Monday was a bittersweet day for me. On the positive side, it was my wife’s and my 46th wedding anniversary. It also marked the 16th anniversary of Andy’s MLB debut. However, it also marked our first anniversary without our son Kris. Kris was a nomad, but no matter wherever he was, he would ALWAYS call his mother on May 25 and wish her a Happy Anniversary. Never failed. I have openly discussed about being diagnosed with not-so-mild depression. There is no question that my wife is the strongest person in the family. There is no debate. But when she broke down a couple of days before our anniversary, there was nothing I could do to help her. I tried to comfort her, but there was no way of helping to salve the wound. Anyway Happy Anniversary #46 to my wife, Karole (sometimes she reads this blog).
● Now to baseball “stuff”. The Owners have approved and presented to the Players a salary pay scale proposal. As of this writing, I only know that it does not include a 50-50 revenue split that the MLBPA rejected without the offer even being submitted. It smacked too much of a salary cap, and the MLBPA will never accept one. The proposal does include a payroll sliding scale and a larger share of the post-season revenues. The proposal allegedly takes a larger percentage of pay from the higher paid players, and that those making the least could be earning the majority of their guaranteed salary, with the Union making the determination on the percentage splits. Player salaries do not carryover to post season, so the plan with respect to post-season revenues (at least on paper) figures to be somewhat of a concession from the Owners. However, Ken Rosenthal reports that the MLBPA is “very disappointed” in the proposal. There are some unconfirmed levels of the pay scale that does not show the Owners in the best light. The Players are going to need to formally respond. Union executives will
● There is surprisingly little discussion about any negotiations between the Owners and MLBPA on health concern. The Owners presented the Union a list of protocols in a 67 page proposal. However per Bill Shaikin (LA Times), the sides seem far apart on this issue as well.
David Dahl, perhaps the player with the biggest risk thanks to his splenectomy in 2015, says he is very open to playing. Dodgers who seemingly are on the high risk side are Scott Alexander (Type 1 Diabetes), KJ (heart surgery), and Dave Roberts (cancer survivor). When Dave Roberts was approached about managing this year, this is what he had to say:
I asked [the doctor] if I were to go back, does that put me in any different [risk] category, and he said absolutely not,” Roberts said. “He didn’t really give me any details, and I didn’t really ask.
Doc also went on to say that the doctors have seemingly given KJ the same advice.
Per Scott Alexander:
From what I’ve been told by our doctors, as long as I keep my glucose numbers in good range and keep myself healthy, then I’m not really at any higher risk…I’m continuing to stay in contact with our medical staff and to stay on top of it. If the doctors were to tell me at some point that I was definitively at a high risk and it could be fatal if I were to contract the coronavirus because I have Type 1 diabetes, then I would have to seriously consider not playing.
Angels Manager, Joe Maddon, is also a cancer survivor, and is in the higher risk age group bracket. Maddon has made a significant change in his diet and exercise and feels he can weather the coronavirus pandemic.
● The Dodgers have announced that Dodgers Stadium and Camelback are now open for “rehab and medical purposes”. That seemed to contradict what Chris Taylor is saying. Per CT3, as recently as Friday, the Dodgers are taking live batting practice at Dodger Stadium.
Clayton Kershaw is not in LA or Glendale, AZ, but he is throwing to a former teammate (no not AJ Ellis). Clayton said
“There’s plenty of places to go throw with enough yardage to do it. Thankfully, there’s one other guy here in town, former Dodger Brett Anderson. Brett lives here and he’s kind of become part of my quarantine circle. So we throw together and that works out. You don’t have to get close playing catch so that’s awesome.”
Sometimes I think there might be different outcomes if the players were speaking outside of the Union. But, then again, that is why there is a MLBPA to take the emotion out of the negotiations.
● There is another good article in The Athletic, this one by Molly Knight, with respect to a Stanford Study of COVID-19 in MLB. In all 5,603 MLB employees were tested for the presence of COVID-19 antibodies. That study indicated 60 positive cases. After adjusting for testing error, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford adjusted the rate to 0.7 percent. 27 teams participated in the study and included players, executive, merchandise employees, food vendors, ushers, and ticket takers.
