What Will The Players Do?
We have all read a lot about the possibility of re-opening and/or re-starting the various sports leagues. But one thing I haven’t seen are actual polls done by their respective player unions. Do we have an accurate idea of how many players will actually agree to go back and play? Or do we have to wait for a firm plan and then they vote? What percentage need to sign off on it for this to be a go? We’ve heard from a few random players interviewed by ESPN or Yahoo but will their be enough players who will vote yes agreeing to play their sport in the middle of a pandemic? And will there be some who just say “I’m not doing it.”
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Oh that will be interesting, for instance in baseball to see how MLBPA would react to some proposal that would include isolating in one state for as much as 3 months worth of an 80 game season. Do wonder if there would be something akin to AS break where everyone got 3-4 days off to potentially reconnect.
I think most would be in…do you want to get paid? do you want to play baseball?
weeks ago Chron had story of a day in life of Crawford and his wife/4 kids who live in Arizona. Turns out Mrs. has a twin sister, older brother and parents who live nearby. dinner included 14 people
that sounds awful. I’d be arrested on mass murder charges if I had to eat with 14 people every night.
seems like an FB housewives inspired cult. I’d play ball just to have my own space. In vids, he gets up last, does his own individual workouts until interrupted by kids, and plays late night vid games by himself. Still…
I’m with you Flavor, the dishwasher is working OT everyday!!
I think the older players would have the most conflicting reasons to play or not too. Most of them should have a pretty nice nest egg put away for a rainy day. if they have been in the league for 6-10 years should anyway. What to do, play and take a chance of catching the virus with all the stuff that goes with it. Or, play because they are not getting any younger and windows are closing. Unless testing gets real good or a vaccine that somewhat works I think there will be a lot of protests to return.
They should have a pretty nice nest egg after 6-10 weeks.
No joke…
2 adult kids at home. 3 of us working. One at high-risk. We are doing as well as possible to keep each other safe but you never know.
Hope your daughter is doing well, Chuck…
Thanks, DJ.
I’m sure it’s around 50/50 for the players to stay or play. But what then? Are players going to be forced to play or stand to lose salary if they say no? I just don’t see how this works.
I wonder if that “force majeure” thing is in ballplayers contracts .
And if so, how would it apply?
Window to be pro athlete and play sport you like is only open for so long. Conditions might not be ideal but this is what you got.
If I was a player, I am not evaluating/signing-off on shit until there is a comprehensive plan to review.
Seventh week of full-time telecommuting here. Just Gail, me, and the hounds in our casa. Jenna, Gail’s daughter and her toddler son visit on occasion, but they were with us before the tiny house in which they are living was delivered onto our property.
“that force majeure thing” (very nice)
mlb and the union addressed most of those issues early on, at least according to the simple summary linked below:
“If the season is canceled, the only payment players will receive is the $170 million advance teams guaranteed players to be distributed in April and May. The money is essentially a down payment on salaries for 2020. Should games be played, it will be factored into paychecks. If no games are played, the players get to keep the $170 million without repayment.
“The agreement adds that players cannot sue for their salaries . . . .” (In other words, the agreement reinforces mlb’s kangaroo court arbitration system.)
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28964249/what-mlb-deal-players-means-2020-season-beyond
Thanks, Mike. I really cannot wait for those magic words…”Play Ball!”
Just call me F. Loo Bailey…
lulz…
Yes thx Xoot. without trying to do the math, in middle of the column is section on what players are currently being paid ($170 mil), $5K a day through April and May. So what happens after that?
say couple weeks of ST are scheduled middle June before baseball resumes July for 80 games or so. anyone getting paid or will this have to be negotiated again?
I think players on the 40-man would get paid in full during a late ST, subject to the “factoring” deductions for prepayment mentioned in the article. If that’s right, then the other players wouldn’t get much at all unless and until they make the roster–at the end of ST. But I haven’t read the special agreement in any detail.
The MLB players’ union is the strongest of all the sports unions, because they stick together on issues. If some of the players don’t want to risk their health and their family’s health by playing Petri Dish baseball, there won’t be players crossing the imaginary picket line on that.
Or maybe I should say I would be shocked if some of the players crossed over the line.
Those players won’t get paid, and arbitration will be their only recourse. Fine for Buster; he’s got lots of money and the Giants aren’t going to fire him for partial default. Maybe not so good for Yaz or Dubon or Dickerson.
I guess if MLB decided to open up in Florida and/or AZ it would be a way to get rid of bad contracts. If I’m an owner I sure as hell would want to keep my stud vets and prospects safe.
yikes! So only the has-been, never-were, or wretchedly desperate will play? Quick–get Aubrey Huff on the line.
Yep, and go ahead and sign Puig. The players I want to play in 2021 and/or beyond, would continue working out and maybe play some team scrimmages some place thats somewhat safer than AZ or Florida, I don’t know, maybe South Korea.
