The two sides are deadlocked.
The good thing about Major League Baseball wiping out the first two weeks of the regular season is that MLB doesn’t have to compete with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s Final Four on April 2nd and April 4th. The new Opening Day for MLB is scheduled for April 14th and that happens to be the day before MLB would have celebrated the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier and becoming the first African-American player in a big-league uniform since Moses Fleetwood Walker played his last game with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association on September 4th, 1884. Unless the owners and the players come up with a very fast deal, the MLB 75th anniversary celebration of Jackie Robinson’s first game will not take place. But the minor leagues, which has 42 less teams than it did in the pre-COVID 19 days of 2019 because the MLB owners decided to ax teams in a cost cutting measure after getting Congress to upend the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act for baseball which basically reduced minor leaguers to seasonal workers status, can celebrate Jackie Robinson Day.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who works for the 30 owners, said in a statement, “I am saddened by this situation’s continued impact on our game and all those who are a part of it, especially our loyal fans. We have the utmost respect for our players and hope they will ultimately choose to accept the fair agreement they have been offered.” What is next? More negotiations but with two weeks of the 2022 season gone other issues will pop up. Will the missed games be restored and if not will the players get full salaries and service time? MLB may not have to worry about going head-to-head with the NFL Draft on April 28th with the rate things are going.
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