A Most Disappointing Week in Baseball

This week, we look at some of the things to do now that the first week of the season is canceled. Plus, Steph returns from Beijing and Emma answers your questions!

Now what? That’s the question I keep asking myself in the days since Rob Manfred canceled the first week of the regular season. We’re now in the third month of the lockout that he and the MLB owners implemented, and it’s difficult to know when exactly we’ll watch major-league games again.

Over the last seven weeks or so I’ve written extensively about Manfred’s callousness and about the owners’ apathy toward the cancellation of games. Many other writers, at SI and elsewhere, have also provided excellent context and commentary about how Manfred, the league and the owners are the ones to blame for what could be our second baseball-less spring in three years. They’re the ones who could end this lockout at any time, either without a new CBA, or by agreeing to any of the reasonable proposals the players have made thus far. We know by now that’s not going to happen any time soon.

Dan Halem and Manfred :: Lynne Sladky/AP Photo

That said, I really don’t want to write more about baseball’s financial structure or get all worked up about all the owners who care more about winning labor disputes than baseball games. Something tells me we’ll have plenty of more Five-Tool Newsletter editions to get into these subjects before we get to see Mike Trout play again.

Instead, here are some non-lockout answers to that question many of us have been asking ourselves exhaustively all week: Now what…

… should I watch?

The first answer to this question is college baseball. Last week, Claire Kuwana put together this handy guide to the college baseball season for those of use who still want to get our baseball fix.

If baseball bums you out too much right now, you should definitely catch up on some of the Oscar-nominated movies before the Academy Awards at the end of the month. Without MLB games, you’ve got three hours to spare every night! Some of my favorites: Licorice Pizza, Drive My Car, Don’t Look Up, Nightmare Alley and The Power of the Dog. From the Best Picture nominees, I still need to see Dune, CODA and West Side Story. If you have any thoughts on these movies, the other 2021 releases or anything else you’re watching, please send them to me. We can get a little SI Lockout Movie Club going! This weekend I’ll be seeing The Batman and The Worst Person In the World, the latter of which you’ll be happy to know is not a Rob Manfred biopic.

Also, it’s March! So that means college basketball. Tomorrow is Coach K’s last home game (so our Duke alumna Emma is losing her beloved coach in addition to her beloved baseball). Plus, it’s always exciting to watch a Duke-UNC game, which starts at 6 p.m.

… should I read?

SI.com, obviously! We’ve got plenty of great non-baseball stories for you to enjoy. Some of my favs from this week: Robert Sanchez’s Daily Cover about Lia Thomas, Howard Megdal’s investigation into the WNBA’s biggest scandal, Albert Breer’s GamePlan from the NFL Combine about my second favorite coach in the league (behind Sean McVay, obviously), kneecap-biting Dan Campbell, Pat Forde’s column on Coach K’s Senior Day.

I’m currently on page 787 of 1,162 in The Power Broker. It’s as good as everyone says, and even if you start it now, you’ll probably have time to finish it before the lockout ends. (Yikes!) The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is my favorite book from 2021, and Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow is my favorite of all time.

… should I do?

Have a catch with a friend or family member! Just because we can’t watch MLB games doesn’t mean we can’t still play it.

Or, you can do your what Rob Manfred does and work on your golf swing at the worst possible time!

Have any questions for our team? Send a note to mlb@si.com.

Just hours before the deadline for a deal that he and the league forced upon the players, Manfred was working on his golf swing :: AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

1. THE OPENER

“This is petty. It’s shortsighted. It‘s insulting. In other words, it‘s Major League Baseball owners doing what they do best: missing the point.”

That’s Stephanie Apstein, back from Beijing, doing what she does best: writing great columns.

MLB Owners Fail to Realize Their Own Foolishness by Stephanie Apstein
Baseball team owners seemingly haven’t learned from the past. And it’s causing everyone involved in the lockout, including the fans, to suffer.

2. ICYMI

Playoff expansion has been one of the most talked about proposals over the past week of negotiations. The players seemed to be O.K. with 12 teams but they wouldn’t go to 14. Perhaps they’re using the 14-team format as a bargaining chip for higher CBT thresholds, or maybe they are concerned it would give teams less incentive to win their divisions.

This afternoon, Tom Verducci looked at the benefits of having 14 teams in the postseason. For the most part, I do not want baseball to change its playoff structure. However, Tom’s column convinced me that, if the postseason field is expanding, the 14-team model is far better than the 12-team one.

