Following a 99 day lockout, baseball is back.
The players and owners have reached an agreement. It includes increased minimum salaries, a new pre-arbitration bonus pool, and introducing the designated hitter in both the American and National leagues.
Texas Rangers insider Jared Sandler with 105.3 The Fan said that bottom line - both sides felt the pressure to get a deal done.
"The one shared thought is that today is a good day for Major League Baseball to get back to being on the field and getting the season started," Sandler said. "And I think the key with this happening today is the ability to still play 162 games."
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Focusing closer to home, and the return of baseball is great news for Arlington.
Fran Ruegsegger is the manager of Bodacious Barbeque in Arlington and said they get lots of Rangers fans on game days, but were worried about the possibility of no season.
"We are blessed with very very many baseball fans," Ruegsegger said. "I know they have a lot of other activities over there besides baseball, but everybody is ready for baseball to start again."
And it isn't just local businesses that benefit. Arlington Mayor Jim Ross told KRLD just how widespread the overall impact of baseball is on the local economy.
"It's not just sales tax on tickets and the food and drinks and everything sold there, but it's the hotels around there, it's the people that come to a game and then they go to Texas Live and they hang out and they have dinner and they get hotel rooms and they go to Six Flags and they do everything else," Ross said. "So what we're finding is the economic impact is more than just the Rangers game. That's part of the vacation type of thing that people like to experience here in Arlington. So when we don't have those games, it certainly doesn't help us at all, and we feel it."
The season will start up April 7, with players reporting in three days.
The Rangers and Kansas City Royals' minor league teams will open their spring game schedule on Friday with a game in Surprise Stadium in Arizona. The game is open to fans free of charge. Probable pitchers for the Rangers include first-round draft pick, Jack Leiter.
The Rangers' five games that had been canceled have been restored to the schedule, which now begins with Texas traveling to Toronto on April 8 for a weekend series.
The team's home opener will be April 11 as the Rangers host the Rockies for an interleague series. Seven earlier games -- including what was supposed to be the Rangers' season-opening series against the Yankees -- will be made up as the season goes along through double-headers or playing on previously scheduled off days.
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