#what is a lockout in mlb

[chicagocubsreactions]

Cubs move on from Seiya Suzuki’s interpreter and look ahead to second half of season

[original article]

The Chicago Cubs are making a subtle but potentially significant change coming out of the All-Star break, dismissing the interpreter who has worked with Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki through his first two-and-a-half seasons in the majors.

Toy Matsushita will no longer serve as Suzuki’s voice in interviews with American media, a team source said Thursday, framing it as an organizational decision to go in a different direction. Those responsibilities, which also included relaying messages from the front office and the coaching staff to Suzuki, will be absorbed by two Cubs staffers.

Nao Masamoto, a longtime Cubs employee who manages their Pacific Rim operations and major-league video system, will continue to support Suzuki. Shota Imanaga’s interpreter, Edwin Stanberry, will also assist in communications with Suzuki.

The Cubs will open the 2025 season at the Tokyo Dome with two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers (March 18-19), Major League Baseball announced Thursday, matching up two iconic teams on an international stage.

The biggest story of this year’s Seoul Series was the gambling scandal that engulfed Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter. The Cubs, the team source stressed, are not dealing with a similar situation here.

The Cubs want to continue to be known as a destination for Japanese players and seen as a place where they can reach their full potential. Masamoto is so trusted that he remained good friends with Yu Darvish even after the Cubs traded the Japanese pitcher to the San Diego Padres following the 2020 season. Stanberry has done an exemplary job of accentuating Imanaga’s personality during interviews and helping him assimilate into the team’s culture.

Intentional is the oft-repeated description of how Imanaga built relationships with coaches and teammates. That was publicly displayed during the welcome-to-Chicago news conference where he recited the lyrics to “Go Cubs Go.” Behind the scenes, it also involved keeping some distance from his interpreter and strengthening his sense of independence.

A rookie only by major-league standards, Imanaga, 30, pitched a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game. He’s 8-2 with a 2.97 ERA through 17 starts, making his four-year, $53 million contract look like one of the most prescient signings from last winter. He’s also on the cover of Chicago Magazine’s recently released “Best of” issue.

Imanaga has also benefitted from the team’s learning curve with Suzuki, who signed a five-year, $85 million contract after MLB’s lockout ended in 2022. Suzuki is a supremely talented hitter and tireless worker who has dealt with some injuries and a weird issue with catching routine fly balls in right field.

When Suzuki is locked in, though, he can elevate an offense that has several weak spots. His mixture of power, patience, mental approach and contact skills are close to an ideal version of what the Cubs value in their hitters. Streamlining the communication could be a way for the team to make sure he’s confident and decisive.

Suzuki, who will turn 30 next month, is a good major-league hitter (.811 career OPS) who should be in the prime of his career. His first-half production (13 homers, 45 RBIs) was boosted by a hot streak in July (.321 batting average, .942 OPS) that lined up with one of the team’s best stretches all season. The Cubs (47-51) need that kind of performance to shut down any discussions about a sell-off at the July 30 trade deadline.

[reportwire]

Major League Baseball Owners Lock Out Players As Collective Bargaining Agreement Expires – CBS Boston

Major League Baseball Owners Lock Out Players As Collective Bargaining Agreement Expires – CBS Boston

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Major League Baseball plunged into its first work stoppage in a quarter-century when the sport’s collective bargaining agreement expired Wednesday night and owners immediately locked out players in a move that threatens spring training and opening day. The strategy, management’s equivalent of a strike under federal labor law, ended the sport’s labor peace after 9,740 days…

[anthrofreshtodeath]

for the prompt, 8 in coronita heights and 6 cmwhs?

@sharknatho Thanks friend! I will be splitting these into two posts, because this first one got kinda long, lol.

#8 - Diamond Ring, Coronita Heights

Jane was wiping her hands of plaster dust in the very gutted upstairs bathroom of her new home when she heard the glass shatter. She smirked, got up off her shaky knees - well, just one shaky knee, really, since the other hadn’t been surgically repaired - and tossed the wadded shop towel in the wastebasket by her work area. “You alright?” she called down in the most perfunctory way she could, given that she knew exactly why Maura, who just returned home from her third trip to Lowe’s that afternoon, would be dropping something.

Maura did not answer, so Jane got up. She pulled her faded California Angels tee, splattered with spackling and PVC dust, over her head, wiping the sweat off of her face with it. Christ, it was hot - mid-July in Anaheim Hills with no A/C? She forgot how brutal Southern California summers could be when you had no functioning air.

And, given that this new house, a huge one still in need of some remodel, also needed an entirely new unit, the two of them had boiled in the heat while they worked. In fact, that heat had caused a tiff between them early this morning, when they were still in Maura’s bed and Jane had woken up particularly cranky about having to drive across town to the new place and cook alive. Maura had been much too literal and told Jane she certainly wouldn’t be cooked, and Jane had stormed off to the shower without another word.