Baseball Should Expand the Playoffs to 14 Teams by Tom Verducci
Adding four clubs to the postseason is a great way to make the sport more exciting and create more competition—on the field and in free agency.

Ah, yes, another Rob Manfred press conference … and another column from Emma about the commissioner’s latest debacle.

This Is the Path MLB Chose by Emma Baccellieri
Rob Manfred made it sound as if the league had no choice but to lock out the players and cancel games. That isn’t true.

Professional baseball has made some recent strides in hiring women to positions of authority, but it is still overwhelmingly dominated by men, especially in positions of authority. If baseball truly wants to address its lack of women representation, the fix starts in the minor leagues.

‘Since When Were Women Allowed’: Inside Their Push to Break Into Baseball by Claire Kuwana
MLB loves the praise that comes with hiring Rachel Balkovec, Kim Ng and other trailblazers, but the sport still has a long way to go to fix its representation problem.

Need a recap of where things stand at the bargaining table? Here’s Verducci’s report from Tuesday night after Manfred officially canceled the first week of games.

Baseball Hurtles Itself Deeper Into Danger by Tom Verducci
There have been labor stoppages in baseball before, but never has the sport been in a more weakened position to withstand it than it is now.

3. WORTH NOTING from Stephanie Apstein

At any moment, we are at best four weeks from new, lowercase opening day: one week for players to sign and teams to ready camps, and three weeks for pitchers to get stretched out. Pitchers and catchers generally report around Valentine’s Day. So one way to think of it is: Until there’s a CBA, every day is Jan. 15.

4. TRIVIA! from Matt Martell

Before we get into this week’s question, here is the answer to the one I asked last Friday.

Last Week’s Question: Who are the seven active pitchers with at least 2,000 career strikeouts?

Answer: Max Scherzer (3,020), Justin Verlander (3,013), Zack Greinke (2,809), Clayton Kershaw (2,670), Chris Sale (2,059), David Price (2,039), Adam Wainwright (2,004)

This Week’s Question: Which player accumulated the fewest WAR for the season in which he won the MVP award?

5. MAILBAG! from Emma Baccellieri

Welcome back to another round of the mailbag. Questions for next time? mlb@si.com.

Will there be anything in the contract about teams splitting between two cities, in the event the Rays/Expos concept ever reappears? – Niels

I’d doubt it—this (reportedly) hasn’t come up in bargaining yet, and there are enough big, contentious issues on the table already. Looking beyond this agreement, however, this one interests me because it’s an example of an area where the owners themselves are very divided. Remember, it was MLB, not the players, that shut down the Rays’ idea to split their time between Florida and Montreal. When Rays owner Stu Sternberg was asked if he felt “betrayed” by his fellow team owners over that, he said, “That’s a word.” (Of course, the players aren’t crazy about this, either—a baseball season is enough of a grind without having to split your time between two “homes.”) But Sternberg probably won’t be the last to float an idea like this, and the fact that it’s a case where there’s division among the owners makes it curious to watch out for.

What happens to all the people who don't play baseball yet rely on baseball being played for their livelihood? Do they interview for other jobs, contingent on the possibility they might quit in mid-April when baseball is back? – Danny

This is an important one! It takes so, so, so many people to put on a baseball season beyond the players and owners: concessions workers, ticket takers, clubhouse attendants, support staff, groundskeepers, ushers and more. The players announced this morning that they would set up a $1 million fund to help those workers. (The league followed by saying that it was working to set up something similar—though without any details available just yet.) But even millions won’t stretch that far when there are hundreds of workers per team. Some will likely find other jobs. Others will find ways to make it work. But the longer the lockout goes on—the more that people outside of the big names here suffer, too.

What would be your ideal barnstorming lockout baseball game between players if it comes to that? – Nick

A necessary caveat that this won’t happen—no one wants to run the risk of getting injured while locked out. But just for fun? I’d love a skills competition. Play around with every home run derby you can think of. Stage a stolen-base-off between Byron Buxton and Trea Turner. See who wants to challenge Ramón Laureano’s arm. If regular games aren’t happening, why not just have fun?

That’s all from us today. We’ll be back in your inbox next Friday. In the meantime, share this newsletter with your friends and family, and tell them to sign up at SI.com/newsletters. If you have any questions or comments, shoot us an email at mlb@si.com.