Following up: From 82 to 114 to 50 games; Tim Anderson speaks

Tim Anderson painting
Tim Anderson (Carl Skanberg)

If the league is truly interested in more games than fewer, they’re doing a helluva job of selling it.

While a former MLBPA lawyer suggested that Rob Manfred had subtly nudged the players toward a season with a triple-digit game count — they suggested 114 when the league’s initial offer only went to 82 — the league instead responded by floating the idea of the bare minimum.

From Jeff Passan:

Unable to yet reach a return-to-play agreement, Major League Baseball has discussed playing a shorter schedule in which it would pay members of the MLB Players Association their full prorated salaries, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.

Though MLB does not intend to propose this to the players, the possibility of implementing a schedule of around 50 games that would start in July has been considered by the league as a last resort in the event the parties can’t come to a deal, sources said.

The number of games doesn’t bother me the way it would irk the critics that Jon Heyman imagines …

… mostly because when the rubber hits the road, I’m assuming the season will lack a genuine feeling regardless of how many games the season contains. Sure, 114 would be far more legitimate than 82 or 50, but regardless of the schedule’s length, I’m assuming that strange circumstances will beget stranger results, potentially including but not limited to:

  • Random small-sample strangeness.
  • Injuries caused by the offseason’s start-stop-start nature.
  • Normal injuries taking a bigger chunk out of the season.
  • Some of those injuries being illnesses.
  • Players sitting out.
  • Teams folding early and playing prospects.
  • Unexpected byproducts of expanded pitching staffs covering fewer games.
  • Nicotine withdrawal.

This is all why I don’t consider a lost season to be the great tragedy that many others do, especially if it comes at the cost of making substantial work on the bigger threat around the corner. which is a work stoppage that can’t be blamed on world events. As a projected third-place team, the White Sox stand to benefit from a smaller sample size, so I’d watch, report, analyze and hope that key players make use of the reps that were never guaranteed this season. But once 2020 flips over to 2021 — no safe assumption — it’s possible those reps won’t be all that instructive either.

There’s a chance that the players and league have now staked out positions that naturally draws them to the initial and more sensible number of games played, but if 50 games is indeed a legitimate last resort, it basically gives players a frame of reference for how much additional money they should be willing to forgo, if any. In the league’s initial proposal, it asked Mike Trout to work 82 games while getting paid for 25.

* * * * * * * * *

Tim Anderson talked to reporters about his perspective on the police brutality protests, where he pointed out that if you ask athletes to stick to sports when there are no sports to be played, you’re basically asking them to be nothing.

“At the end of the day, we stand for more than just sports,” Anderson said during a conference call Monday. “If you remove the sports, as you can see now, then what are we? We’re human beings. We stand for more than our job title.”

Anderson is the only African-American player on the White Sox, and we saw how he could have used strength in numbers when he served a harsher suspension for using the N-word on a white player than the white player served for throwing a ball at him. Anderson opted out of trying to draw a distinction, and it probably wouldn’t have been worth the trouble. Players from around the league tried to make the case to no avail, and while he had the support of his teammates, none of them were great candidates to attempt to explain the divide.

That’s why it’s important that Lucas Giolito is stepping up to offer backup, even if his status as a wealthy, affable white man doesn’t make him a natural fit for such duties.

James Fegan called Giolito to ask about his initial foray into the protests, which took the form of a tweeted statement. Giolito sounded happy to expound.

“I’m just sick and tired of seeing this constantly happening,” Giolito said in a phone call with The Athletic. “This kind of stuff is going to be written in history books and when I’m an old man and I’m 85 years old and my grandkids or great-grandkids are learning about this is in history class, I don’t want them to come and ask me about it and I have to look at them in the face and be like, ‘Oh yeah, I didn’t really do much about that. I was just kind of waiting it out.’”

Giolito went on to say that he’s used to being outnumbered in clubhouse discussions about politics, and he seems to welcome the clubhouse give-and-take, but he expressed frustration about the idea that unequal policing can be subject to a partisan divide.

“What’s going on right now with the racial injustice, that is a different category,” Giolito said. “That is not politics, that is human rights. That has nothing to do with being a Democrat or Republican. […]

“I see it as fundamental wrongdoing, institutionalized racism. It’s kind of woven in the fabric of the country. I don’t see how it could be a political issue. Actually when people try to make it a political issue, I actually take offense to it and I don’t really understand that point of view. Black men and women getting killed in their streets and homes, I don’t see how that has anything to do with politics.”

