Clown Show

Do you remember the owners’ rationale for their “defensive lockout” of players back in December? MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in a letter “we cannot allow an expired agreement to again cause an in-season strike and a missed World Series, like we experienced in 1994. We all owe you, our fans, better than that.” Well, that was then, and this is now. As reported on the MLB.com website today, a spokesman—unidentified, perhaps out of embarrassment—indicated yesterday that an agreement has to be reached by next Monday, or else. Why? Because “The deadline is the deadline. After February 28, games will be cancelled. Missed games are missed games and salary will not be paid for those games.” Wait, there’s more. The unnamed spokesman added that regular-season games won’t be made up. Why? The difficulty of rescheduling interleague games. “Simply put, we would resume the existing schedule based upon when we are able to ratify an agreement and open camps.” Good to know. So, the owners wanted to prevent players from cancelling games while being able to do so themselves. Heads they win, tails we lose.