She had left without another word, too, with her truck loaded full of plumbing supplies and tile, intent on working on the master bathroom, alone. But then, about an hour and a half later, right around nine-thirty when things started to sizzle in Orange County, Maura showed up upstairs, silently lugging a huge floor fan into said bathroom and turning it on Jane so that she could be at least a little cooler while she worked. Before Jane could say thanks, or I was an ass, Maura had left, back down the stairs and out the door to do her own part.

That was when Jane had decided enough was enough.

So, now she trotted down to the main floor, which was actually hardwood that she had sanded just a few days prior, and waited, shrugging her shirt back over her head. Maura stood in what would soon be the finished living room, her back to Jane, and stared at the mantle that Frankie helped to install on his last day off before facing the Angels. At her feet was a shattered, small light fixture for the guest bathroom that she’d been admiring in its catalog for weeks. It looked both vintage and modern - well, it had before it had broken into a million pieces.

Jane smirked again. “You’re back,” she said, tightening her ponytail just a bit.

Maura didn’t turn. She pointed to the shadow box with a signed aluminum bat inside. “Is that a diamond ring?” She asked, her voice shaky, sounding angry.

Oh yeah, and there was a ring box on top of that shadow box. “It’s Jonny’s game bat from the final. All the guys signed it. Me too,” Jane plays dumb. “Thought it would look good over the fireplace.”

Maura had no patience. “With a diamond ring on top of it?”

Jane kneeled, because at any moment, Maura would probably turn around. “Yeah, with a diamond ring on top of it,” she said. It was the one that had been burning a hole in her pocket for two weeks, just after they bought the house. She had transferred it to a lock box in the Ranger, hoping it would be more out of sight, out of mind there, but to no avail. One argument and she wanted to marry Maura all over again. “Hey, Maura,” she gruffed quietly.

“Yes?” Maura asked the fireplace.

“Turn around, would ya?” Jane laughed once.

Maura spun quickly, as if realizing that Jane’s voice was coming from about four feet high instead of its usual almost-six. When she saw Jane, her good knee on the floor and her hair streaked with lines of white from her work upstairs, she dropped the rest of the bags she was carrying, which luckily contained no more breakables. “You-” she started.

“Me,” Jane teased her, but only because she herself was feeling particularly nervous now. “I uh, I wanna apologize for bein’ an asshole this mornin’. We lost a big game to Oakland last night and then I remembered I was gonna have to bake in this heat all day and I… it doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have taken that out on you.”

“Ok,” Maura replied. She resisted the urge to bounce on her feet in impatience, and the urge to mourn that for one of the most important moments of their lives they were both in jeans and worn-in tops, so she hurried Jane along with her words. The magic of it would sweep over her again if only Jane kept talking.

“Ok? Ok. Well, uh, listen. I hadn’t really planned to do this today, but I bought that thing a couple weeks ago and I don’t think I can wait anymore. So… you need to know that I’ve never been as in love with anyone as I am with you. I’m like… goofy in love with you,” Jane paused, and Maura laughed a gross, snotty, crying laugh. It made Jane’s smile wider. “Which, normally I hate. But… with you… I can’t imagine being with anyone else anymore. Actually, imagining it makes me sick to my stomach. I wanna be with you forever, and if you marry me, that would be better than any title, any trophy I could win.”

“I…” Maura began again, face scrunched as she tried not to cry even more.

“Need time to think about it?” Jane asked her. Her face was crestfallen, but she nodded. “I understand-”

“No!” Maura shouted, but she revised when Jane’s disappointment shifted into agony. She ran to Jane and bent down to kiss the face she now held in her hands. “No, not… I wasn’t saying no. Yes, yes of course I will marry you. I was going to say that I don’t know how to say yes enthusiastically enough,” she explained between the smacks of their lips together.

Jane, infused with life again, rose and picked Maura up with her. She kissed back with passion, adding tongue and grips against Maura’s ass without shame. “Yeah? Yeah, you will?”

“I will,” Maura confirmed, and then, she was overcome with emotion. Jane held her up so that her head was just a bit higher, and her tears dripped onto Jane’s cheeks, too. She gripped Jane’s shoulders tight and let herself sob just a few times in the safe cavern of Jane’s neck. She wrapped her legs around Jane’s trim waist and consented to being held before she tried to pull herself back together. After just a few moments of stillness, of staying that way and letting the most intense parts of the emotional wave pass her by, she whined. “Ugh,” she pouted with disgust. “Daddy, I just dropped the perfect light fixture. Do you know how many weeks they’re going to be on backorder? That was the last one in a radius of a hundred miles.”

