Podcast: Opening Day in Jeopardy
MLB CBA negotiations are still not progressing to the point of a new deal coming soon. Now that MLB’s deadline has come to avoid cancellation of regular-season games, is the entire month of April at risk? Josh and Jim discuss while wishing there was more consistent reporting of the details and insight on which MLB owners are causing issues.
They also answer your questions about a new game show format and which uniform throwback they would like to see a return.
These negotiations are super depressing, I really don’t think they are anywhere close to a deal. I do like that it seems even more causal baseball fans are checking out more college games which is great. Early season OMG state line check out freshman Tommy White at NC State…
Are college games easily available to stream somewhere? Despite attending one, I’ve never really watched college sports aside from incidentally at a bar. But, I could use a baseball/softball fix
I dont stream them, but my sports package has acc, bigten, sec networks and then some of the fsn channels that carry games so when I see a couple big time teams playing I try and tune in.
Sorry Jim / Josh, but the ads are driving me crazy. Do you have a tutorial or can anybody in here tell me how to link my Patreon account. Where do I need to click? I have tried everything. I even searched “how to link a Patreon account on Wordpress” but I haven’t found any help. In the past, I was able to find my profile very easy, and at the very bottom there were clear buttons that specifically said “Link unlink Patreon account” or something like that. Now, I can’t find those links. I have tried in my work laptop, tablet, and home computer, and nothing.
The ads are literally driving me away from here. Super annoying.
Thank you.
I am willing to provide you with my login credentials so you can do it for me. If that helps.
Shoot me an email (jim@soxmachine), it’s a lot easier to go back and forth that way.
Just did. Thank you so much for any help.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the players do everything they can to extract even the smallest concessions from the owners today, then agree to a framework of a deal. That way they can start the season on time and not lose any paychecks. The only way they are going to get significant concessions from the owners is to hold out until May, when a large chunk of the season would be lost. Then the owners might start to talk seriously. But I don’t think the players have the resolve to hold out that long. Get whatever little bit you can today and take it and move on.
Starting tomorrow (March 1st), Players part of the association can apply for a $5,000 monthly stipend. This increases to $15,000 a month starting on April 1st.
For the Max Scherzer’s, this obviously is not a lot of money. I do think this helps those not part of the 26-man roster to float for a bit.
Interesting, a step forward for the PA. In the history of the these Quinquennial negotiations I’ve never seen the owners as the villains, usually I’m somewhere in the middle. This time, however, owners are clearly wearing the black bandannas robbing the stagecoach. One of these years the PA needs to convince their members to set aside enough $ to make it through the entire season if necessary, not easy considering most of us live from period to period.
I’m guessing the Scherzer class of players has the ability to forgo the stipend in order to keep the reserve stocked longer for the players who need it.
Thanks Jim for the heads up on cancelling the MLB audio subscription. I would have definitely let that slip by.
Derek Jeter out as Miami Marlins CEO.
Baseball Fever: Eliminate it!
That’s it. They actually believe they have the bargaining power. No wonder Jeter resigned. We aren’t having baseball this year.
Why didn’t this just happened in our rebuilding years?
I am so pissed with MLB. Fuck’em all.
Assuming games happen this year, I strongly favor the Sox wearing the 1972 red pinstripes to honor the 50th anniversary of “the team that saved the Sox”. They could do little segments on TV between innings showing moments from that year voiced over by interviews with players from that team talking about how great Allen was or Wood or Forster… It’s not clear how many of those guys will make it to the 60th anniversary.
I’d mix it up the next year and do a different old look, maybe even multiple alternating looks in the same year. I’ve never understood how the Sox got stuck doing 1983 every Sunday for years on end. 1983 is an ugly uniform for a team that TLR made hard to love even then. I realize that the 1977 uniforms are probably just too ugly to reprise although maybe the team could figure something with the navy and old-timey font and the batter-up logo (which I think is the most popular thing from that late 70’s look).
Embedding a tweet is above my pay grade.
https://twitter.com/i/status/14980761369069772
The players need to bring these guys to the next meeting. I love their bravado. May we all show such calm courage when faced with horrific circumstances.
Screw that link. Let’s try this one.
And I inadvertently embedded a tweet!
The Winning Ugly uniforms are still my favorite outside of the current, and I’m not sick of those but if they wanted to put em back in the vault before they’re totally played out I wouldn’t argue. But, aside from those I do like the early 70s pinstripes and the road powder blues. If they did a take on those for the home throwbacks it could be a lot of fun. Maybe even swing a deal to incorporate the city flag or elements thereof? Not much else in the catalog really grabs me.
Anyway. The more the owners want to not just remind me that this is all a business, but to rub my face in it that to them it is ONLY a business, just disenchants me with the entire prospect of fandom. This little dance where you give me little something to get invested in and I line your pockets on $13 beers all summer breaks down when all you do is pinch every penny, throw tantrums, cancel games, blatantly lie to our faces, and treat the people I’m actually here to see with open hostility. Just overall being awful stewards of the game and that’s before we get into bizarre rule changes and mystery balls.
Sorry for bringing the dour back but here we are nearing the peak of the Sox’ relevancy and we might not see it.