This study represents the largest COVID-19 antibody test conducted in the United States to date. The antibody test did not look for active infection of COVID-19, but for the blood protein the body produces to fight the disease, which remains in the body after recovery from the virus. The number of positive cases indicates that .7 percent of those tested had already had the COVID-19 virus, whether they knew it or not. The team with the highest infection rate was Anaheim, with the two New York teams next in line.
The study was not scientific, but information driven. It is not presented to sway. I will leave that for others.
● I commented on the blog on Tuesday on a new (to the Dodgers) journalist in The Athletic, Jayson Jenks. He has written of late on pranks played on Dodgers. Well written and very funny. In reading about these Dodgers’ pranks there has been an unmasking of sorts of Dodger personnel pranksters. Every Dodger fan knows about Jay Johnstone and Mickey Hatcher and maybe Jerry Reuss as first class pranksters. I have learned more about Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell. But what has caught my eye is how involved in many of these pranks the bullpen coaches have been mentioned. Mark Cresse (bullpen coach) and Todd Maulding (bullpen catcher) have been at the forefront of many of these pranks. Mark Cresse, Todd Maulding, Roger McDowell, Jesse Orosco…I guess there is plenty of time to think of things in the bullpen.
● Another story involving Todd Maulding comes from Luke DeCock who as a fledgling journalist with the Colorado Rockies beat was in the midst of writing a story on Maulding who was the bullpen coach with the Rockies at the time. While Maulding was the bullpen catcher with the Dodgers, when traveling, the Dodgers were a coat and tie team, and something caught Vin Scully’s eye. Scully saw that Todd was wearing the same sport coat on every trip, and Vin bought him four suits. Before DeCock could get his story on Maulding published, the editor cut the piece, and the computer ate all of his notes. One day DeCock had a chance to meet Vin Scully at a Rockies/Dodgers series in Colorado, and asked Vin about that story. Vin responded “Ah, I wish he hadn’t told you that.” To this day, the actual story is a secret because Vin Scully never wanted the story told.
● From Houston Mitchell (LA Times) – Vin Scully was voted the biggest icon in the history of LA sports. Categories were set up as a 32 team regional tournament: baseball, football, basketball, and wild card. The four regional winners were Vin Scully (baseball), Fearsome Foursome (Football), Magic Johnson (basketball), and Jackie Robinson (wild card). Scully squared off against Fearsome Foursome while Magic vs Jackie were in the other semi-final. Scully and Magic won their respective semi-final match and went head to head in the final. In a relatively landslide vote (62.1% vs. 37.9%) of more than 45,000 votes, Vin Scully reigned supreme. What was a remarkable underlying story is that 3 of the 4 finalists have LAD ties.
● More from Vin Scully in a recent interview with Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated:
“I just feel very sad. I’m not angry. I know people are trying to solve this issue. I think of baseball right now as a national thermometer. People are hoping for baseball because if baseball comes back it’s the first true sign that we are on the comeback trail. It’s our national thermometer.”
Some might remember his words after 9/11:
“baseball gets up out of the dirt, bushes itself off …. hoping in some small way to inspire the nation to do the same.”
nation to do the same.”
● MLBTR is running a very interesting interactive poll on which 15 players should the protected for each team. The intent is that MLBTR will be conducting a two team draft of the non-protected players. MLBTR eliminates all of the free agents. After reviewing roster, MLBTR selected the following 12 protected Dodgers:
- Clayton Kershaw
- Kenley Jansen
- Cody Bellinger
- Walker Buehler
- Max Muncy
- Will Smith
- Corey Seager
- Julio Urias
- Gavin Lux
- Dustin May
- Tony Gonsolin
- Brusdar Graterol
That left a list of 14 players to choose 3 from to complete the 15 player protected list:
- Scott Alexander
- Austin Barnes
- Matt Beaty
- Caleb Ferguson
- Dylan Floro
- Joe Kelly
- Adam Kolarek
- AJ Pollock
- David Price
- Edwin Rios
- Dennis Santana
- Josh Sborz
- Ross Stripling
- Chris Taylor
The first two choices were simple (IMO): Ross Stripling and Chris Taylor, The third was a little more involved, but my third choice was Caleb Ferguson. Did anyone expect anything different?