Jane guffawed into the empty room, the waves of it looping and loud when they hit the air. She kissed Maura once more, turning her head so that their lips could meet in a saltysweet union, and then set her down. “Don’t worry about it; that was my fault. I’ll drive two hundred miles to get you one if I have to.” They both walked up to the broken glass to survey the damage. Unsalvageable. “Well, shit. Don’t you wanna look at the pretty jewelry instead?”

Maura perked up instantly, the mess forgotten as she hopped over it to get to the mantle. She picked up the ring box, and admired the cut of the three diamonds in the center, the band trimmed with smaller ones on either side. “You have been paying attention,” she told Jane, pleased. “How much was this?” She slid it on, unable to wait to see it on her finger any longer.

“None of your damn business,” Jane replied, coming up next to her. “But thank the Colorado Rockies. That was the last of my signing bonus, courtesy of a little equity in the home I just sold.”

“Hmm, should I marry them instead? Trevor Story is quite-”

“Don’t! Don’t even say it, or I will take that right back and go to tomorrow’s game alone,” Jane grouched as she attempted to swipe the ring back, but Maura moved her arm out of the way and ran a few steps to the right.

“No, no! You gave it to me; it’s mine now,” she taunted.

Jane had gone to chase, but suddenly stopped short. She grinned. “I’m yours now,” she clarified.

Maura softened, and returned to Jane’s embrace. “Think of it as your call-up,” she said with hooded eyes and a suggestive lick of her lips.

Jane countered with a dark gaze of her own. “This is gonna be even better than playin’ in The Show. Think your ass’ll fit on the kitchen counter?”

Maura yipped when she was lifted off of her feet again, giggled when she was thrown over a shoulder and carried into the aforementioned, half-complete kitchen. “I know you won’t let me fall. Just… be careful. The granite is brand new.”

“I’ll replace that, too,” Jane growled, setting Maura down and pulling her t-shirt off.

The house was going to be perfect.

[allpromarlo]

lockout? huh...haven't heard that in years...

[hotshotsxyz]

MLB AU??!! The literal way to my heart! I'm loving the snippets you posted and I hope you're coping with this lockout better than I am 😭

I'm going to be so sad if it ends up delaying the start of the regular season 😭 until then I'm going to cope with college baseball

here's another snippet to help get up both through 💙

Bobby calls him into his office an hour later.

“Meet Eddie Diaz, new pitcher,” he says.

As if Buck doesn’t already know who he is. Eddie sticks out his hand, so Buck reluctantly takes it, trying not to scowl too much. From the look on Bobby’s face, he doesn’t succeed.

“I’ve heard good things,” Eddie says, smiling professionally at him, ignoring the way Buck squeezes his hand far too tight. “I’m looking forward to working with you, Buckley.”

“Likewise,” Buck grits out. He drops Eddie’s hand and looks away. “Anything else?” he directs at Bobby.

Bobby sighs. “Go back to practice, we’ll be down in a few.”

Buck spins on his heel and leaves, but not fast enough to miss what Bobby says to Eddie.

“He’s a good kid. He’ll come around.”

No he most certainly will not.

[wild-aloof-rebel]

Okay Leslie, I love your baseball fics, and the latest one is 😭😭 but I know nothing else about baseball. Can you explain what is happening right now to me like I'm 5? I keep seeing news that there's a lockout or whatever... but I don't know what that means or why or anything?

oh goodness, ummmm i guess the 5-year-old version is that mlb and the owners are all scrooge mcduck and their favorite hobby is pulling one of these

but they think their pools of gold aren’t wide enough or deep enough, so they told the players—you know, the people who actually do the job that makes them all that gold—that they can’t come to work again until they agree to let all the scrooges make rules that keep giving them more and more gold, while the players get squat.

in case you want a slightly more substantial explanation than that, i’ll put it under a cut (and i’ll try to keep the baseball of it all to a minimum, lol)...

okay, so baseball operates under a collective bargaining agreement (cba) between mlb and the players’ union, the mlbpa. like any cba, it covers things like salaries, disciplinary and grievance procedures, and health and safety, and it is mutually agreed upon by mlb and the union. the most recent cba was enacted in 2017 and covered through the end of the 2021 season. that cba expired at the end of the day on december 1, at which time the league made the decision to lock out the players.

in basically any kind of labor dispute, there are two kinds of work stoppage: a strike and a lockout. a strike is implemented by the union side, a lockout by the employer. in essence they are the same thing: the employees will not do any work until the strike/lockout comes to an end. from mlb’s point of view, they went with a lockout to preempt the players striking and to supposedly jump start negotiations, though the latter part is mostly a joke based on how mlb has behaved since then.

anyway, practically, this means things like, if you’re having off-season surgery, you can’t work with the team’s trainers during your recovery, nor can they ask how you are doing (because mlb has told staff they aren’t allowed to have contact with players during the lockout). it also means that spring training workouts are not starting this week as they were scheduled to. hilariously—because what can you do if you can’t laugh about this nonsense—it has also led to things like

(Yankees reliever Zack) Britton and his brother, Buck, who manages Baltimore’s Triple-A club in Norfolk, are in a supremely weird spot. As an MLB team employee, Buck is technically prohibited from contacting his brother, who is a 40-man roster player for the Yankees.

