Let’s Talk Baseball. Or, Rather, Let’s Play Baseball.

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.

I’m not sure that the owners and the players aren’t “bat(bleep)” crazy enough to continue their antics even if they are meeting face-to-face with no media around.  But our best bet for baseball this year is something like this.  I think it might work.
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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.