Please give us your choices.
● Below is a Twitter feed from the Tulsa Drillers on a small tribute to Gavin Lux:
● Finally, in what seems somewhat of a plethora of notes about Vin Scully. Please see below. If you can watch that without tearing up, you are a stronger person than me.
46 years … That’s a lifetime together. Congratulations Jeff!!
Thank you, Jorge!!
My son also has had depression issues. With support from his doctor and friends he is coping pretty well. A lot of his issue involved losing his son when he was 6. My son was in the Navy then and his former girlfriend and the boys mother left him with her boyfriend at the time, and he starved the kid to death. I cannot fathom the pain my son went through. I do know I had to talk him out of doing something rash. Ever year the anniversary of Chandler’s passing is a very tough day for him, so I can understand what your wife is going through. No parent should outlive their child. My heartfelt sympathy to both of you for having to relive that every year. And kudos for being together for such a long time.
Wow, Bear. You just don’t ever get over losing the boy that way. How awful.
AC, congratulations to you! I’m way behind you at 31 years.
I feel your heartache not being able to soothe the deep ache of sorrow in your wife. My wife’s younger brother passed away about 5 years ago. I’ve never seen my wife so grieved and there was nothing I could do about it. She was in an altered state for months. She re-emerged slowly and then that grief let go of her or she let go of it. The other day, I noticed tears in her eyes. I asked her what was going on and she said that she was remembering some things about her brother. I just stood there and held her while she cried a bit, and then it was over. The difference between her grief then and now seems to have been suitably processed by her. Now, she just passes through it quite quickly but those memories are part of us and the tears will flow and I must embrace all of it.
With all the bad news these days, it is wonderful to read such uplifting information.
Our lives are both magic and tragic – It’s how we respond that is the difference. Grief is natural and is healthy. Getting stuck there is not. After a time, if we want to remain healthy, we move on. We never forget that loved one, but we don’t dwell on it. It’s much easier said than done.
It takes great courage to discuss these kinds of things, but in truth, it makes us stronger. My oldest son’s mother died when he was 9… and frankly, he has never gotten over it. I have spent countless hours with him in counseling sessions and he refuses to talk about it, He’s 33 and still won’t. Hopefully, he will at some point. At any rate, my wife, his step-mom found a photo of him at six months old, being held by his mom with his grandmother standing beside him, so she scanned it and e-mailed it to him. He sent it to his grandmother, who sent it to me and asked where it was taken. I had taken the picture, so I remembered. It’s funny how it came full circle. She is 86 and in addition to losing her daughter (who was 37), she has also lost her husband and her son. So she is now alone. At her son’s funeral, she asked me to walk her to her seat and whispered to me: “I am going to adopt you because I can’t keep my own kids alive.” She is still a big part of our lives.
I can’t help but think about the poem “Comes the Dawn:”
After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security,
And you begin to understand that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head held high and your eyes open,
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
You learn to build your roads
On today because tomorrow’s ground
Is too uncertain for plans, and futures have
A way of falling down in midflight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate
Your own soul, instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you can really endure,
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and learn … and you learn
With every goodbye you learn.
Very touching comments from all. My deepest condolences to all those mentioned in this thread, (Jeff, Bear, Mark). I can’t even fathom enduring some of the tragedies you all have faced. It just makes you put things in perspective and realize what is important.
Sorry for my absence here. So much has been going it, I just have not had the time. This is the first time I have looked at the blog in weeks. Be safe everyone.
The players union needs to make counter offers and not just knock down the MLB proposal. That’s how it works and will show where the middle ground is.
Agree that MLBPA needs to counter rather than summarily dismissing the proposals. One of the other concerns is that the brainiacs looking to schedule and plan have said that in order for their to be an early July start, there must be an agreement in place by June 1 (Monday).
A belated Happy Anniversary wish for you and your wife, AC.
As far as those lists of protected players goes: I would take Brusdar Graterol off the top list and replace him with Taylor. I then would select Stripling, Ferguson and Beatty. By the way. Is Hernandez and Pederson not on the list to choose from for a reason?