“We’ve joked that during Christmas, he’s got to stay on the other side of the room,” Zack told FOX Sports.

anyway, so the players are currently locked out until a new cba is reached or the owners decide to end it out of the goodness of their hearts, which, lbr, is not gonna happen. (theoretically they can end the lockout and mlb and the mlbpa can agree to continue to play under the old cba until a new deal is reached, which is essentially how the 1994-95 strike ended, but that seems Very Unlikely to happen this time around and even then basically only happened with federal intervention.)

so all the issues now are basically just what each side is arguing for or against wanting in a new cba. i won’t get into too much detail about all of it, but some of the main things under discussion are... 

1. player salaries and free agency: for the first three years of a player’s career, they [almost universally] make the league minimum. after that, they enter salary arbitration where they can negotiate with their team for a better contract. after six years, they enter free agency, where they can seek out a new team and a new contract. free agency is typically where the Big Money happens, since players have more leverage and choice, but as you can see, it takes a while to get there. 

2. service time manipulation: all those things in the previous point are determined not by actual calendar years but by service time, or how long a player actually plays in the majors. teams can manipulate that system by sending players back down to the minors for a bit to extend how long it takes to reach those milestones. this means keeping your hot young stars for longer (since they don’t get to free agency as fast) and for dirt cheap (since before arbitration they can’t negotiate for what they’re worth). 

3. revenue sharing and the competitive balance tax: i won’t bog you down with the details of how these work, but they are two different things with the same intended purpose, which is to help spread money around the league to support smaller market teams and make them more competitive with teams that basically eat money for breakfast. essentially, they take some money from teams with more of it and redistribute it to those with less. it seems like a good idea, but in reality, both of these have given [some] teams and owners a reason not to spend money, when they can just make it off the backs of other teams without actually making any effort to field a good team of their own. which leads to...

4. tanking: some owners just flatout refuse to put forth a competitive team. there are always arguments that sometimes being cheap and/or bad for a season or two is a useful rebuilding strategy, but for a lot of teams it’s just that there is very little incentive to win. they don’t have to go after expensive free agents when they can just field a team of mostly pre-arbitration players being paid the minimum, they’ll get rewarded with better draft picks the more that they lose, and through revenue sharing and competitive balance tax penalties, they’ll make more money than they’re spending, which they can just pocket since they aren’t required to actually use that money to make their team better, even though that was its intended purpose. (obviously spending lots of money isn’t a guarantee that your team will be good, but not spending any money is almost certainly a guarantee that it will be bad.) and if you’re a player unlucky enough to be stuck on a team that is not actually investing in winning, you’re truly stuck there unless they happen to trade you, since you can’t make the choice to go to another team until you become a free agent after six long years. 

at the end of the day, owners want to keep being allowed to put money directly into their pockets instead of spending it on players, and players want to receive their fair share of the revenue they help to generate, they want it earlier in their careers, and they want the teams they play for to actually care about winning games. seems like a reasonable ask, but of course we wouldn’t be here if mlb was a reasonable organization 🙃

(and of course none of this even touches on the plight of minor leaguers, who are affected by these same practices and the greed of mlb owners but do not actually have a say in any of this since there is no minor league union and they are not covered under the cba or represented by the mlbpa since those are specifically for the majors)

[peniswentz]

hi what is happening with baseball can you like explain it in terms that make sense to people who aren’t invested with baseball

I think this sums it up pretty well, but I don't really know too much about the MLB and MLBPA in this situation.

Because of these disagreements and mistreatment, the MLB issued a lockout a while ago (I don't even remember when anymore)

The lockout deadline was supposed to be yesterday where players and owners had like 13 meetings, and it ended up going past 12 am ET, which was the deadline. They changed the deadline to 5 pm ET today, so hopefully they reach and agreement by then.

If they don't get an agreement today, there's a chance opening day will be cancelled, and the whole season is pretty much in danger.

If anyone has things to correct or add on to this, please feel free to, this is just my understanding of it.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Hi Ralph! I was wondering if you had heard about the MLB lockout back in December? Baseball activities stopped because the the owners locked the players out after a labor dispute. Owners wouldn’t allow teams to communicate with their players. This article is a super interesting day-by-day of what was happening. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32882139/mlb-lockout-mlb-mlbpa-agree-new-cba The mistreatment of minor league players by baseball is disturbing too. I thought you might find this interesting!

