If the league is truly interested in more games than fewer, they're doing a helluva job of selling it.
While a former MLBPA lawyer suggested that Rob Manfred had subtly nudged the players toward a season with a triple-digit game count -- they suggested 114 when the league's initial offer only went to 82 -- the league instead responded by floating the idea of the bare minimum.
Unable to yet reach a return-to-play agreement, Major League Baseball has discussed playing a shorter schedule in which it would pay members of the MLB Players Association their full prorated salaries, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
Though MLB does not intend to propose this to the players, the possibility of implementing a schedule of around 50 games that would start in July has been considered by the league as a last resort in the event the parties can't come to a deal, sources said.
The number of games doesn't bother me the way it would irk the critics that Jon Heyman imagines ...
... mostly because when the rubber hits the road, I'm assuming the season will lack a genuine feeling regardless of how many games the season contains. Sure, 114 would be far more legitimate than 82 or 50, but regardless of the schedule's length, I'm assuming that strange circumstances will beget stranger results, potentially including but not limited to:
- Random small-sample strangeness.
- Injuries caused by the offseason's start-stop-start nature.
- Normal injuries taking a bigger chunk out of the season.
- Some of those injuries being illnesses.
- Players sitting out.
- Teams folding early and playing prospects.
- Unexpected byproducts of expanded pitching staffs covering fewer games.
- Nicotine withdrawal.
This is all why I don't consider a lost season to be the great tragedy that many others do, especially if it comes at the cost of making substantial work on the bigger threat around the corner. which is a work stoppage that can't be blamed on world events. As a projected third-place team, the White Sox stand to benefit from a smaller sample size, so I'd watch, report, analyze and hope that key players make use of the reps that were never guaranteed this season. But once 2020 flips over to 2021 -- no safe assumption -- it's possible those reps won't be all that instructive either.
There's a chance that the players and league have now staked out positions that naturally draws them to the initial and more sensible number of games played, but if 50 games is indeed a legitimate last resort, it basically gives players a frame of reference for how much additional money they should be willing to forgo, if any. In the league's initial proposal, it asked Mike Trout to work 82 games while getting paid for 25.
* * * * * * * * *
Tim Anderson talked to reporters about his perspective on the police brutality protests, where he pointed out that if you ask athletes to stick to sports when there are no sports to be played, you're basically asking them to be nothing.
“At the end of the day, we stand for more than just sports,” Anderson said during a conference call Monday. “If you remove the sports, as you can see now, then what are we? We’re human beings. We stand for more than our job title.”
Anderson is the only African-American player on the White Sox, and we saw how he could have used strength in numbers when he served a harsher suspension for using the N-word on a white player than the white player served for throwing a ball at him. Anderson opted out of trying to draw a distinction, and it probably wouldn't have been worth the trouble. Players from around the league tried to make the case to no avail, and while he had the support of his teammates, none of them were great candidates to attempt to explain the divide.
That's why it's important that Lucas Giolito is stepping up to offer backup, even if his status as a wealthy, affable white man doesn't make him a natural fit for such duties.
James Fegan called Giolito to ask about his initial foray into the protests, which took the form of a tweeted statement. Giolito sounded happy to expound.
“I’m just sick and tired of seeing this constantly happening,” Giolito said in a phone call with The Athletic. “This kind of stuff is going to be written in history books and when I’m an old man and I’m 85 years old and my grandkids or great-grandkids are learning about this is in history class, I don’t want them to come and ask me about it and I have to look at them in the face and be like, ‘Oh yeah, I didn’t really do much about that. I was just kind of waiting it out.'”
Giolito went on to say that he's used to being outnumbered in clubhouse discussions about politics, and he seems to welcome the clubhouse give-and-take, but he expressed frustration about the idea that unequal policing can be subject to a partisan divide.
“What’s going on right now with the racial injustice, that is a different category,” Giolito said. “That is not politics, that is human rights. That has nothing to do with being a Democrat or Republican. [...]
“I see it as fundamental wrongdoing, institutionalized racism. It’s kind of woven in the fabric of the country. I don’t see how it could be a political issue. Actually when people try to make it a political issue, I actually take offense to it and I don’t really understand that point of view. Black men and women getting killed in their streets and homes, I don’t see how that has anything to do with politics.”
Anderson supported Giolito's support, saying his teammate "gets it and understands it."
(Portrait of Tim Anderson by Carl Skanberg)
