Posted on 05/04/2020 3:01:00 PM PDT by Mozilla
As Major League Baseball grows increasingly optimistic there will be a 2020 season in some capacity, more and more ideas of what exactly a campaign would look like appear to be taking shape. For well over a month now, the league reportedly has been kicking around all sorts of ideas from playing all games in Arizona to hosting seasons at spring training facilities. And thats just a sampling of the reported ideas from recent weeks. But in a story published Saturday by the Tampa Bay Times Marc Topkin, MLB does have a preferred plan in mind. The preferred plan would be to start play in late June or early July with as many teams as possible playing in home parks, such as the Rays at Tropicana Field, while competing in their regular divisions with an abbreviated schedule of at least 80 games. The Arizona scenario, in which all players and staff would essentially live and play in a colonized bubble, is much less likely. So, too, is having all teams play at spring sites and compete in Cactus and Grapefruit leagues. Other reports about having teams assigned to hub sites in Arizona, Texas and Florida, or realigned into three geographical divisions, are being downplayed or dismissed. The league reportedly is hoping to have a plan in place by the end of May, so we probably can expect more reports like these trickle out over the coming weeks.
The revenue is just too good to pass up.
I am not aware of border crossing exceptions being made for NHL stars or players.
Yaaaaay !
Well at least the Tigers won’t lose 100+ games this year.
the biggest obstacle is getting the star players to share a pay cut with ownership.
40,000 fans at the park bring in $1mil per game minimum. concessions, parking and merchandise add another half mil or more.
marquee teams double that. per game. 81 home games per years.
without fans in the seats, revenues are down severely.
without a pay concession from the players, ownership is motivated to stay out.
“pent up interest in the game”
Anyone who likes any kind of tv sport will watch these games.
It will be the only game in town:)
It will bring many back to their first, true love...
What I've heard is that they aren't going to have fans in the stadium. The games are just for TV. The interesting thing will be that you'll be able to hear the players talking on the field.
“Will the individual records count in a 80 game like batting average, ERA, etc?”
They will have to have records, if for anything to give out bonuses for contract agreements previously signed. But they will probably have that infamous asterisk behind it.
Besides, only three player that I can find actually played all 162 games in 2019:
Starlin Castro from Miami, Whit Marrifield from Kansas City, and Marcus Semien from Oakland.
Every MLB team is allowed 25 active players at each game. They have a roster of 15 additional Reserve List players from which they can bring up replacements and send down current players if they wish for a total of 40. So at game time, there are 750 roster slots open on any given day. So when you consider only three actually played all the games they could, shortening to an 80 game season, which is less than half, and cutting travel time so they are playing less games a week, this will be a vacation with benefits. Let’s face it, the only reason they are playing is for the TV sponsorships as that’s where the real money is. And if they go to double headers, the season will be about 5 minutes long.
They could get smart and start up like Madden did. Then the players would be obsolete. Save money for the owners and toss the MLBPA out into the street. And ESPN could cut out the appearance of being a sports network and go all political. They’ve been trying for the last 10 to 15 years anyway.
rwood
Bring Anthony Fauci out for the first pitch.
Have someone bean him.
Wonder if spitting will finally get banned?
June to September should be the season. Four solid months of baseball during the warmest months of the year. October for playoffs with a chill in the air and pumpkins all around.
As it should be.
Just wait until hockey season resumes. And if I’m wrong? There are minor league stadiums aplenty in the lower 48.
Well they might be ready by July but the fact they are uncertain and chyanging plans daily is not good because they are confused about what directiuon to go.
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