Sports and Business News: June 1st

MLBPA Sends List of Demands

The Major League Baseball Players Associated submitted their proposal on how to start the season and it’s quite different than the MLB owners' proposal from last week.

The players countered the owners 82 game schedule with a 114 game season to be played in 123 days. According to the Associated Press, that means the regular season would be played through October 31st while the owners suggested a September 27th regular-season finale.

Both the owners and players agree on an expanded postseason for 2020 which would increase the number of teams from 10 to 14 but the union wants it in place for next season too.

The MLB Player’s Union also countered the owners’ suggestion of reducing salaries. The original amount to be paid was $4 billion. The owners want it reduced to $1.2 billion with the union countering at $2.8 billion.

If the owners and players come to terms, the season would start on June 30th. On March 12th the MLB postponed the start of the season which was originally scheduled for March 26th.

Players, Teams Speak out Against Police Brutality 

Nationwide rallies about the unfair treatment of black people and police brutality continued over the weekend, and now some of the biggest stars and teams from the world of sports are expressing their support of the movement.

Players from the Lakers, including LeBron James, all posted the same message on their instagram accounts stating “If YOU ain't with US, WE ain't with Y’ALL”

The Minnesota Twins, Vikings, and Timberwolves all took to Twitter to release a statement about George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minnesota police officers, which happened within miles of where their stadiums and arenas are located.

Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores released a statement over the weekend and made suggestions of “how to make a real impact in this world.” Flores said, 

“Honesty, transparency and empathy go a long way in bringing people together and making change” and added, “I hope that the tragedies of the last few weeks will open our hearts and minds to a better way of communicating and hopefully create that change.” 

Flores is one of three out of the 32 head coaches in the NFL who is black.

Business/Financial Update

After a weekend of protesting and rioting, the major indices are up on Monday. For anyone tuning into business news, the question now has to be asked: Is Wall Street ignoring what’s happening on Main Street? 

TheStreet’s Katherine Ross asked this very question to Jim Cramer, who said that instead of looking at the major indices, you have to look at the stocks themselves. And there are other global issues at play here, too. Tensions with China are on the rise, as reports come in that China has asked major agricultural companies to stop buying U.S. farm goods such as soybeans. There’s the never-ending optimism that stems from the reopening of the economy. Wall Street has been very focused on what the reopening will do to restart our economy--so much so that we’ve had days with negative headlines related to the coronavirus pandemic, and yet stocks manage to shrug it off. 

Tony Owusu, senior digital journalist at TheStreet wrote an Op-Ed on why Wall street will need to step up more. 

“Wall Street has mostly shrugged off the weekend’s protest demonstrations...After all, the current protests aren’t as economically disruptive as they could be due to coronavirus lockdown parameters. But Wall Street should care because the anger and frustration that has driven people to the streets aren’t going away any time soon,” he wrote.“ Wall Street has the power to aid people marching on main streets across America and we all have the power to advocate for real change at this crucial moment in history,”

TheStreet's Katherine Ross contributed to this report.