The Lockout Diaries: Week 10

[Nick Nelson]

Dear journal,

It's been 70 days since darkness fell upon the world of baseball. Seventy freaking days. We've basically passed the point of hoping for spring training to start on time, so now we turn our attention to Opening Day, which is at greater risk with each passing week of inaction.

There's a real sense that urgency and frustration are building on both sides as negotiations between the league and union continue to stall out. More and more, we see players speaking out publicly about their displeasure with the owners and their tactics. Mitch Garver of the Twins has been among the vocal parties on Twitter.

On Thursday, Rob Manfred is expected to address the media. It'll be interesting to see if his strategy is to extend an olive branch toward the players or further inflame tensions by spewing contentious BS. 

I wish I had any faith in the former, because it feels like the only course of action that might put us on track to salvaging a full, undisrupted regular season.

Earlier this week, I wrote about what might happen in a scenario where the start of the season gets pushed back. I looked back at historical precedents, like the delayed 1990 season and the truncated 1995 season, to get a feel for what might happen with the Twins schedule if several weeks are shaved off of this one.

This is what we're reduced to as fans. Not looking forward to the arrival of spring training, or the regular season, but pondering just how much this 2022 campaign will be shortened and warped. Because at this point it's only a matter of degrees.

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[wsnydes]

This has been one of the more frustrating stretches during the lockout.  Hard to even find any hope to grab on to.

[roger]

Looks like we will be watching a lot of MiLB tv this spring.  But for those of us who no longer have cable, nothing will change...at lease as to what we can watch. 

As for the season opener, Nick.  Seems like negotiations have gone dormant and the likelihood of opening on time is nil.

[LastOnePicked]

Ugh. With the awareness of lifelong injuries and concussions, the NFL was finally starting to experience a dent in popularity. MLB could have stepped in as "America's Great Pastime," amping up rivalries and elevating the status of the game from the Instructional Leagues on up to MLB. With a few wise rule changes, the game could have gotten a little quicker and more intense. With salary floors and enhanced revenue sharing, league parity would be on the rise. With a few additional promotions and park amenities, fans could have felt even more connected to local teams. With a diverse array of stars, and many points of entry for professional baseball and earning a living, we could have been entering a new Golden Age of the game.

Instead, we're getting this: greedy players and incompetent owners, seemingly neither with much of an eye on the future viability of the sport. Heartbreaking. A win-win era is entering a total-loss scenario.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Any chance of seeing the minor leaguers play the already scheduled Spring Training Games? I'm going to Ft Myers March 5-12 and have tickets to the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox games with the Twins.

[KFEY93]

5 hours ago, roger said:

Looks like we will be watching a lot of MiLB tv this spring.  But for those of us who no longer have cable, nothing will change...at lease as to what we can watch. 

As for the season opener, Nick.  Seems like negotiations have gone dormant and the likelihood of opening on time is nil.

I dont have cable or pay for any streaming and I can watch any MLB game I want. Just sayin'. 

[DJL44]

I saw an interesting comment elsewhere. They estimated that 2/3 of the TV money is from the playoffs but only 2% of player salary costs are from playoff games. If the owners shorten the season and force the players to take prorated salaries they come out way ahead. Dropping half the season would reduce salary costs almost 50% but income by only 30%.

Would anyone stop watching baseball if they started 2 weeks later and the schedule was 144 games? That's still 72 home games per team. It would be a lot harder to get 3000 hits or 500 HR with fewer games in a season but otherwise I can't think of a real downside.

[theBOMisthebomb]

There's a lot of pessimism here about starting spring training on time or possibly losing regular season games. If we believe Rob Manfred at a press conference he held today, he is optimistic and says, "I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular schedule." Don't stop believin'??...

[MN_ExPat]

13 minutes ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

There's a lot of pessimism here about starting spring training on time or possibly losing regular season games. If we believe Rob Manfred at a press conference he held today, he is optimistic and says, "I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular schedule." Don't stop believin'??...

Amen  

Is it likely to.... probably not, but I too will preach hope.

[MN_ExPat]

For those starved for baseball… we are in full swing now in Georgia. Here are some photos ?. 

My son’s team had their season opener last night and won 8-0 (and Mini-me pitched 2 scoreless innings ??? 2 IP/ 2K / 1 H / 0 BB). 

[theBOMisthebomb]

7 minutes ago, MN_ExPat said:

For those starved for baseball… we are in full swing now in Georgia. Here are some photos ?. 

My son’s team had their season opener last night and won 8-0 (and Mini-me pitched 2 scoreless innings ??? 2 IP/ 2K / 1 H / 0 BB). 

That's great.

Thankfully those of us still in the frozen tundra have Gopher baseball in US Bank Stadium to look forward to. March 1 at 6 pm against St. Thomas is the first game. With the threat of losing MLB games, I plan to attend numerous Gopher games at the Bank if MLB is still locked out and in limbo at that time. Then, we have the St. Paul Saints if MLB really takes a break and misses regular season games.