They will be Free Agents
I would not leave Graterol unprotected. Ferguson, Beaty, and CT3 are fine players, but they are not game changers. Graterol has a chance to be just that. If not as a starter, then as a closer.
**Beaty**. Very nice poem Mark.
My 3 choices are the same: Stripling, Taylor and Ferguson.
Hope you and your wife had a special anniversary together. After 46 years, I’m certain you’ve learned how to comfort each other, even in the most difficult of times.
Sorry 2D2 & Mom, but no Taylor… We have to see what Graterol can do…
AC congrats on your 46th.
I know that this will set me up for a beating, but I’m keeping A.J. Pollock…
The others??? Gotta think about that!!
Am I still the only one that thinks baseball will resume in 2021???
2021 = Fresh start!!!
Short season with ST.02…Injuries… I want a clean shot at a ring in 2021…
Sorry, everyone, I am not as familiar with Graterol’s abilities as I should be. I revise my selections to agree with AC’s and 2D2’s. I still would like to see Beaty on roster though.
he’s got elite talent, and he’s 21. I believe a top 80 prospect as well. We may have stolen a good one from Minnesota!!
Jeff, thank you for your candor and openness about you and your family’s situation. It takes great courage to open yourself up and share this. Thanks for your posts and especially this one. Hopefully time will ease the pain. But it will never completely go away. Nor should it. I have never lost the memories of the love of my life who I lost when she was 28. 38 years later I can say I never got over that. And I never want to. I remember and cherish the time we had.
This may sound really corny but I try to go back and employ the lessons that I learned (and later tried to share) from athletics and competition. The reasons kids should play sports in addition to the fun is is the opportunity to learn important life long lessons. Being a teammate, commitment and hard work are obvious but the most important lessons for me go back to is how to cope with loss, disappointment and failure. Of not giving up. Of trying to get better. Of keeping the faith when it is most difficult to do so. Being able to apply these things that can/should be learned through athletics to situations of loss and stress and grief later in life has been a savior for me. I still get depressed especially lately with my accident, isolation, difficulty doing day-to-day things, getting old and the stress of the times have been a great challenge for me. So far I’m still suiting up for every game.
I can empathize with your trials and those of the others sharing on this site. I believe tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
Congratulations Jeff on you and your wife’s anniversary. My hopes and prayers are with you.
Phil. Yes writing about personal loss in this forum is certainly cathartic. Thank you for sharing your story. I could not agree more with your comments on the importance of athletics and competition as lessons learned to help one cope with loss. That gives me a kernel of an idea for a future post.
I will continue to pray for your full recovery…in all respects.
peterj, what a wonderful post. I agree entirely. Thank you for brightening my day.
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. AC! 46 years is a wonderful testament to your mutual commitment. I wish you many more years and rich blessings together.
Looks like the standoff is continuing. Players want a longer season, prorated salary’s, and a few other things. Now it is a wait and see game to see who blinks first.
I have much less faith in MLB returning than I do the NBA. Adam Silver is a good commissioner who works with his players, and the NBA as a collective seems to understand what’s in the best interest of the sport AND THE COUNTRY at this time!
Baseball is run by a guy who handed out that nonsense punishment to the cheating astros. Good luck to all of us for having any baseball games in 2020.
Thank God Gibson’s 1988 World Series Game 1 was on MLB network this am; at least I got to relive some positive moments.
There will be a season. The owners will have to cave, but for every action, there will be a reaction.
Quite a few of the teams will have cash-flow issues and the reaction will come in free agency next year. The players will allege collusion, but in reality, it will be a market correction.
Mookie Betts will be lucky to get $275 Million. Only 3 teams can afford him, and I don’t think the Red Sox or Yankees will pay! The fallout will be DRAMATICALLY less lucrative contracts. The owners will lose the battle (for 2020) but win the war!
Why will owners have to cave?
I think they have to. Public perception.
yeah but pubic perception ALWAYS comes down on the players. Even during lockouts, majority of the fans blame (right or wrong) the players.
