If you are a baseball fan there isn’t anything more maddening than the current tug of war between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.
On Monday, the league tabled its latest return to play plan in what has looked like a real-life match of Pong, proposing a 76-game season in which the players would receive 75 per cent of their prorated salaries.
Fifty per cent of that total would be guaranteed while the remaining 25 per cent would be delivered upon the completion of the playoffs, but when you break it down, baseball’s latest proposal isn’t much different than what the players’ union recently rejected.
Since the start of the regular season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both sides have been sending each other counter-proposals in an effort to play ball, yet, the two sides are no closer now than when they started negotiating.
The issue, to nobody’s surprise, is money.
The big hurdle is a March agreement in which the owners and players both okayed a framework that included prorated salaries, but the league has since pulled away from that plan after realizing games would be played without any fans in attendance — which would drastically affect the bottom line.
Another big sticking point is the risk the players will be taking by playing while the novel coronavirus continues to spread across America and around the world.
The two sides now appear to be looking at a 48, 76 or 82 game season that all include various percentages of salaries paid to the players.
The thing is, if Major League Baseball and the players’ union don’t come to some sort of an agreement very soon time will run out on the 2020 season.
Rick Zamperin is the assistant program director, news and senior sports director with Global News Radio 900 CHML in Hamilton.
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