Speed it up? Open the checkbooks 1st
The hottest issue at the baseball owners’ meeting was supposed to be pace of play, but things have changed. It’s more about the pace of pay. As in, nobody’s getting paid. That is not to be taken literally, but when you’re less than two weeks away from spring training and such elite free agents as J.D. Martinez, Yu
Darvish, Eric Hosmer and Jake Arrieta haven’t been signed, it raises suspicion. Some 120 available players are without jobs, wondering about their share of a $10 billion industry, and the agents are speaking out.
We heard earlier this week from Scott Boras, referring to what he called “a noncompetitive cancer” in the game. On Thursday, prominent agent
Brodie Van Wagenen published a letter accusing the owners of collusion and raising the possibility of a players boycott in spring training. The players are “outraged,” he said, and “a fight is brewing.”
Frustration and resentment aside, don’t count on a boycott. Too many under-contract players need spring training to prove themselves, get in shape (pitchers’ arms, in particular) or confound their critics by breaking into a starting lineup.
More likely, the above-mentioned stars and several others are likely to be signed over the next week or so. That won’t stifle the players’ concern, but collusion is a very difficult thing to prove — especially after a sudden outbreak of lucrative, multiyear deals.
One has to be amused, meanwhile, by the latest paceof-play negotiations. Although Commissioner Rob Manfred has the right to unilaterally implement a pitch clock for the coming season, he’d rather not, preferring a system agreed upon by the players.
In MLB’s latest proposal, there will be no pitch clock in 2018, but if the players don’t speed things up — specifically, reducing the average time of game from last season’s 3:05 to 2:55 — an 18-second clock will be installed for 2019, effective only when there are no runners on base.
Other time-saving proposals will be in play, involving manager challenges, instant replay, mound visits and commercial breaks, but seriously: Manfred expects players to alter routines on their own? No chance. Batters will step out the box, fussing with their equipment. They will call time right before a pitch is thrown. Certain pitchers, many of them established stars, will take their sweet time between deliveries, especially in crucial situations. That’s the nature of today’s game, and umpires won’t have the slightest interest in aggressive enforcement unless governed by a clock.
The first step is for the players to actively engage Manfred in negotiations, a notion they have dismissed to date. They’re too worried about payday.
Few stars in the galaxy
It has been difficult to get fully engaged in Pac-12 basketball this season, and not entirely because analyst Bill Walton ruins every telecast he’s working with incessant, incomprehensible chatter. Star power has almost completely vanished. This is the conference that gave us Lew Alcindor, Marques Johnson, Jason Kidd, Paul Westphal, Gary Payton, Chauncey Billups and Walton himself, among many others. In recent years, the conference has delivered Aaron Gordon, Zach LaVine, Stanley Johnson, Kevon Looney, Jaylen Brown, Dejounte Murray, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball and Lauri Markkanen. Last season’s Oregon team delivered five players to the professional ranks, including the Warriors’
Jordan Bell and Chris Boucher. This year’s conference? Scarce NBA interest beyond Arizona center Deandre Ayton ... Not that it’s a disaster by any means. The games are competitive. A fair amount of parity exists. And with the lack of one-and-done players, fans can actually follow players through the length of a collegiate career, instead of singing the theme from “Hello I Must Be Going” ... The trend of regrettable football scheduling just never ends. Stanford was due to open its 2018 season on a Saturday, at home against San Diego State, but the game has been moved to high school territory (Friday night, Aug. 31) And in the wonderful world of cupcakes, Cal has scheduled a future two-game series with North Texas.
Excellent news in tennis: The women’s pro tour will remain in the Bay Area, switching from Stanford to San Jose next July 30-Aug. 5. This event dates to the days of Billie Jean King, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and it consistently drew elite fields under its most recent name, the Bank of the West. It will now be called the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, staged at the new tennis complex at San Jose State ... The Sporting Green recently profiled Half Moon Bay High School football, an undersized and undermanned team that went undefeated before losing the Open Division 3 state title to Steele Canyon. Aftermath: two-way star Chase Hofmann made the Cal-Hi Sports allstate team, with quarterback
Gavin Tomberlin a secondteam choice. Keith Holden was named Central Coast Section Coach of the Year by Prep2Prep. And another firstteam choice, placekicker Dylan Williams, has committed to Washington, where the Huskies had severe field-goal issues last year. Williams has been known to nail 60-yarders in practice and sail kickoffs 70 yards in the air ... Lots of chatter lately about Terrell Owens’ case for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 3-Dot doesn’t have a vote, but our answer would be a resounding
no. He’s an overbearing narcissist, absolutely, but in today’s landscape — far removed from the dignity of Otis Taylor, Paul Warfield or Art Monk — you have to allow for shenanigans. The simple fact is that he dropped too many passes. Way too many. It’s an unofficial statistic, but according to Stats, LLC, Owens led the NFL in drops one year and finished in the top four in seven other seasons. That’s always how he’ll be remembered here. Catch the damn ball.