According to deceased New York Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner would have considered this fourth year of Aaron Boone’s management another failed season because they didn’t win a 28th World Championship. Boone’s worst year as a manager was winning only 92 games and falling in the wild card game. Nevertheless, the Yankees have shown their faith in Boone by issuing him another three years in the job.
General Manager Brian Cashman has made it public that after a failed experiment with Gleyber Torres at shortstop, his main priority this off-season is to get a quality tried and true shortstop for the club. However, every baseball fan must know that when Cashman and company sit down together to decide what to do about shortstop and second base, there will be a giant grey elephant sitting in the room. His name is MLB CBA.
That is short for Collective bargaining agreement; basically, the owners and players come together to decide who will make the most money over the next term. No one wants to lose that battle, but one side of the issues must lose, and for the last several years, it has been the players. To steal a phrase, I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Most industry sources are saying the mood is this year’s talks that have a December 4 deadline.
Before the 2020 season the two sides couldn’t decide how many games should be played, with Commissioner Manfred finally having to mandate a 60 game season.
For younger baseball fans the last work stoppage in baseball was 26 years ago, it ended the 1994 season in August and world season hopes and continued into the 1995 season. It was the eighth such stoppage in baseball history. This one was was actually a strike by the players that would not agree to salary caps. It was the longest baseball stoppage in baseball history, but the owners finally relented on their cap demand and baseball resumed.
You may say so what, but that’s when baseball fans from all over the world held it against both the players and the owners, and never returned to the game. If negotiations over money and who gets what can’t be resolved there will be either a lockout by the owners or a strike by the players, so everyone loses out including the fans. Unfortunately in the early stages of the talks, it appears it’s is going that way.