I hadn't heard anything about that anon - I know there's a really interesting history of collective action in baseball, but I haven't ever followed it. Thanks for sending me a starting point, I ever have the time.

[kingreader]

i dont know what mlb is ive never heard of mlb but i will listen

ok so MLB stands for major league baseball and as of yesterday they went into a “lockout�� where the players are quite literally locked out of team facilities and such because the team owners and the players union couldn’t come to an agreement. is sort of like the players are going on strike until their demands are met. this is a very rare occurrence and it puts the entire 2020 season at risk. it’s basically millionaires fighting billionaires cause they’re both greedy. if you’ve followed me for a bit you might know that i’m a baseball fan so it’s safe to say that i’m a tad upset. and that ends my rant. thank you and goodnight.

[coasttickets]

MLB Strikes Again

We haven’t had Major League Baseball players go on strike for a salary increase since the midseason of 1994. That salary cap dispute, actually, ended up running into the next year, 1995. Fast forward, to 2022, and tensions have arisen, once again. There has been a desire to raise the minimum salary of players, while keeping the competitive-balance tax, which would in-turn create a pool to aid in paying young players. With more than just issues with owner-imposed lockout concern, which was unanimously voted on by all 30 owners, this seems it will affect this year’s baseball season. This will not only affect fans but players as well. The Major League Baseball Players Association has barred players from participating in club activities, stopped club officials from engaging with them, and prevented teams from transacting trades or free-agent signings at the MLB level. After an extension of Monday’s informal deadline, Major League Baseball and the MLB association were unable to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement on Tuesday. By 5 pm, the deadline was reached without a favorable outcome for either side of this negotiation. On Thursday, there was a union meet in New York, where there was an hour and a half allocated, to plot the next steps of these negotiations. After this past “best and final offer” was proposed, on Tuesday, and with the discussions that took place on Thursday, we have yet to see what exactly the future compromise will entail. So far, MLB has spent about 20 hours, almost an entire day, on coming to an adequate compromise that will bring about a resolution that can get us all back to enjoying the games. What we do know is, spring training is out completely and the start of the 2022 season will be set back at least a couple weeks and will start no sooner than the second week of April. Stay tuned to see when the new home openers will take place. Email us at tickets@coasttickets.com to sign up to receive event information and special offers.

[something-tofightfor]

2022: New Year, Same Blog

Yesterday, I said that I would update all of you on things that were coming in 2022 to my blog - some of them are current works that will be finished, others are brand new … and I’m sure there will be a few surprises. 

First: Like I said a couple days ago, I want to start using my Discord to talk with you because Tumblr is unreliable when it comes to messaging and sending asks. This is a way to keep in contact without having to share a phone number or other very personal information.

 You can find me at somethingtofightfor#7728. 

If you send me a request, please just let me know your username on here / what you want me to call you so I can add it to the notes and know who you are. 

Second: I’m going to start posting a weekly writing recap on Sunday nights. I won’t use a taglist or anything on it, but this way, if a story or an update somehow didn’t show up in the search results earlier in the week, there’s a second chance for things to be seen. 

Depending on how much I write and post, I may change this so it’s bi-weekly. We’ll see how it goes. I’m going to tag it “STFF recap” in case you want to follow the tag or whatever; IDK if anyone’s interested in that. 

…. And now onto the fun stuff, under the cut! 

Coming Soon (likely in this order!) 

Slopeside - the NYE story that I’ve been teasing. Mystery Pedro character + skiing + the last of the holiday magic. It is a smut. The character lends himself to it very easily, even when out of his element. 

Magnetic 21 - It’s done, it just needs edits and a title. Just under 12,000 words. 

Buried 9 - Cider’s POV is complete. I want to start writing Jack’s and see if it makes sense to include it in the same piece, or do another .5 as a separate chapter. 

Aphelion 5 - Planning on devoting a good chunk of time today and tomorrow to working on this. I hope to get a draft to @the-blind-assassin-12 to Alyssa by the end of the week (1/9)

Caught On 4 - I’m about 3200 words into this one, and it’s… something. (Spoiler alert: someone feels guilty and it isn’t you)

A Detour in Your New Life  - Part of the Just Too Good to Be Gone universe, this will be a recap of not only meeting Joel, but getting to know him - and telling him about your version of before. 

Planned/In Progress 

On Deck: (Jack Daniels baseball AU) - I’ll probably start posting this one around the beginning of the 2022 MLB regular season (if there is one because of the lockout). Look for it to start around the end of March. Should only be a couple parts to tell the main story - 3, maybe 4?

No One Sings Like You Anymore / Burdened Black Heart: (Joel Miller x Reader, JTGtBG universe) - I’ll get these done as I can, but they’re going to be longer one shots. BBH will likely not be a smutty one, No One Sings is DEFINITELY a smutty one. 

