Rob Manfred stood behind a podium Tuesday in Jupiter, Fla., and announced the cancellation of the first two series — five or six games per team — of the Major League Baseball season. Nearly two hours after the commissioner's decree, veteran pitcher Andrew Miller was asked if the players were braced for missing those games and perhaps more.
"We're prepared," said Miller, a leader in the Players Association. "We've seen this coming."
Everybody saw this coming. Before the owners locked out the players on Dec. 2 and certainly in the 90 days since then, even during an overnight bargaining session that lasted until 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and offered the slightest hint of optimism that the arch-nemeses may actually overcome canyon-sized differences on multiple economic issues and salvage an on-time start to a 162-game season, this moment seemed all but inevitable.
