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“Baseball—Bringing It Back–Easier Said Than Done.”

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They are talking Monday on a conference call….baseball’s owners and the Commissioner Rob Manfred.

They will talk Tuesday…Manfred and the Players Association leader Tony Clark.

And then we will wait.

It has been 8-weeks since our country shutdown, more than 80,000 people died, our economy collapsed, and sports stopped.

The questions are enormous, the answers are still hard to come by as the Covid-19 virus moves from one part of the country to another.

New York’s numbers are way down.  Boston’s continue to spike up.  The once safe haven that was the Midwest is now a hot spot.  The West Coast locked down early but hasn’t hit its apex.

So there is no baseball at Yankees Stadium, Wrigley Field or Dodgers Stadium.  The Angels and Mets and Pirates and Orioles are all shutdown.

Manfred will make what appears to be a 17-point proposal to owners about opening the season, with the parameters of how he sees the game come together again.  Of course, this is all without doctors and science having solved the corona virus, as medical research continues.

A look at the ideas to be shared with the Ron Fowler’s and Peter Seidler’s of the world tomorrow, and then the Players Association on Tuesday.

TARGET DATES…A hope to have a 3-week spring training starting in mid June, most to be held in the home stadiums of teams.  However the state Governors will have to make a call if they are to allow the reopening of stadiums to baseball staffs, trainers, players.  For hot spots like New York and Boston, MLB would have those players report to their spring training camps in Florida or Arizona.

STADIUMS..MLB thinks it can execute an 80-game schedule to open  around July 1st, in home stadiums, without crowds.  An addendum to this would be if hot spots continue, then the Yankees-Mets-Red Sox-Braves might play regular season games at their spring training sights to start the delayed season.

SCHEDULES…MLB toyed with a lot of different ideas….the Cactus-League-Grapefruit Circuit schedule with teams playing just teams in Florida…or just Arizona teams pairing off in spring training venues.  Then there was the 2-city ideas of dissolving the American and National League, and having the Florida teams play in domes in Miami-Tampa and the Western teams play in the Texas Rangers-Houston Astros parks.  Then came the 3-city package, 10-teams in the East, 10-in Central and 10-in West, using the Miami-Texas-Arizona venues.  Too complicated to have these teams together for long periods of time.  Instead, players can live at home, play behind closed doors in stadiums to at least start the season.

GAMES…The owners will vote now on the proposal that everybody plays in their own stadiums and will play a geogrphical schedule.  The NL-West would have its typical divisional matchup with the Padres-Dodgers-Rockies-Giants and D-Backs.  But they would also play games against teams from the AL-West, so for this season only, the Mariners-Angels-Rangers-Astros and A’s become opponents to fill out the 80-game slate.  The same for the other teams, AL-East faces the NL-East, and the Central Division teams in the AL-ML matchup.  There is also talk of extended series to cutback on travel, a team plays a rival in a 6-game series covering a week, rather than 3-games  series.

ROSTERS…What was supposed to a season roster of 26-playes this year, will likely be expanded to 30-on game day once they start playing.  Now baseball indicates there will be a taxi squad of players also invited to this next spring training camp.  To be determined, how many come to camp to be insurance policy players in case of injuries.    They started with a 10-man taxi squad idea, now they are talking about 20 extra players, meaning a 50-player camp.  Tough decision for the Padres, do you include top Double AA players to be part of the mix?

RULES…Alot of discussion about playing 7-inning doubleheaders on Sundays to help jam games into the schedule.  No determination if that will be necessary in an 80-games season.  There was talk of using the DH in both leagues, never done before, and that is still open to debate.

PLAYOFFS…MLB will expand the playoffs to kick in this fall.  7-teams in each league, meaning 3-division winners and 4-wildcards.  Baseball will give a 1st round bye to the top record team in each league.  The other two division winners and the top wildcard team will have home field advantage for the best of three opening rounds.  Those teams would face the other three wildcards in the opening round.  Still to be determined, where those games might be played, home stadiums vs neutral sights, warm weather or domes, for those games will be in October.

WORLD SERIES….Will definitely be at a neutral sight or in warm weather cities, for it falls in November.  The key issue, if say the Dodgers or Astros are in, do you avoid playing those games in Los Angeles or Houston?  All seven games of the Fall Classic will be at the same location.

MINOR LEAGUES…This is the hardest thing to swallow.  It does not appear there will be minor league baseball anywhere, not as we have known the Pacific Coast League, the International League and others to be.  What happens to all those prospects, who don’t play, don’t get paid?  An alternative plan might be to open each spring training camp sometime in summer, if the virus is shutdown, and allow a fixed number of top prospects to go to Florida and Arizona for part of the summer.

