This article is part of our Bernie on the Scene series.
The game of baseball that we know and love is at war, and this might be the most important article I have written for RotoWire. The war is between the owners and the players. A Civil War, if you will. And we as fans and fantasy baseball managers are helpless.
The information I provide here comes from sources I trust. All of it, some of it, or none of it may happen. But, the war between baseball owners and baseball players can't be denied.
The owners, led by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, continue to claim the game lost billions of dollars from the pandemic driven 2020 season played without fans in the stands.
Ownership is bound and determined not to begin a new season unless and until there are fans in the stands. That, of course, will take vast COVID-19 vaccine immunizations, and there is no definitive date when enough fans will qualify as immunized. The problem is intensified with the slow roll out of the vaccine.
The MLB Players Association is bound and determined to receive payment for a full, 162-game schedule, even if fewer games are played.
In essence, players don't care how many games are played, they want full payment, as negotiated in the basic agreement between the parties. That agreement is said to expire at the end of this new calendar year.
Owners want players to share in the ramifications of games without fans. Owners want players to share in the financial pain.
Players say MLB
