NEW YORK _ Calling any more negotiations "futile," Tony Clark is daring commissioner Rob Manfred to make good on his threat to set a schedule on his own _ absent an agreement with the Players Association.
Just this week, Manfred publicly guaranteed there would be a season "one way or another." But after Friday's 72-game proposal again failed to deliver full prorated salaries to the union, the players decided Saturday that they are done talking.
They're ready to do this the hard way. And with MLB suggesting that all the owners can afford is roughly 50 games, that may very well be the schedule.
"It unfortunately appears that further dialogue with the league would be futile," Clark said Saturday in a statement. "It's time to get back to work. Tell us when and where."
MLB officials were not immediately available for comment Saturday night, but despite Manfred's pledge, there was considerable reluctance to go forward without a deal. Manfred needs the union's approval for expanded playoffs, which would mean more than $800 million for the owners, and MLB certainly would benefit from having the cooperation of the players rather than having them return under a sort of duress despite receiving the 100% prorated salaries they were demanding from the March 26 agreement.
Clark's statement made it clear that the players are angry with the course of these negotiations. They also felt their distrust for the owners was verified Saturday when the New York Post reported that MLB had just agreed on a new $1 billion deal with TBS.
"In recent days, owners have decried the supposed unprofitability of owning a baseball team and the commissioner has repeatedly threatened to schedule a dramatically shortened season unless players agree to hundreds of millions in further concessions," Clark said in the statement. "Our response has been consistent that such concessions are unwarranted, would be fundamentally unfair to players, and that our sport deserves the fullest 2020 season possible.
"These remain our positions today, particularly in light of new reports regarding MLB's national television rights _ information we requested from the league weeks ago but were never provided."
So what happens now? In Friday's proposal, MLB called for a July 14 Opening Day. If Manfred sticks with that plan, which includes a three-week spring training, that potentially could mean having players report to those sites in another week to 10 days.
"Players want to play. It's who we are and what we do," Clark said. "Since March, the Association has made it clear that our No. 1 focus is playing the fullest season possible, as soon as possible, as safely as possible. Players agreed to billions in monetary concessions as a means to that end, and in the face of repeated media leaks and misdirection, we made additional proposals to inject new revenues into the industry _ proposals that would benefit the owners, players, broadcast partners, and fans alike.
"It's now become apparent that these efforts have fallen upon deaf ears."
To think that the owners and players _ lifelong adversaries, like cats and dogs _ could work together this one time, to get baseball played during a worldwide epidemic, apparently was too much to ask. Instead, the two sides have waged a very public war, against the backdrop of 40 million unemployed and more than 100,000 dead, while repeatedly crushing the frail hopes of a hurting fan base.
Initially, there seemed to be some progress on the health front, with Major League Baseball assembling a 67-page operations manual that attempted to cover every pandemic-related contingency. The Players Association also got as far as sending back amendments to that document, and the consensus was that it could be a viable plan.
The biggest holdup has been money _ in particular, how much the owners want to pay the players to stage a shortened season resulting in record losses for both sides. Friday's proposal suggested a ceiling of $1.5 billion, or 83% of the players' prorated salaries over 72 games, and only if the World Series was completed (with an additional $50 million playoff pool factored in). That offer guaranteed just 70%, a significant step up from the previous offer's 50% but far short of the union's unwavering stance of 100% prorated salaries.
It's been a frustrating, pointless dance going on a month now as the possible number of games for this season steadily shrinks. MLB started at 82 games, then dropped to 76, followed by 72. By the league's thinking, the schedule gets trimmed to 68 after Sunday, as Manfred already has said that each day without a deal basically results in one fewer game.
Now Clark has dared him to go ahead with that schedule.
