This week’s WISE Sports Radio baseball segment aired before Major League Baseball players voted on whether to accept team owners’ latest proposal on terms for a 2020 season.
But most of what Pat Ryan and I discussed holds true. Team owners and players are totally deadlocked on salaries for the season, a sticking point that has stalled any chance at baseball this year. And then, even if the two sides hashed that out, what about the renewed concerns over COVID-19?
For a sport that isn’t being played and may not be played this year, Major League Baseball is still generating a lot of discussion. Unfortunately, most of that conversation is negative as team owners and players battle over salaries to be paid in a shortened season with no fans in attendance.
But that means I got to talk with an old friend, Clint Domingue on Acadiana’s 103.7 The Game, and we discussed MLB’s tendency to hurt itself in terms of promoting baseball.
Great to be invited by Wes McElroy back to The Fan in Richmond (910 AM, 105.1 FM) to chat about sports media. We talked a little bit about the next ESPN “30 for 30” film, Long Gone Summer, but I haven’t seen it yet so couldn’t offer much other than my own personal experiences watching the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
But with the NBA and NHL returning soon (we still don’t know if MLB is coming back), Wes and I discussed what those telecasts might sound and look like with the broadcasters likely to work off-site from remote studios.
I hope the WISE Sports Radio listeners in Asheville don’t think that I’m a broken record or automaton repeating the same bleak forecast. But I’ve been pessimistic about a 2020 Major League Baseball season being played since the COVID-19 shutdown. But I initially thought it would be due to health and safety concerns, not team revenues and player salaries.
On Wednesday’s baseball update, Pat Ryan and I responded to the news that MLB team owners rejected the latest proposal from players. And there doesn’t appear to be much urgency for another proposal or negotiation. To me, this just looks even more hopeless.
I’m always excited to talk to radio friends in Canada. It looked like I blew a chance to do so this week when I didn’t respond to a text message soon enough, but I ended up getting passed to another show on Edmonton’s TSN 1260. And I’ve never talked to morning host Dustin Nielson before, so that was fun.
Naturally, we talked baseball and whether or not MLB will have a 2020 season. What was once a question of COVID-19 safety concerns is now a money dispute. And I don’t think that bodes well for MLB playing this year.
Thanks to the crew at TSN 1260 — including producers Ryan Holt, Matthew Iwanyk, and Hernan Salas — for having me on. As I mentioned at the end of that segment, I hope to listen to the station’s Sandwich Draft when it happens. I have definite thoughts on sandwiches!
Ian Casselberry 