Or Else

According to today’s The Athletic, owners and players met on Monday and are set to continue negotiating today. Owners reportedly have offered to play a full 162-game schedule if both sides can reach an agreement before tomorrow. How interesting. Back in February, “Duffer” Manfred said, “I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry,” then he cancelled the first two series of the season when players refused to roll over and give the owners the agreement they wanted. If The Athletic is correct, the owners have upped the luxury tax threshold by $10 million and are holding out the prospect of a full season, which means full salaries to boot. What happened to that “best and final” offer from last week? The threat not to make up games? Back in the real world, football has filled the void left by the defensive lockout specialists. Today’s Tribune has a full page of football news, including the jabbering of ex-Bears’ coach Lovie Smith; the Sun-Times has two-plus pages of football. Both papers are giving Chicago-team minor-league players the star treatment, but it rings hollow after a while. If they haven’t even reached High A, how can you treat them like the second coming of Ruth and Young? Another day wasted, another wound to the foot. I bet the Duffer is getting his practice swings in, though.