Major League Baseball is in its first work stoppage in 26 years.
The collective bargaining agreement expired at midnight and the owners immediately locked out the players.
USA Today sports columnist Bob Nightengale outlines the restrictions:
"All freezes on Major League Baseball trades", he says. "Signings, no sponsorships, even on the Major League Baseball website, they have to scrub the images of every player, it's almost like nobody exists right now".
Nightengale says the negotiations went nowhere, never coming close to an agreement on key economic issues.
He says talks that started last spring ended Wednesday after a session that lasted only minutes.
Team owners decided to have the lockout during the off-season rather than risk a players strike during the summer, like 1994.