DRAFT….MLB is getting its way.  They had discussed a massive cutdown of the draft, from 40-rounds down to 20, as part of a massive rebranding of minor league baseball, where they were planning to fold 4-lower minor leagues, and do away with 42-teams in all, in huge cost-cutting measures.  This becomes about cost-control. Now the June draft will be moved, but it will be just 5-rounds, and top picks will receive the slot bonus system, using last year’s figures.  Any player undrafted can be signed to a free agent contract, with a max signing bonus of 20,000, way below the old slot system numbers.  It may drive prospects to college baseball immediately. Still to be determined, how many undrafted free agents teams can sign, and how many get max bonus money?  Draft picks, there will be (160) this year, compared to (1,217) last year, will get their money but on a 3-year payment schedule, stretching into 2021 and 2022.

DOCTORS-SCIENCE…The CDC and the Doctor Anthony Fauchi’s of the world will mandate testing of all people working for teams, and those helping put on the home games, even in empty stadiums, plus all the players, coaches, and staff in the clubhouses.  How many tests per week to be determined.

WHAT IF…Remains the great unknown.   What if a player tests positive?  He gets quarantined, but what about his teammates he has been around in the clubhouse?  What if a family member tests positive, does the player go into quarantine and leave the team?  What if there is an outbreak in the Orioles clubhouse, do they shutdown the team and stop playing games?  It is a great unknown in May but must be considered.

SALARIES….This becomes the other unknown in this debate.  Just asking when was the last time the Union gave any money back? They had agreed that whatever a player makes, would be pro-rated based on games played.  If this is an 80-game schedule, then Manny Machado would make 15M-not the 30M on the contract.  But the union will ask, is that lost money forever, or deferred money?  They agreed to the pro-rated formula.  But now the other financial problem. No fans in the stands is huge for owners, for that revenue stream, fans coming to Petco Park, accounts for over 40% of a team’s revenue.  The players will be asked to give up additional salary because there less money coming into the owners pot.  Finding a formula will be a challenge.  Getting the union to agree to a second financial giveback may be impossible.  There is an idea the owners will ask the players to consider some type of ‘revenue share’ based on income in this shortened season, but there is no formula for this as they sail into unchartered waters.

FREE AGENCY….The owners agreed out of the box, that regardless of how many games were played or cancelled this year, this season would count as 1-full year towards service towards free agency.  So that means if Dodgers incoming star Mookie Betts plays 80-games or 40-games, he get a full year’s credit and is a free agent next season.  The Union needs to remember that has been given to them already, so taking a second pay reduction for no fans in the stands, needs to be considered as a give-back.

THE TV CONTRACTS…No one is touching this yet, but TV stations and radio flagships, who pay huge rights fees to broadcast games, are going to come back to baseball, and ask for rights fee deductions.  Fox Sports San Diego pays for 162-telecasts, and will get only 80-games, which means fewer spot avails to sell ads.  They will need a break in fees.  The Padres flagship station, the Fan, pays 2.5M a year but now has half a schedule to broadcast with fewer advertising windows to sell.  Add in all the signage in Stadiums, and sky-boxes that will be dark, and all the promotions that won’t happen with sponsorships attached, and you get a sense as to the catstrophic amounts of money that could be forefeited.

So you see, this is much more than balls and strikes and roster spots and when opening day is.

The conference calls, Monday and Tuesday, will be enormously important for the return to health of the game, after society finds its health.

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“NFL Schedule-No Place for Timid”

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The NFL isn’t afraid of anything.

In two bold moves on Thursday night, they released the 2020 schedule, that screams “Corona Virus Be Damned”…..and we will play in our new Stadiums on opening day.

The NFL went ahead and scheduled marquee-shootout games, including the Chiefs-Texans…Tom Brady-vs-Drew Brees….the Packers-vs-Vikings…Browns-Ravens…and Tua Tagovailoa-vs-Bill Belicheck’s defense, plus the Cowboys-Rams, as if there was no threat those games would have to be played in empty stadiums. Talk about firing your best shot right out of the gate.

They also changed their mind after running some 230,000-combinations of the schedule thru computers, and decided to go ahead and start the season with divisional games, spurning the idea you could cancel inter-divisional games in September, if you had to move the start of the season back to October.

And despite delays and virus outbreaks in Las Vegas and Los Angeles at the construction sights, the Rams and Raiders will open up their seasons with big home games.  The Rams meet Dak Prescott and the Cowboys on opening night in LA.  The Raiders will have Jon Gruden glaring and staring at Drew Brees and the Saints in their Allegient Stadium opener in week two.

