PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio / AP) — Fans standing outside the spring training home of the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals chanted "We want baseball!" on Tuesday as Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that a breakdown in contract talks had resulted in the cancelation of opening day. But they're not going to get it anytime soon.
For the first time in 27 years, MLB games have been called off because of a work stoppage. With owners and players unable to agree on a labor contract to replace the collective bargaining agreement that expired Dec. 1, Manfred followed through with his threat and canceled the first two series for each of the 30 major league teams.
KYW's Dave Uram explains why MLB canceled games
"The calendar dictates that we're not going to be able to play the first two series of the regular season, and those games are officially canceled," Manfred said.
The announcement Tuesday cut each club’s schedule from 162 games to likely 156 at most. A total of 91 games were erased.
The two Phillies series lost were the three games in Houston that would have kicked off the regular season and two in Washington after that. No Phillies home games have yet been lost.
The first game scheduled at Citizens Bank Park is on April 8, against the Oakland Athletics.
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Analysis from WIP's Ricky Ricardo: Who's to blame?
Ricky Ricardo, WIP host and former Spanish play-by-play voice of the Phillies said the result was not unexpected.
"We all thought that maybe on Monday, with the marathon session that they had at Roger Dean Stadium, ... that maybe both sides would come to some sort of agreement. Everything fell apart on Tuesday, as the sides reiterated their major differences," he said.
Ricardo said he blames both sides.
"I think the players' side, the union, they've been looking to pick a fight ... because they felt they had lost the last couple of collective bargaining agreement sessions, going back five and 10 years. Ownership, they don't have their house together, either."
However, though he said there's enough blame to go around for all sides, "the guy that's gonna take all the bullets is Rob Manfred."
KYW Newsradio asked fans on Twitter: Who do you blame for the labor disagreement?
As of midday Wednesday, 4% said the players were to blame, 43% said it's both the players and the owners, and 53% blamed the owners.
Ricardo expressed some empathy for Manfred's situation.
"You've got a bunch of small-market owners that are blocking Rob Manfred, who has to represent 30 different owners with 30 different agendas."
CBS Sports analyst David Samson: Who's to blame?
David Samson, former Marlins president and host of the CBS Sports podcast Nothing Personal, said he agrees that both sides are to blame.
"I definitely blame the owners. And I definitely blame the players. But I'm the same guy who would tell you that anytime there's an argument between management and labor, it's both sides. Anytime there's a divorce, it's both sides," Samson said.
"I think the biggest issue we have now is that players are trying to get back everything they lost in the last several collective bargaining agreements."
The Phandemic Krew say: Remember the ballpark workers
Oscar Alvarado and Brett MacMinn of the Phandemic Krew offered a fan perspective. The pair of highly visible Phillies fans lamented that, for the second time in three seasons, games will not start on time.
"The last normal season we had [was] in 2019. We all know what happened with the pandemic," Alvarado said, adding it could always be worse.
"It is the just the first two series, and it's not a month or [the] middle of the year. But hopefully they can find the common ground get together and figure something out — for us, the fans; the employees in the ballpark, bars and restaurants in the area. We just want them to figure it out. Let's play some baseball."
MacMinn emphasized their empathy for the workers at Citizens Bank Park.
"The people that are really missing out are the people that work in the stadium. Yeah, the security, the ushers, the food service people," he said. "Because a lot of those people, that's income that they need, that they're not going to be getting as of right now."
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What's at stake?
Manfred has emphasized it takes two parties to reach a collective bargaining agreement.
"Every single issue in the basic agreement, we have made the last proposal. You draw your own conclusion as to who ought to go next," Manfred said.
MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark called it a sad day. He said conversations could have happened sooner. Differences should have been discussed in greater depth. And they look forward to getting back to it as soon as possible.
"A lockout is the ultimate economic weapon," Clark said. "In a $10 billion industry, the owners have made a conscious decision to use this weapon against the greatest asset they have: the players."
The earliest the two sides could pick it up again is on Thursday.
More than pure numbers are a cause of the contention. Players are seething over their allegations of service-time manipulation and Major League Baseball's increased number of rebuilding clubs, which the union calls tanking.
Issues such as the size and format of the postseason have become divisive.
“A core of this negotiation's to increase competition and there’s no way we’re leaving the table without something that does that,” Miller said. “We’re not going to do anything to sacrifice this competition of the season. Anything that points towards mediocrity, that’s the antithesis of our game and what we're about as players.”
The luxury tax may be the single most difficult issue. MLB proposed raising the tax threshold from $210 million to $220 million in each of the next three seasons, $224 million in 2025 and $230 million in 2026.
A higher threshold likely would lead to more spending by large-market teams such as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We have a payroll disparity problem,” Manfred said, “and to weaken the only mechanism in the agreement that’s designed to promote some semblance of competitive balance is just something that I don’t think the club group is prepared to do right now.”
Players are unhappy over how the tax system worked during the last labor contract, which included surtaxes to discourage high spending.
“We’re seeing it act as a salary cap,” Mets pitcher Max Scherzer said. “The San Diego Padres have the higher payroll than the New York Yankees.”
Players asked for a $238 million threshold this year, $244 million in 2023, $250 million in 2024, $256 million in 2025 and $263 million in 2026. The union aims higher to encourage teams to boost payrolls — and salaries.
Manfred vowed players will not receive salary or major league service for games missed, exacerbating already visceral anger of the roughly 1,200 players locked into a contest of will against 30 controlling owners. Manfred maintained daily that interleague play made rescheduling impossible.
“To say they won’t reschedule games if games are canceled or they won’t pay players for those games that are canceled is solely their position,” union negotiator Bruce Meyer said. “We would have a different position.”