I think it’s because most fans have never owned a business but almost every fan has played the game in some form and thus don’t understand why guys who just play baseball need so much money . Again, right or wrong, public perception is usually anti player
I don’t claim to KNOW anything about the business of baseball. Billionaires negotiating with a union of millionaires is colloquy spoken in a language with which I am not familiar.
I just read a Forbes article on MLB owner wealth. 2/3 of them are billionaires, the least rich of them has a net worth of $400 million. They don’t need to do anything right away. Yeah, they stand to lose some money if the season is cancelled, but if you’re a billionaire what’s a few million? I also wonder what kind of insurance, if any, might kick in?
Bobby might be right, owners players, players owners. I think it’s a throw up between the two.
I am at the point where I doubt that there will be baseball in 2020. There are several reasons for this:
1- As of right now, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced 4/15 that no public arena will be allowed to open this calendar year. That means no Dodger Stadium for games, even without fans;
2 – LA remains a COVID 19 hotspot;
3 – I really can’t see the Dodgers playing in Arizona in the Summer without a retractable roof on their stadium;
4 – There are still a lot of players who have significant health concerns. It is impossible to guarantee that no one will contract COVID.
5 – The players and MLB have not yet reached agreement as to the health issues. If they want to start playing in July, they have very little time to reach agreement, have a brief “Spring Training” and hammer out all of the logistics of squeezing in 82 or 100 games in 3 months, especially if the Divisions are reconfigured for the abbreviated season and the post-season is expanded and the rosters are also expanded;
6 – The money issues look to be insurmountable. The players want a straight pro-rata deal, and the loss of a portion of the season won’t account for the losses incurred by the teams due to loss of fans in stands, purchases of concessions, etc. I read recently that the Dodgers are projected to lose over $230 MM if the play an 82 game season (second to the Yankees).;
7 – The unspoken part of this is the expiration of the CBA after the 2021 season and both sides are posturing for the upcoming acrimonious negotiations. Neither side wants to give anything right now and both are looking ahead.
I have argued that the season will be cancelled to a fellow baseball fan with whom I work – he points out that other sports are figuring out a way to reopen, that baseball has a huge demographics problem (aging fanbase) and if MLB doesn’t play this year that it will be digging its own grave. That may be true, but in issues involving labor/management relations, looking ahead has never been a priority. I think back to the 80’s when the American auto makers were being out-competed by the Japanese. The average US auto worker was making over $21/hr, but the Japanese were paying $6/hr. The UAW wouldn’t give an inch and we all know how that has affected the automotive industry in the US to this day.
This could be the death knell of MLB.
This is a standoff between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. I cannot think of two less qualified people to negotiate something of this magnitude than Rob Manfred and Tony Clark. I do not see the Players caving so if there is going to be MLB in 2020 then the owners will have to, as Mark suggested. The Players have not lost a battle involving dollars yet.
I will give Manfred some credit (very little). There is very little discussion from the owners. They seem to be united. Who is holding that group together. As Dodgerrick indicated the Dodgers are estimated to lose $230MM in an 82 game schedule. That is hard for any organization to absorb, even for billionaires. If the team is worth $3B, that is nearly 8% of the value. Since values are based on income stream, this will have an adverse impact on the value. Yes, it will made up. We have no idea of the liquidity or the outstanding loan balance of the team. Will the team need to draw on their line of credit for this? What are their lines of credit that they can draw from?
I sincerely doubt that there is any insurance to cover their losses. If that were available, many businesses would have that kind of business interruption insurance. Also, no insurance company could handle those level of claims.
While the owners seem to be tight lipped, not all of the players are. More importantly, Scott Boras opened up and said: “The owners’ current problem is a result of the money they borrowed when they purchased their franchises, renovated their stadiums or developed land around their ballparks,” Boras writes. “…Owners now want players to take additional pay cuts to help them pay these loans. They want a bailout.”
Trevor Bauer was not at all impressed. He came back at Boras: “Hearing a LOT of rumors about a certain player agent meddling in MLBPA affairs. If true — and at this point, these are only rumors — I have one thing to say… Scott Boras, rep your clients however you want to, but keep your damn personal agenda out of union business.” I agree with Bauer, but it certainly appears to be irrelevant as the players seem to be mostly in line with no change from the March negotiation.