Take that Corona-Virus-Crisis.

Teams of interest, lots of storylines to talk about.

CHARGERS….Open on the road in Cincinnati as the top pick in the draft, QB-Joe Burrow will lead the Bengals on the field.  The Bolts have an easy schedule at home.  The road kill could be bad when you consider they have to face Tom Brady-Drew Brees-Tua Tagovailoa-Josh Allen and Burrow on the road.  There is a Monday Night game and a Thursday night game for the Powder Blues.  But they also have to play at Tampa Bay and at New Orleans in consecutive weeks…in weeks 4-and-5.  Add to that, they face Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Drew Brees in a 4-week window early in the season.  Season could be in trouble before they ever get to mid-October.  Tyrod Taylor, it’s your team, show us what you can do.  If this does not go well, 1st round pick Justin Herbert could be your starter in mid-October, when they faces the Jets-Miami-Jacksonville in back to back to back games.  The end of the year, cold weather games in Buffalo and at Arrowhead.

RAIDERS…What a great home schedule, with Philip Rivers, Tom Brady, Tua, Brees and Josh Allen all coming into the shiny new ‘Black Hole’.  Jon Gruden’s rebuilt defense better be ready because they face Patrick Mahomes-Brees-Brady in a 4-week span right at the start of the schedule.  The Silver and Black play 5-of-8 on the road to start.  They finish with 5-of-7 at home, including 3-straight Sundays in December.

CHIEFS…Everybody will be gunning for the Super Bowl champs right from the start.  That is Deshaun Watson and JJ Watt coming to town with Houston on opening day.  The road schedule is rugged, facing Lamar Jackson-Brady-Brees-Tua and Josh Allen.  The schedule is strange because the computer spit out back to back road trips…3-times for the Chiefs.  They also get 4-road games in a 6-week window late in the season.

BRONCOS…A banner home schedule with all the big throwers coming into Mile High Stadium.  A relatively easy road schedule against teams with QB-issues.  Denver faces Brees-Mahomes on back to back weekends.  They also play 3-of-final-5 away from home.

RAMS…The league must still really believe in LA’s talent level, despite an off season that saw them purge 10-established players off the roster.  A very rugged road schedule dots the slate.  They have to face Carson Wentz..Jimmy Garoppolo early.  Then look at the final 8-games, Russell Wilson-twice…Kyler Murray twice…Brady and the 49ers again.  They get 5-primetime games on TV, but who knows if they are even a playoff team by the time the calendar turns to November.

Gonna be fun for the fans in the stands, or in the worst case scenario, the fans watching games on TV.

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“Aztecs Football–Strange Way Do Business”

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I knew this would be complicated, this attempt to walk down the path for SDSU to take over operation-control and purchase the SDCCU Stadium sight.

Now we have pressure points, insults and threats, and a stupid move that seems to throw roadblocks into the relationship between San Diego State and the City.

And to complicate things, the Athletic Department announces it is opening up sales of the Founders Suites and Sky boxes at the new stadium, the one to be built on land SDSU still doesn’t own, in a stadium that might not open till 2022 or possibly a year after that, at the most traumatic time in our society since 9/11 or 2008.

SDSU has agreed with the city on the 86M-purchase price of the acreage in Mission Valley.  It has the 650M-in financing from the California State system.  It has the architects and the business infrastructure in place.

What it does not have is a finalized contract to take over the land, take over operation of SDCCU Stadium, or the completion of documents on the building of the River Park and an accompanying foot bridge from the Fenton Shopping area.

What neither side has yet either, is a solution to possible litigation from groups that might try to block the construction of housing, buildings, dorms, offices on land parcels near where the Stadium is to be built.  That and answers to what might be a messy environmental issue that could resurface.

SDSU turned over the 600-page contract, full of legalese, to City Council on Tuesday, but the City Attorney says there are still 14-major issues to be resolved, and the Council is not going to sign any document yet.  The City Attorney is miffed that SDSU is trying to execute a ‘power play’ rushing this thru so they can get it done by May 19th, taking over control of the entire real estate project by July 1st.

Added in, the insinuation that SDSU made over 2300-changes in language in the contract that was initially agreed to, and that the city will not sign off on the document till each item is reviewed.  And in the  middle of this Virus-Crisis, with a crumbling budget, City Council is refusing to be bullied into approving a document, that still needs ‘I’s dotted and T’s crossed.  The name-calling, and rock-throwing has begun.