Untitled Javi P horror/soulmate AU series: I want to keep as much of this one hidden as I can. I know the basic plot, I know the outcome, I just need to write it - this one will be scary and violent (but also smutty, because … Javi). 

Starlight: (Ezra x Reader) I’m still not sure if I want these to be super long or super short, but this is going to flesh out the relationship. I intended this to be a short series with half of each part taking place before The Green and half after Ezra gets back … but we’ll see. 

Stuff I have in Google Docs and will get to if there’s interest 

More for Baby It’s Cold Outside Frankie and Reader

More for Just Be-Claus Marcus and Reader

The Thief/Reader from ‘Empty’ in other scenarios

A Marcus Moreno Thing that has about three paragraphs and zero plot 

Liminality

NSFW Alphabets for Joel, Jack, and (lord help me) Frankie Morales

I want to finish in 2022: 

Magnetic

Buried

Caught On

Just a Place

Seasons to Cycles

If there’s anything that you’d like to see me write or work on, don’t EVER hesitate to let me know. My inbox is always open, and honestly, some of the stories that I’ve posted on here have come straight from conversations and offhand comments from friends and followers. 

[rimouskis]

you know, after seeing the statement the NHLPA released along with the MLB, NFL and NBA unions supporting the PRO Act bill (which provides protection for workers trying to organize), it made me curious over what Sid knows about unions from to his involvement in the 2012 lockout. like he's a multimillionaire and not exactly uhhhhh the common union man, but he was effectively part of a bargaining committee and sat through a lot of meetings that year. très curious!

[anthrofreshtodeath]

like any sports teams besides the red sox?

@sharknatho perfect question, because there is nothing I care more about than sports (maybe my wife? 😂 idk though, I told her I wouldn’t marry her until she gave up being a Dodgers fan).

So, here’s the thing: I love the Sox, as my ma’s family is from Maine, but I live, breathe, eat, and shit the Angels. The Angels are the marrow in my bones. Baseball is by far my favorite sport. But idk, saying it’s my favorite makes it sound more trivial than it is. My whole life is baseball, pretty much. This lockout is hurting me.

After baseball (both MLB and MiLB), I enjoy football, basketball, and soccer in that order. My teams:

NFL: Jets

NBA: Clippers

Soccer: Mexican and Italian National teams, and Liga MX and Serie A. I don’t really have favorite teams in each league per se, because I got into soccer later in life through my best friend. So it’s more intellectual for me.

What about you? 👀

[justinaudleymuschette]

Problem-Opportunity Research

This research project focuses on issues between the organization are the MLB owners, and the MLBPA, who could not make a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) passed on December 1, 2021, at 8:59 pm PT. Then on February 28, 2022, their 2017–2021 CBA deal expired. MLB wants the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) to increase a few million dollars per year, but the MLBPA wants CBT to increase by $20-$50 million per year. MLB owners and the MLBPA disagreed on how many teams should be in the playoffs: 12 or 14. Also, they had a hard time making a good deal for contracts for minor league players, non-arbitration n, international pool, and baseball rules. MLB owners and the MLBPA do not have a good relationship this year because they refuse to sit and discuss how they can work together in the short or long-term. The stakeholder group will be the Major League Baseball fanbase. This issue significantly impacts millions of fans' relationships with MLB and MLBPA because we are the one reason they make money. Millions of fans had a hard time trusting them because they did not compromise to have a deal in time or were not sure why it was their problem that they could not meet it halfway to make a CBA deal. Moreover, they did not deliver the message very clearly to the MLB fanbase, and MLB owners and MLBPA did not explain what they wanted in the proposal in their CBA deals.

The professional baseball organization in America is called Major League Baseball (MLB) and is also the oldest major professional sports league globally. In 2022, MLB had 30 teams playing—15 teams in the National League (NL) and 15 teams in the American League (AL), with 29 teams in the United States and one team in Canada. MLB's headquarters is at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan, New York. The MLB's current commissioner is Rob Manfred. MLB revenue has been enormous, rising from $8.2 billion in 2015 to over $10.7 billion in 2019. Still, player salaries have decreased by 6.4%, which means the average salary declined from $4.45 million to $4.17 million during the CBA deal (2015 to 2021). Thirteen teams had payrolls under $100 million for the 2021 season. Even more, five teams spent less than $50 million. MLB had 24,219 employees in February 2022 and 45.3 million fans at the stadium in 2021.

