ST. LOUIS -- The Super Bowl has come to an end, which means the start of the baseball season.
Or, wait.
Is it?
As of Monday, there is no agreement in place between the MLBPA and baseball's owners, with MLB having locked out the players since Dec. 2.
Spring training was supposed to start February 16, and is now facing a delayed start date for workouts. Baseball activities do not require a signed collective bargaining agreement to resume. But in order for the lockout to be lifted, significant progress would have to be made towards a deal.
We are not there yet.
"I think there's too much at stake for either side to test the patience of fans any more than they already have," said Joe Buck, the 23-time voice of the World Series on FOX.
Buck, appearing on KMOX's Sports on a Sunday Morning, predicted that the speed of the negotiations figure to pick up as the regular season nears.
"I think they're going to get something done," Buck said. "Time is obviously of the essence, but nothing gets done until the 11th hour in these things. I would think that within the next week or two, something will get done. I'd like to believe that."
At the forefront are core economic issues within baseball that keep revenue flowing to all parties while maintaining a competitive balance throughout the league. In the meantime, the game is on pause with Grapefruit League and Cactus League dates the first to be threatened.
"I think with the state of the game, both sides knowing that you need to speed things up, get more action back in this game ... nobody has any patience coming out of a pandemic for billionaires fighting with millionaires," Buck said. "Each side has points that they feel really strongly about, and they're both really prideful sides that are going at it at the negotiating table.
"But everybody's got to take a step back and (say): 'This thing needs to get done, and needs to get done now.' I can't imagine losing many games in April, let alone flushing April and starting games in May. Both sides are too smart for that."