As for the Athletic Department, a tone-deaf move, in the middle of this massive work shutdown, huge layoffs, life threatening unemployment, and daily death counts,  to announce they are starting sales of the Founders Sky boxes and fans sky suites at the new stadium.

You know, the stadium on land they don’t own yet, on a stadium yet to turn a shovel of dirt, in an era where the US shutdown will likely be followed by tons of bankruptcies.

What an ill timed decision by a University, wanting to bid out the 4-Founders Suites and 48-Founder Club seats.  No doubt the package will include tickets and buffets to every Aztecs event and social gathering in the new stadium.  No doubt the hospitality package will be exceptional somewhere down road, but how can you think that today knowing what the news is today about our health and our troubled economy.

But to do this in a city waiting for the pandemic to peak, in an economy facing as much as 20% unemployment by the end of the week, it seems ill-advised for John David Wicker and his Athletic Department to announce this endeavor, at this time in our life.

I knew getting the Stadium purchase agreement done would be challenging.  I didn’t think trying to sell Aztecs football to a physically-and-emotionally devastated business community would happen on this date.

Just asking, “Why”?

Why demand so many changes in the purchase agreement you had accepted?

Why ask for big money donations with so many businesses in trouble and so many people hurting financially?

Please tell me there is a legitimate explanation for all these issues, at this time in our life.

Otherwise I’ll have to tell you this is a bad step backwards.

SDSU-San Diego State University.
SDSU-Same Dam Screw Ups.

 

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“Baseball–Scott Boras–Letter to New York Times

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Player Agent Scott Boras says it is time for the US to do, what Korea and Taiwan have done, reopen baseball camps and open the season.

He wrote an extensive letter that became an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, about how important a role baseball can play to help America feel good about itself.

All this while the death rates rocket in baseball hotbeds like Boston and Chicago, and fears and threats a 2nd explosion of the virus-crisis could be coming to the Midwest and South.

Take a read of what one of the most influential people in baseball has to say:

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By Scott Boras

Mr. Boras is an attorney for baseball players.
May 5, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET

132

In some of America’s darkest moments, the country has turned to Major League Baseball to bring hope and normalcy back to everyday life.

It happened after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued what became known as the “Green Light Letter” to Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. President Roosevelt wrote, “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.” He even surprised the team owners by requesting more night games, not fewer, as a source of relaxation and escape for weary workers coming home from their wartime shifts.

Nearly 60 years later, baseball again helped reassure the nation after the Sept. 11 attacks. In the first game back in New York, 10 days after the towers fell, Mike Piazza’s home run in the eighth inning became a potent sign that our healing had begun. The very next month, we all felt the gravity of the moment as President George W. Bush walked onto the field at Yankee Stadium before the first World Series game in New York since the attacks. Alone and secretly wearing a stiff bulletproof vest, he climbed to the top of the mound and fired a strike. The pain of those we lost would never leave, and the rebuilding was only just beginning. But at that moment America, as an idea, roared back to life.

Time and time again, baseball has helped our country heal. Whether it be David Ortiz giving a speech to rally a city after the Boston Marathon bombing or the A’s and Giants aiding a jittery Bay Area after a deadly earthquake that interrupted the 1989 World Series, baseball has been there in times of loss to help our country and our cities move forward.

Now we have lost nearly 70,000 in our nation to Covid-19, each a tragedy beyond words. A growing number of us have found ourselves unemployed without warning, and with each passing day the fear and hunger will continue to rise for those in need. Nearly all Americans continue to make sacrifices. Some on the medical front lines have made the ultimate sacrifice. The “safer at home” policies our experts and federal officials recommended, and our state and local governments instituted, undoubtedly saved lives and prevented even worse devastation across the country.

However, we face a challenge in the coming weeks and months: How do we harmonize the concerns of health experts with the unwanted effects of those public health efforts? Experts believe we need isolation and social distancing, but that has led to lost jobs, increased stresses of every type and a diminishing of the social tapestry that binds and enhances our lives. After many weeks of following safer-at-home protocols, people are understandably restless and looking for an outlet.

It is time again for baseball to serve. The political universe, including President Trump; the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell; Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York; Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois; and Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, have voiced an interest in the return of the game this summer when the time is right. Dr. Anthony Fauci, channeling the sentiment that President Roosevelt expressed in 1942, said in a recent interview that having “the great American pastime be seen” would help the mental health of the country.

In a recent study, nearly 170 million people age 12 or older identified themselves as M.L.B. fans — the highest number in the past 25 years. The first full month of the 2020 regular season has slipped off the calendar without a pitch thrown. However, baseball can and should start up again soon to provide a release for our country desperately in need of live sports entertainment.