The focus group's primary demographics are as follows: all of them were deaf, and one member was deaf and blind. In a focus group, conducted a group chat with five deaf members and four hearing members—at separate times; they are baseball or MLB fans with much knowledge of issues with the MLB and the MLBPA's CBA deals and have supported their respective baseball teams for many years. Also, some had played or are actively playing in a baseball or softball league. The demographics in my focus group are aged 22 to 50. All the participants are men of different races; some are homeowners and either husbands or in a relationship. Two members are college students, and three are employees. The members of my focus group live in Enfield, Connecticut; Rochester, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Washington, D.C.; and Tucson, Arizona. They love baseball and always watch baseball or softball games featuring their favorite teams via TV or live streaming. They are very extroverted and love to discuss baseball with friends or family or anything sports-related through social media. One member in my focus group plays in an adult softball league every year in his hometown.

After interviewing seven people for the Hon-Grunig test, they all scored differently on the scale for six elements of a relationship. Three out of seven people had low scores on satisfaction because they said that MLB did not do well with how they handled their problem. Also, all seven people had an almost standard score on Control Mutuality on the Hon-Grunig test because they knew that MLB had the control to cancel many games or end the MLB lockout. After all, only MLB had the power to do so. MLB owners did not care about the fan base loyal to MLB for many years. MLB did not care or listen to fans' perspectives or opinions about new rules or shortening the baseball game. MLB's strengths are excellent merchandising and marketing, excellent broadcasting, and a show with the best players worldwide. MLB does have a vast and loyal fan base and a lot of historical rivalries between teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. MLB owners do not know how to negotiate with the MLBPA without shutting them out or refusing to listen to their proposal for the CBA deal. The MLBPA's weakness is that their expectation is too high and too demanding for their proposal, and they will not be willing to meet halfway. Both MLB owners and the MLBPA have the opportunity to create a sense of community for all fan bases because they need fans, and that is how baseball continues to stay a popular sport in America. The potential threat to the MLB and the MLBPA risk losing millions of fans if they struggle to make new CBA deals or do not have a baseball season this year. MLB owners will lose millions of dollars in revenue. Fans will not buy any players' jerseys or baseball cards, so baseball players will not profit. Then the MLB will no longer be widespread in America.

Five deaf participants and four hearing participants who have supported their baseball team for many years with knowledge about MLB and the MLBPA's CBA deal issues were interviewed in two separate focus groups. They were all agitated, disappointed, and angry that MLB and the MLBPA could not agree on new CBA deals on December 2, 2021. The knowledge about the CBA agreement failed to cause an MLB lockout for 99 days. Then, they made a new agreement for the CBA deal. They all were aware that MLB owners and the MLBPA struggled to meet halfway in negotiating a new CBA deal because they had demanded CBA deals. Also, they know that MLB owners are greedy and care about money and investment in their team. One interviewee, Mark, made a good point about the MLB owners. Mark said, 'I think the owners care more about money and investment. Most owners care about that over winning.' He points at MLB owners because he knows that the owners do not care about the MLBPA's future generation of players and the poorest players, including minor leaguers. After all, he is involved in labor unions at his job and can understand the MLB players' perspectives. Anthony said, 'I am mostly on the side of the MLBPA because these guys fight for their fellow players in getting the absolute most of what they deserve, not just on the major-league side but the minor league players too.' He said that MLB players and minor league players deserve to get paid more because they are working hard to reach professional baseball in the long term. Everyone must know about this one because it is like another labor union with the same vision and goals for employees' future and the young generation. The participant in a focus group knows a lot about the CBA agreement between the MLB owners and the MLBPA union.

When interviewed, a focus group revealed that all the participants had a similar feeling. They all felt disappointment, frustration, fear, and hopelessness initially when asked questions about how MLB and the MLBPA could not agree on CBA deals, the MLB owners' greed, or how the MLB lockout continued for three months. Then asked them how they felt about the MLB owners, the MLBPA finally agreeing to new CBA deals, and the MLB lockout being over. All nine people felt relieved and soothed. They said their patience is worthwhile because they know that MLB owners and the MLBPA would not let the baseball season be canceled this year.

For attitudes and predispositions, I see and observe the participants' attitudes when they answer my questions. Their typical attitude is determined, disagreeable, empathetic, and responsive when they find out about the failed CBA deal. Also, they are very empathetic and responsive when asked about whom they support, MLB or the MLBPA. Four out of 9 people responded in solid support for the MLBPA because they want to see the MLB players' union become strong and make sure the MLB owners do not take advantage of players for many years. Zach, one of the people in my focus group, said, 'The owners refuse to accept any progress in the league unless there is a heavy impact on filling their pockets, which has created this stalemate to begin with.' MLB owners want to make more money for themselves, and that is why they do not want to increase pay for MLB players, minor leaguers, and future generations of players.

