The question is how are we going to get there. MLB owners and MLB players are both, in made-up words of Paul Sullivan’s fictional Tom Hanks trying to negotiate a deal1 between the owners and players: “bat[bleep] crazy.” So how are they going to agree? Let me make one small suggestion, which probably isn’t going to happen but could work (it would have a better chance than what is going on now).
Get a couple of people from each side together in a room, a large room, so they can socially distance. Socially distancing shouldn’t be a problem since they don’t like each other all that much. Take away their phones and their computers. Make them talk to each other, face-to-face instead of via press releases and fancy statements.2 It’s easy to say “no” in an email. It’s harder to say no to somebody in person.
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1 He did get Gary Francis Powers and Frederic Pryor out of the Soviet Union and East Germany, respectively, in “The Bridge of Spies.”
2 In typical baseball fashion, maybe DraftKings could sponsor some kind of fantasy negotiation, and the two sides could split the licensing fee. Though they might just argue about that, too.
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