The first pitch of the 2022 Major League Baseball season isn't going to occur on Mar. 31. After more than a week's worth of meetings in Florida, the league and players' union failed to agree on a new CBA ahead of Tuesday's deadline, marking an indefinite postponement of the sport. During a press conference, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the cancellation of Opening Day and teams' first two series of the campaign.
Although both parties reportedly made progress in negotiations on Monday, the union's stance changed on Tuesday. They rejected MLB's "best and final offer," as the minor concessions didn't move the needle. MLB's self-imposed lockout began in early December, and without a new CBA -- which fixes core economic issues and imbalances -- the league will miss games due to a work stoppage for the first time since 1995.
"In reality, they had almost two years to figure this out -- two years. We heard and we saw the nonsense, unfortunately, through COVID-19. That was forced," JR said during the JR SportBrief show on Tuesday. "That was a warning shot. They knew the CBA was going to expire. Everybody talked about how it was going to be a preview of things to come when the actual CBA expired. Know what they did for two years? Nothing. Not a damn thing...
"There's no baseball without players. Nobody gives a damn who the owners are... MLB is basically giving you the blueprint on how you can screw up a professional sports league. You don't play games, that's dumb as hell. You don't market your players, equally ridiculous. That's what they're doing right now... Manfred is a sad commissioner, a sorry excuse for a commissioner... MLB has been slowly but surely killing itself for the past 20 years..."
JR's complete thoughts on MLB's failed labor negotiations can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the JR SportBrief show on Twitter @JRSportBrief and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.
