.
They did all that so they could retain the right to file a grievance against the owners once the season is over to seek bigger damages and paydays.
2-sports lawyers I spoke to do not believe the Union has a chance to win the grievance, regardless of what Union boss Tony Clark or super-agent Scott Boras believe.
So now we have a 60-game schedule for the Padres. 40-games against the enemy in the NL-West and 20-games against the 5-teams in the AL-West, their geographical rivals.
Nobody will have a chance if they start (1-10) this season. No one survives if key pitching gets hurt early in the season because of the disjointed spring training.
The Padres would have had a great shot at a wildcard playoff slot if there were 16-teams in the postseason, but playing in a West Division that involves the Dodgers, Astros, A’s, Angels might make it hard for San Diego to be a top five team in a 10-team division…much less at top 10-team in the 30-team league..
This will be a strange year in baseball. You won’t even have to put an *asterisk next to the standings. Just mention the year ‘2020’ and people will never forget the summer of hell.
A troubled baseball season is ahead, in a country with troubles everywhere off the field.
===========================