New Zealand — build some ballparks sans stands (LL style bleachers only), start the season around Thanksgiving. 1 pm here is 8 am there, tomorrow.
Mike – love your “thinking outside the box” idea re: New Zealand.
I have a theory that Canada doesn’t really exist…
I always think about this place every time I hear the word golf…Barry Melrose telling some ESPN guy he was talking to, “I’ve been to Guelph.”
I was in Kitchener around 1993 at some joint that might’ve had the longest bar in North America…
I saw a fox the size of a guard dog in the snow beside the Yukon Highway calmly watch our lone car speed by.
NBA talk was to come back and have every team play to the 70 game mark, leaving the Warriors 5 games left. If that is the route, they should sit Curry and Klay is he has recovered. 5 games and the lottery waiting is no impetus to play these guys.
Terms of baseball, the game itself should be the least likely one to transmit any virus player to player during play. Remind pitchers not to go their mouths and players not to touch their faces. Players want their families with them in these spring training locations or in Texas, rent a house for a couple of months. Too much hand wringing IMO.
Didnt Curry also have a bad flu after coming back. Was there more to that than just the flu?
no.He was tested and it was the seasonal flu.
That’s a big IF when players who are so use to going to they’re mouths instinctively to remember,especially, and catchers on a hot day constantly taking their masks off and wiping down sweat from they’re faces.And what of all the foul balls that go into the stands passing more germs when fans pass the ball around, then go get a hotdog and beer passing more germs around..
If race is NOT the reason why black individuals are at almost double the rate of infection, but life style factors instead, that needs to be determined definitely. Else could be some extra push-back by black players. Shouldn’t be much of a problem in major leagues, but NFL and NBA? This “black thing” has just come up in the last week. Totally new prevention angle. Look at the majority black cities in Red states for push back today. Yet another factoid that we don’t know the answer to. Full speed ahead?
Promising vaccine studies in Britain may be the “magic bullet” that Trump and all of us are hoping for. So far six (6) monkeys have shown to be protected. Think they are starting human trials (6 months?) before ready for the rest of the world. Let’s see, six months from May 1st is uhh, uhh December 1st! That’s the quickest a vaccine is available. Do you guys think players would give up a potential 10 years of excellent coin for a half-ass season in 2020? When they can vaccinate the entire rosters then it will happen.
“Too much hand wringing IMO.”
60,000 dead from the virus so far, in about a month and a half.
An autopsy on a middle-aged woman showed her virus-infected heart had burst open.
60K in the USA alone. Republicans are in a tight spot. They seem to think they need to lay it all on the line. Open up the country and hope that the slaughter isn’t too bad. Maybe the electoral losses in Nov won’t be too serious, in that event. If things go really wrong — millions dead, economy totally trashed — well, that’ll be the price they pay for being stuck with a small-brained lunatic as their frontman. They’ll sit back then, start planning for 2028, and enjoy counting the plunder that they’ve amassed since 2016. Meanwhile, maybe everyone else will finally begin to understand what the smart money people mean when they say the stock market isn’t the economy.
Well said.
OSF, I think poverty is much bigger cause. Millionaire black athletes are not dying, poor black people with inadequate access to health care among other things, are. Often there are other untreated health factors involved, more related to poverty as in New Orleans.
Fauci has said baseball could happen given proper pre conditions being met and I can trust him on this. Couple months down the road I could see this happening; obviously owners and MLBPA would have to be comfortable and agreeable to the situation. My hope is that can safely happen. I do feel since changes occur so rapidly, making predictions is useless and you can go full on doom or elsewhere–data changes quite often and affects everyone. And the uncertainty weighs heavily, on all of us, beside stock market.
Exactly.
Willie, thanks for responding to my opinion. Where is there a link to Faucci sayin that? Not disputing you, but just wanted to see how. Interested. Link if you can.
OSF
Current distraction is “Basketball Methods” by Pete Newell from 1962. Here he is on dribbling: “Overuse of the dribble is one of the supreme disadvantages…While one man has control of the ball the other four men are often useless and in the way. There is nothing more discouraging than running the length of the court to see one player dribble back and forth until he can let the ball fly toward the basket.”
Amen
This is more on Mitch McConnell than anyone else. The vile practices of the Republican party were honed to a keen edge on his watch since 2010. In the 10 years under Senate rule, how many jobs bills did the Republicans pass? ZERO. How many social bills? Hundreds. Whether it be guns, religion, or abortion, no social issue is too small not to pass a bill on. How the right vows to be smaller less intrusive government when all they want to do is dictate how people behave is up there with fiscal responsibility as another pile of shit they’ve sold the people.
Moscow Mitch and Paul Ryan the Bitch blocked 180 jobs bills proposed by Obama. Trump is just reaping the benefits of McConnell’s abject hatred for the left. As can be heard when McConnell said “no blue state bailouts”. Hmmm. Kentucky takes in $39 billion from the federal government every year. States like CA AND NY give the defs 30-40 billion. Yet McConnell doesn’t want to help the blue states. Let them go bankrupt. What a guy.
