Summary[]
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley review the latest lack of progress toward starting the MLB season, touching on the false hope offered by a meeting between Rob Manfred and Tony Clark, the subsequent breakdown in talks, a poll about where the public places blame for the standstill, what negotiations without leaks would look like, how the parties will proceed, and more. Then they discuss a series of COVID-19 outbreaks in baseball, the feasibility of a safe season, the importance of mask-wearing, and a Scott Boras quote about taking baseball’s temperature, plus a Stat Blast about the players who played for the most World Series-winning teams without appearing in the World Series, and a warning about top prospects’ proximity to trampolines.
Topics[]
- Episode 1552 follow-up: Uncertainty about the 2020 season
- Team ownership desire to avoid grievance
- Tony Clark and Rob Manfred's meeting
- Universal DH
- COVID-19 outbreaks at team facilities
- What if there is a COVID-19 outbreak during the season?
- COVID-19 rates across the United States
- Importance of wearing face masks
- Could the MLB/MLBPA negotiations have been in private?
- Assigning blame to players and owners
- Performance of pro sports commissioners
- Scott Boras' thermometer analogy
- Players with the most World Series wins without World Series playing time
- Trampoline injuries and MLB prospects
Stat Blast[]
- Ben does a Stat Blast on players who were on the most World Series winning teams without ever playing during a World Series.
- Arndt Jorgens was a backup catcher for the Yankees during the 1930s and part of their team during the 1932 and 1936-39 seasons.
- 9 of the top 10 players on this leaderboard were on the Yankees.
Notes[]
- About half of team owners inherited either the team or the wealth used to purchase the team.
- Meg says she is more optimistic than she has been in recent weeks that baseball will be played, and that if it is not played it will be for reasons other than money.
- Meg and Ben implore listeners to continue wearing masks when out in public or in/near crowds. Ben details the experience he had traveling to Virginia for a funeral and navigating safety while among family members and crowds.
- Episode 1548 with Eugene Freedman is referenced several times during the episode.
- Meg notes that even Scott Boras may have realized that his rectal thermometer analogy was too far since he almost immediately felt the need to explain it.
Links[]
- Effectively Wild Episode 1553: The Greed to Disagree
- Bring baseball back? Rob Manfred and Tony Clark can't even agree on what 'agreement' means by Tim Brown
- Endgame: Settling at midpoint might not work for MLB players or owners by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich
- The Threat of a Grievance Likely Spurred MLB’s Latest Offer to the Players by Eugene Freedman
- Control people: A look at MLB’s 30 owners and power brokers by Andrew Baggarly
- Baseball faces sobering realities in negotiations and, most importantly, health by Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich
- Emergency COVID-19 measures prevented more than 500 million infections, study finds by Edward Lempinen
- Community Use Of Face Masks And COVID-19: Evidence From A Natural Experiment Of State Mandates In The US by Wei Lyu and George Wehby
- Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- MLB Fans Slightly More Likely to Blame Owners for Labor Standoff With Players by Alex Silverman
- Rob Manfred and MLB Still Have a Way Out by Tom Verducci
- Thermometers: Understand the options by The Mayo Clinic
- Stat Blast cover by Kyle Cripps
- Players with most World Series rings without a World Series appearance
- Wander Franco's trampoline post
- Idiocracy thermometer scene