The participants in the focus group showed that their values for MLB and their favorite team were loyalty, passion, and connection. Also, these fans value that they feel they belong to baseball, not other sports. One of the group members said, 'Ecstatic is the only word that comes to mind.' He was overjoyed that baseball season was back so they could watch baseball and create a sense of community. One person interviewed in my focus group showed a mix of pessimistic, optimism, and distrust when discussing MLB and the MLBPA's future new CBA deals. They tried to be positive that MLB owners and the MLBPA have learned their lesson and will not make the same mistake this year.

In the focus group, participants revealed that their behavior is cheering, buying merchandise, and attending games if MLB lockdown is over. A few participants responded quickly when asked about baseball season being back; their behavior showed much enthusiasm and was pleasant. They could watch baseball with their family or friends, and the baseball community could be united again because the MLB and baseball are part of American culture.

MLB and the MLBPA's new agreement on the CBA deal was completed on March 12. The CBA agreement included minimum salaries, competitive balance threshold, etc. Also, they agreed to expand the postseason and place advertisements on uniforms. The new minimum salaries will start at $700,000 in 2022, with a 23% increase from the year and a rise to $780,000 for the final year in 2026. The competitive balance threshold will be set at $230M in 2022 and reach $244M by 2026. Another change for the new CBA includes a universal designated hitter for both the American League and National League; a six-team draft lottery and a 45-day window to enforce rule changes will begin in 2023. By 2026, MLB owners and the MLBPA will have reached an agreement on new CBA deals for the next five years. For the first time since 1994–1995, MLB and the MLBPA worked jointly on a CBA deal to end the 99-day MLB lockout.

My recommendation for the solution for strategic communication was that MLB owners and the MLBPA need to use a collaborative approach strategy to build a strong relationship with the MLB fan base. MLB league and MLB union could provide more reliable information about CBA deals between MLB owners and the MLBPA's proposal document. MLB owners and the MLBPA union should use their MLB platform to complete the information about the proposal for CBA deals, when the deadline is, what is inside the CBA deal package. and more. Also, they can share on other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. That will help the firm communicate between the MLB organization, MLB union, and MLB fans. Therefore, stakeholders (MLB fans) could read and know what was going on in the CBA negotiations between MLB owners and the MLBPA. That would help the MLB fan base realize that MLB owners and the MLBPA union want to bring baseball back for fans, not just for themselves. MLB fans would also alleviate every MLB fan base's fear of the canceled baseball season or confusion about the CBA proposal for baseball rules, postseason, competitive balance tax, international pool, etc. That will help MLB fanbase start to trust the MLB organization and MLBPA union and harmless for each side's rights. They would be thrilled and stay loyal to MLB and MLBPA, and MLB and MLBPA would not lose millions of fans. It is a win-win for both the MLB organization and MLB fans. 

Works Cited

1- Gonzalez, A. (2022, March 10). MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, union chief Tony Clark hail new CBA as lockout ends. ESPN. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33470321/sources-mlb-union-reach-tentative-agreement-new-cba-salvage-162-game-season

2- MLB attendance hits 37-Year low. Front Office Sports. (2021, October 5). Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://frontofficesports.com/mlb-attendance-hits-37-year-low/

3- OKennedy, P. (2021, December 16). MLB's revenue sharing problem, and how to solve it. Bless You Boys. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.blessyouboys.com/2021/12/16/22831008/mlbs-revenue-sharing-problem-and-how-to-solve-it

4- Team, M. B. A. S. (2020, April 12). New York Yankees SWOT analysis, competitors & USP. MBA Skool. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/sports-teams-and-events/6235-new-york-yankees.html

5- Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, May 1). New York yankees. Wikipedia. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Yankees

[saipparn]

And here's the pitch ... MLB season officially begins today

Major League Baseball's opening day is finally here.

The league will hope to put an off-season of uncertainty behind it as baseball embarks on a somewhat compressed, yet full, 162-game schedule beginning Thursday. Here's everything you need to know.

Why the delay in opening day? The MLB season was originally slated to start on March 31, but the league announced that it would be cancelling the start of the 2022 regular season due to a breakdown in negotiations as the league and players association pursued a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

MLB and players agree to a new labor contract, paving the way to a full 2022 season SPORTS MLB and players agree to a new labor contract, paving the way to a full 2022 season MLB's owners originally locked out players on Dec. 2, 2021, severing contact between teams and their players until the lockout ultimately ended 99 days later. It was the first time MLB games were cancelled as a result of a work stoppage since the 1994-95 players strike.

As part of the new CBA those cancelled games will be squeezed into the regular stretch of games, saving a full 162-game season.

What changed with the new agreement? One of the biggest changes as part of the new CBA is that pitchers will no longer have to take an at-bat in the National League. The American League has allowed designated hitters to take the pitchers' places in the rotation since 1973, but now the rule is universal for both leagues.

[kingreader]

ok so which one of you is going to listen to me talk about the MLB lockout and pretend to know what i’m talking about🤨