As complicated as it seems, there is an obvious solution to MLB's impasse with its Players Association.
Set a 54-game schedule, pay the players their full prorated salary and get baseball moving again.
It's clear, regardless of how presented, the owners are only willing to compensate the players a third of their usual salaries for this season, and the players won't accept anything less than full prorated pay.
Yes, there would be screams about it being less than ideal - justifiably loud ones. But considering the alternative is possible ruination of the game, it's not that complex.
If there is no season because of finances, the value of franchises will crater, future profits will evaporate and player salaries subsequently plummet. Most importantly, baseball will lose most of what it has left in this country's collective soul.
It's the ultimate game of lose - or really, really lose. MLB can't remotely afford the credibility hit.
There is all this angst about the bearing this negotiation will have on the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expires following 2021. If there is no season in '20, it would be moot. The pandemic is extraordinarily unpredictable. Baseball could facing similar issues in the spring. How about taking it a step at a time?
Players Association head Tony Clark, the former Tigers' first baseman, has called the owners bluff on this, daring commissioner Rob Manfred to lay his cards on the table.
The fact Manfred, who can essentially order such a schedule, still didn't show them just keeps the impasse in a rut.
Manfred is deservedly being mocked for going from "100 percent certain" there would be a season to "not confident" in five days. At least Clark has been consistent with his doom and gloom.
Like any fight, there is a tendency to pick sides. It's impossible here, though.
MLB understands terms like "revenue sharing" and "sliding scale" are akin to "salary cap" to the players, although not necessarily the public. The MLBPA will never accept a salary cap - and the owners know it. Conversely, the MLBPA crying about wanting to see the owners books and not getting cuts of past profits is hollow. They see the books and share the profits in the NFL, NBA and NHL because they have salary caps.
Detroit, particularly, is a victim of this childish behavior. The Tigers have generated buzz because of top prospects such Spencer Torkelson, Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal and Riley Greene. This scenario is hurting their development. The Pistons and Red Wings will not be playing when the NBA and NHL return, so the Tigers present the only Detroit option until football, which is iffy because of a potential second wave of the pandemic.
Look about you. There are youth league baseball games taking place everywhere in Metro Detroit. And yet there is no MLB?
You could call it a joke, but it's not funny.
Pathetic is more like it.
