NFL
By: Billy Lewis
Major League Baseball decided to lockout its players on December 2, 2021. Finally, just under 100 days later, the lockout is over. Shortly after 3:15 yesterday afternoon, Jeff Passan broke the news that a tentative agreement was reached on a new CBA.
BREAKING: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor deal, sources tell ESPN. While it still needs to be ratified by both parties, that is expected to be a formality, and when it is:
Baseball is back.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 10, 2022
It’s been a stressful three months for baseball fans. With MLB and the MLBPA not meeting until early January, there was a dark cloud looming over baseball. Rob Manfred set a deadline for March 1st in order to reach a new CBA and play a full season. Sure enough, March 1st came and went without a deal. Manfred decided to cancel the first two series of the season for each team.
A week later the players and owners found themselves in the same situation. The second deadline of March 9th was established. There was another late night of negotiating, but alas another deadline passed and Manfred canceled another week of games. This time, however, MLB and the Players’ Union continued to talk.
MLB trying to implement an International Draft was the issue that kept a deal from happening through the second “deadline”. Luckily during the negotiations, the sides were able to come close with their monetary asks. Despite the passing of the deadline, the two sides kept talking and were finally able to come to an agreement. [pickup_prop id=”21189″]
Major League Baseball New Opening Day
Opening Day was originally scheduled for March 31. Due to the lockout, players were not able to report to Spring Training, so with a deal being reached on March 10th, Opening Day will be pushed back. Major League Baseball will have a full 162 game schedule and the new Opening Day will be April 7th.
Despite Manfred canceling the first four series of the seasons, those will now be made up. Players and fans will be able to prepare for the marathon that is an MLB season. Through the frustrations of the lockout, Major League Baseball was able to save face by coming to an agreement before any real-time is missed.
Since the lockout meant teams could not sign players to Major League contracts, the next few days should be a frenzy. Major League Baseball rightfully received much negative attention during the lockout. The free-agent frenzy that will follow, will almost certainly fuel excitement for the upcoming 2022 season.
