60 games at most, players are told

NEW YORK— The players’ association was told by Major League Baseball on Friday that teams will not agree to more than 60 games in the pandemic-delayed season, leaving open the possibility of an even shorter schedule of perhaps 50 games or fewer. While the NBA and NHL have found ways to restart their sports, baseball has been unable to cope with the economic dislocation because of the new coronavirus and the prospect of playing in empty ballparks, reverting to the fractious labour strife that led to eight work stoppages from 1972-95.

With time slipping away, the sport will have at best its shortest schedule since the dawn of professional baseball in the 1870s.

Players and MLB are increasingly dismayed with each other and appear headed to a spring training lockout in 2022. Still, they agree on one novelty: MLB’s latest proposal this week include starting extra innings with a runner on second base, and the union’s counterproposal said that would be acceptable for 2020 only, in the event of an agreement.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred flew to Arizona and met with union head Tony Clark for five hours on Tuesday in an effort to end the fighting and strike a deal. Manfred said the next day the sides had reached a framework for a 60game regular season schedule and the full pro-rated pay that players had demanded, and the post-season would expand from 10 teams to 16 this year and either 14 or 16 in 2021.

But Clark refused to call it a framework and said his eightplayer executive subcommittee rejected it. The union countered with a 70-game schedule as part of a proposal that left the sides about $275 million (U.S.) apart.

“MLB has informed the association that it will not respond to our last proposal and will not play more than 60 games,” the union said in a statement on Friday night.

“Our executive board will convene in the near future to determine next steps. Importantly, players remain committed to getting back to work as soon as possible.”