I am in constant communication with players, owners and front-office executives, and from what I am hearing, they are focused on getting baseball back. Even before we know when, where and how we will have an Opening Day, we should give players the chance to ramp up for Major League competition. Like many others, they are doing their best to make things work without access to the ballparks that are their “offices.” But the best basement batting cage or backyard mound can’t give world-class hitters and pitchers the game-speed preparation they need.

The first step is to return the players to spring training-style camps as soon as possible. Players want to be with their teams now, safely preparing for the season by using established processes and procedures approved by public health officials. However, this would be a spring training unlike any other. Players would have to be in a “functional isolation,” separated from the public and their families as they prepare.

Players must feel safe when they return, and they understand that they would be in a controlled environment where they could be evaluated by the medical staff each day. The numerous medical experts I have spoken to recommend clubhouses be sanitized daily, and that masks, latex gloves and hand sanitizer should be standard in each one. Major League Baseball, with the understanding that the medical needs of our country’s population comes first, will need to contract with a testing company to make this all safe for approximately 1,600 players, plus coaching staffs, groundskeepers, umpires and other officials.

It will be challenging to do this all at once, but it can be accomplished with staggered reporting dates. Pitchers and catchers would report first, then the position players would come in the next wave, followed days later by the prospects and depth players.
Other nations and leagues can provide helpful models for how to accomplish a return to action and keep players safe. Professional baseball is being played today in Taiwan and South Korea, and players have reported that they feel safe and protected in their environment. We can do it here, and for the sake of America, we should.

While initially the fans won’t be there in person, M.L.B.’s stars can shine brightly on TV screens across the United States and across the world this summer and fall. Televised games each day and night can give fans a unifying feeling, something to look forward to, something to discuss, something to live vicariously through and a reason to cheer. The millions of baseball fans in America can continue to do a small part for the nation by staying at home, while enjoying a sense of hope and normalcy from watching the game we love.

 

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“Miami–Greatness Has Left Us”

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Don Shula….Father…Grandfather…Iconic coach…..Patriarch has died.

He passed quietly just outside Miami Lakes at age 90, leaving behind a legacy of success everywhere he went.

Shula, the steel jawed leader of the Dolphins, went from small college football, to NFL star cornerback, to the youngest coach at that time in the National Football League.

He leaves behind the greatest winning record of any coach in the NFL, (347-190-6), better than George Halas back then, and modern day legend Bill Belicheck now.

The accomplishments are staggering.  31-winning seasons in 33-years, first as coach of the old Baltimore Colts to the modern day Dolphins.

He led Miami to the only unbeaten season ever in the game, (17-0) in 1972.  He won back to back Super Bowls with the Dolphins, and drove the Colts to a Super Bowl game.

The memorable wins include the perfect ’72 Super Bowl season.  It also includes the stunning loss to the upstart Joe Namath-Weeb Ewbank led AFL-New York Jets in an early Super Bowl.

Steel jawed, a Man’s Man, Shula went to tiny John Carroll University outside of Cleveland, near his hometown of Painesville.  He starred for legendary Paul Brown in the 1950s, when Cleveland owned the NFL, intercepting 21-passes in 6-seasons.

If Halas and Brown were the early day legends on the sidelines, Shula became the group of the next generation of greats, along with Chuck Noll and Tom Landry as the 60s became the 70s into the 80s.

He wanted to be a priest, but became a coach, and at 33-was the youngest head coach ever in pro football back in the day.

His Miami tenure spread from Bob Griese to Dan Marino.

As times changed, so did he, handling, tolerating the likes of Mercury Morris and Garo Yepremian, to so many other diverse personalities.

He created the ‘No Name Defense’, pioneered by Nick Buonoconti and Manny Fernandez.  Names like Jake Scott and Bill Stanfill became adored figures in South Florida.

He had the ‘Marx Brothers’, Clayton and Duper.  He brought in Larry Csonka-Jim Kiick-Paul Warfield in the ‘Butch Cassidy & Sundance’ era .

Inheriting the Dolphins of the old AFL, he took a team that had gone (15-39-2), and promptly went (37-7-1) in his first three years, just like that, the fastest turnaround from bad to good in league history.

He made the Dolphins important in Miami and at the historic Orange Bowl, before the other Miami (Hurricanes) became relevant.

He was a potpourri of personality.  Passionate, popular, pushy.  He cared about family-faith-football every minute of everyday.

Don Shula-a very special person–someone we will never likely see again.

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