This is a predecessor to the CBA negotiation following the 2021 season. The players have been asking for the owners to open their books forever, and the owners continue to refuse, as they are doing again. The players could play a little hard ball by advising the owners that the players will not play this year unless the owners can prove how detrimental it will be without the players allowing for a renegotiation of their salaries in a 82 (or 100) game season.
The owners and the players agreed in March that the players would receive their salary commensurate with a prorata basis of games played. There was no mention of what would happen if there were no fans. Too bad for Manfred, or whoever his advisors are, to not document. There is an agreement. If the owners do not want to honor their agreement, then they will have to cancel the season. The players believe that the more wealthy owners should back up the less wealthy. How successful does anyone believe the players would be willing to do the same…rich contracts setting up a pool for the minimum salary earners.
With regard to your last sentence AC, isn’t that in effect what the owners are asking the players to do now? Players earning less to get a larger percentage of their salary. Players earning more to get a smaller percentage.
With regard to Manfred being a poor negotiator, I don’t consider him a negotiator, I consider him a mouthpiece for the owners. He does and says what they tell him to do. As with most groups, there are probably a few owners whose opinion/strategy drives the group as a whole. I have no idea who those particular owners are but the others probably fall in line with what the heavy hitters feel should be done.
As with life in general, the pandemic has divided everyone. You’re either blue or red, left or right, mask or no mask, player or owner. The word “compromise” has apparently been stricken from the dictionary.
Follow the money.
Can you please be more specific Mark? Which stream? There’s so much money involved here I lost count of the zeros.
I said in March there likely wouldn’t be a season this year. I still think that even if this collection of billionaire owners and millionaire players work something out, the virus will have the last say here.
STB, That may be what the owners want, but it isn’t going to happen. It was meant to be somewhat rhetorical. Maybe Gerrit Cole can use some of his $34MM contract to help out his MLB minimum teammates. The players believe that LAD and NYY should help out Pittsburgh, Oakland, Tampa Bay. Maybe the players should do the same.
Hundreds of minor league baseball players were cut Thursday and hundreds more are expected to lose their jobs as the sport grapples with the near certainty that the minor league season will be canceled, sources told ESPN:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29237251/minor-league-baseball-cuts-hundreds-players-amid-pandemic-sources-say
Cubs released Brock Stewart.
I have not been able to publish the next post due to some technical issues with the site. Mark is looking into this for me. Please be patient, and in the interim this post seems to be okay for anyone to continue to post your thoughts.
One of the best baseball songs ever, live from Dodger Stadium:
https://youtu.be/s94GcyEL2K4
Awesome. Thanks for sharing that!
Oh, put me in coach, I’m ready to play today
Put me in coach, I’m ready to play today
Look at me, I can be center field
I agree, one of the top three baseball songs.
I like this one as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKA9Zi5-_Y
Willie, Mickey and the Duke is a favorite of mine. Also Danny Kaye’s D-O-D-G-E-R-S….Top of the 5th, Say Hey Willie Mays hits a 3 bagger down the left field line, but he’s out tryin to stretch it to a homer as Roseboro tags him on the bottom of the spine with a crack you can hear all the way back to San Francisco, open your hospital! CHARGE!!!!!. Classic
I think players and owners signed contracts based on projected revenues and costs. I assume more people will pay to watch games on TV but those revenues will not come close to what fans in seats would generate. Owners will not have costs associated with managing 25,000 to 55,000 fans gathered in a stadium.
Maybe the owners and players can agree to let arbitrators decide on the players salaries based on information provided to the arbitrators that only the arbitrators will see. The financial data provided would be audited with the final salary adjustment determined after the season started. It would be less negotiation and more pure number crunching.
I would love to be a part of that audit.
Me too. Maybe at that table it would possible to actually follow the money.
David Price, who has never pitched in a game for the Dodgers has pledged 1000 dollars for every minor league player not on the Dodgers 40 man roster. Similar to a pledge Sin Hoo Choo made to Rangers minor leaguers. Over 200 minor leaguers have been released, and it seems there will be more to come. When this is over there is going to be a huge pool of available talent..including Vlad Guerrero’s nephew.
If this is true as reported, very BIG kudos to David Price.