Anderson supported Giolito’s support, saying his teammate “gets it and understands it.”

(Portrait of Tim Anderson by Carl Skanberg)

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
23 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
MarketMaker

How much more likable is this current roster than years past? I’d have been cringing at the thought of many previous years’ players weighing in on this situation. Anderson and Giolito nailed it and I’m pleased to have them wearing the Sox uniform.
 
As for the 2020 season, I’m ready to call it and hope for a better 2021. We’ve got a lot bigger problems to solve and I’m fine with us focusing all of our attention on the crises at hand. Baseball can wait.

GrinnellSteve

Can you imagine what Eaton and LaRoche would be saying right now? I’m looking forward to the day when I can vote for an Anderson/Giolito or Giolito/Anderson ticket.

Eagle Bones

He’d probably be pushing for Drake to run the COVID taskforce.

GrinnellSteve

Props to LaRoche. Might be the only props I ever give him.

Greg Nix

“Don’t these looters realize I have a metaphorical mortgage to pay?!?!”

Eagle Bones

I really don’t know what to hope for at this point. You’re probably right in that we have bigger problems to worry about, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have some selfish feelings in my gut about wanting to see some baseball (however mangled it is as compared to the normal product) to help with morale / mental health. It feels selfish to think that way at this point, by I can’t deny that my mental health would be significantly improved by some kind of season.

GrinnellSteve

This is how I feel. I rail against states opening up too quickly and too irresponsibly, but I sure want to turn on the TV and start watching live sports that interest me (not golf or NASCAR).

Greg Nix

I’m glad I got into the NBA the last couple years. They’ve got a clearer path back, in part because the players are more visible so the owners can only grab so much power.

yinkadoubledare

So much more fun than a team governed by an Unwritten Rules Cop. Having your undisputed veteran leader being a lead-by-example guy who seems plenty fine with guys being who they are (and who got here escaping his home country by boat and having to leave some family behind) sure helps. The best players are entertaining guys and/or easy to root for guys. The offseason moves seem to fit with what they have on that front too.

Selfishly, I want to watch these guys! But I’ll support whatever the players want to do.

John SF

it’s an embarrassment of riches for how likable our team is.

Tim, Giolito, Kopech, Abreu Jiminez, Moncada…even Bummer & Lopez and stuff.

The only really questionable guy is Rodón.

As Cirensica

Teams folding early and playing prospects.

The risk of that one might be smaller than we think in a 50 games season. Teams might be “in it” after 25 games, and folding when there is 20 games left does not feel like folding “early”. I assume teams still must protect their players and honor their big league contracts, even if prorated..

metasox

I could see it either way. Without a minor league season this is the only way to get some of the younger players playing time

As Cirensica

A 50 games season is just a long playoff where everybody made the cut.

lastof12

And without the best baseball. I want to watch baseball desperately, but a well shortened season would delude the overall product, methinks.

mmezphoto

At this point with the giant mountain of shit built up in this country baseball coming back has just stopped mattering. People keep dying and it’s not slowing down because our society doesnt care about it. Hoping for baseball in 2021.

As Cirensica

This! ^

The country needs to cool down, and not to engage in political diatribe, but the WH is doing quite the opposite to calm people down.

Blow my Gload

Just the headline…ooof
Pete Ricketts, the governor of Nebraska and former Chicago Cubs co-owner, apologizes for ‘you people’ comment during a meeting with black community leaders

asinwreck

Consider their father and this should not come as a surprise.

That MLB has not issued any statement on this tragic week (unlike the NBA) underscores how lonely Anderson must feel in his workplace.

asinwreck

And there’s Dontrelle Willis, saying that it’s tough to be the one guy who has to speak for an entire community.

I work in higher education, and the uses of institutional silence on issues of race shifting the burden of speaking out on African-American colleagues is a real problem in retaining people both on the faculties of individual colleges and in professional associations. Now, perceptive institutions try to instill best practices about not forcing the mantle of spokesperson on vulnerable individuals.

It’s a struggle, but you see it this week in the statements of dozens and dozens of employers. (Including the Chicago Bears.) MLB’s silence does no one favors, especially those few players, managers, and front office staff who have followed in the footsteps of Jackie Robinson, Henry Aaron, and those historical figures MLB champions from the safe distance of time.

craigws

Thanks for the link.