UPDATED: 5:40 p.m.
The disagreement has been going on for a month. The two sides can’t come to terms on what percentage of the prorated salaries agreed on in March the players should receive, or how many regular-season games should be played.
MLB wants the players to take a further pay cut because of the strong likelihood that no fans will be permitted at games when the season starts. The union wants to stick by the March agreement.
“It becomes legitimate because, even though there’s 50 games, you know what, it’s like the 1999 (San Antonio) Spurs, when they beat the (New York) Knicks in a short NBA season,” Samson told KYW Newsradio. “Do people look back and say that wasn’t real? No, they don’t.”
Even so, Samson says he would prefer 81 games, out of the traditional 162, and see postseason games go deeper in the fall.
But the debate may now be moot. Manfred told ESPN Monday afternoon that he's "not confident" there will even be a 2020 season.
"I think there's real risk," he said to ESPN, "and as long as there's no dialogue, that real risk is gonna continue."
Just last week, Manfred told MLB Network the league’s medical advisers don’t think it’s wise to push the playoffs back because of a potential second wave of the coronavirus. However, Samson said a much bigger issue with the postseason schedule is the television networks that carry the playoffs don’t want to move off the traditional schedule. FOX and TBS have been the primary networks for postseason baseball.
Samson said it's 90% TV and 10% health risk. New spikes of COVID-19, like the ones happening now in Florida, Arizona and Texas, are impossible to predict.
Baseball will be back eventually, and Samson doesn’t think this squabble will hurt the popularity of the game in the long term. He does, however, recognize fans' frustrations over this matter are being neglected. He admits that, when he was president of the Marlins, he didn’t pay attention to social media, articles or sports talk radio.
"The tone-deafness that we all sense now that I’m on your side and I’m in the media, I feel that," he said. "But I also put myself back in the position as president of a team. I never felt it."
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