Check this. Jane Mayer wrote the book Dark Money, about the Koch brothers, et al (post Citizens United) and her magazine work is always illuminating.
https://www.google.com/search?q=jane+mayer+mcconnell+new+yorker&oq=jane+mayer+mcconnell+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.7134j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
If somehow the Dems get the Senate back and the presidency, Citizens United is the first thing that has to go.
Most, not all, but most of these players don’t give a shit about catching the virus. The vast majority of these guys are from the south after all. They think it’s either a hoax or something that only strikes old or unhealthy individuals and will never impact them or their family.
Guys like Posey (from the south) may not want to play but it has nothing to do with protecting them or their family. They have zero interest in playing the game with overly restricted rules in place. They would just prefer to call the season and get back to normal next year.
I tend to agree with all of this. I’d like to see a players union vote. I’d be surprised if 70% of the guys would vote for one of these *Arizona bio dome* ideas or whatever.
This is an excerpt from an ESPN article. The article is from 3 weeks ago, but I doubt anything’s changed on this.
“What was your immediate reaction to seeing MLB’s plan to start the season with players sequestered in Arizona?
American League starting pitcher: “I want us to be part of the solution, not the problem. I miss baseball, and I want to play baseball. When I think about being isolated for four to five months without being able to see my family, I don’t think that would go through at all, personally. I think that was very much the initial thought on it, and the media has blown things up a lot because we don’t have sports and this is the idea of having sports. I feel for guys who have young children. I feel for guys whose wives are pregnant right now. What do you do? I don’t want to be putting myself in a position where you could go and infect someone or get infected, and we have coaches, staff, people around us who are older and could be truly affected by this.”
Pitcher and union rep: “Look, I’m not saying this [playing baseball] wouldn’t be a positive. I love baseball; I want to play baseball. But if it’s not safe for us to be anywhere off the field except for a hotel, then it’s probably not safe to play games. I get it; I want to play too. You can want whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean that it can happen.”
Veteran AL reliever: “Honestly, my reaction would be I’m not OK with being separated from my family in the middle of a pandemic. Now if it was, ‘Hey, guys will be separated for a few weeks,’ then OK. But four months is rough.”
Veteran AL reliever: “You get into these certain scenarios just to play, and then at the end of the day, is it worth it? We have [several] coaches who are more than 70 years old. I don’t want to play if it’s putting one of them in jeopardy of their life.”
All-Star infielder: “I was worried about baseball being in a position with waning interest in the game, and this being kind of a unique opportunity to present itself as the only sport that is able to be watched. A game looking to draw attention, [they might be thinking], ‘If we can give them anything, we should.’ But are you gonna put people at risk just so you can be kings of the sports world for a couple of months?””
Told you.
OSF
The idea baseball comes back or not definitely will center around risk and whether players and coaches feel safe being able to be routinely tested and isolated. Now? of course not…in June/July who knows?
During the course of 162 game/ 6 month season, 81 of those are on the road to begin with. So all you would be doing is isolating all at once, and without travel.
Hispanic players that make up significant % of both leagues face being away from families as what they have to do as condition of being able to play and get paid. It’s what they do, every season.
“in June/July who knows?”
What have you seen that gives you any confidence that Trump and his team of goofballs are going to make any big progress by then on mass testing? And it will be a PR nightmare for MLB if the players are getting regular testing while the average people can’t get the amount of tests they need.
And even regular testing doesn’t address all the issues the players have with the whole thing.
But, time will tell. I don’t have a crystal ball into the future. 🙂
Not really paying attention to it, but NBCSN is showing Notre Dame-USC game from 2005. Our boy Smardz #83 just caught nice TD pass for Irish and bounced off DB. Graphic said he had TD in 6 straight games. Hair was long back then too.
The Giants retro game tonight is the one where Posey and Bum hit grandslams in the same game, I think.
For ya’ll in the US wondering/worrying what will happen after lockdown; I humbly offer myself as human guinea pig, as Vietnam is now reopening after getting down to zero new cases in-country and no deaths. Still have distancing, still no international arrivals, schools will reopen end of May, everyone’s wearing masks, but people are out and about, shops are open, restaurants and bars to follow next week after the big holiday here. I just took a 32-hour train ride all the way from Hanoi in the north (I got out while i could, f-ing hated being up there) to Saigon (arrived yesterday), in my own sleeper room, distanced (pics and vids on FB if you’re interested). Watch to see what happens here. I think there will be a spike upwards again and maybe rolling shut-downs, rather than full lock-downs, will probably happen now and then. Just hoping it doesn’t explode again.
I gotta stop posting at the end of threads.
yeah man, you really know how to clear out a room! lol. Hey what were you doing stuck in Hanoi?