New York Yankees team president gives substance to the stalemate

New York Yankees team president Randy Levine wants players back to the talking table.

The owners are chirping and the players are tweeting, though finally, someone connected to the game of baseball is saying something meaningful. New York Yankees team president Randy Levine is calling for the MLBPA to resume negotiations and get a season scheduled before time runs out.

To begin with, Levine restated what has been in the news for days.

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"All 30 clubs want to play. The commissioner wants to play. The players want to play. So let’s get these issues solved so we can begin playing baseball."

I do believe this is speculation on behalf of Levine after word dropped 6 to 8 team owners would be fine with no season taking place this year. The commissioner has recently backtracked on his 100% guarantee baseball will be played this season. Seemingly the players do want to play, only if they can make as much money as possible.

The back and forth and ultimate decision of the MLBPA to stop negotiating has been nauseating for most baseball fans. The rollercoaster ride of a proposal, counteroffer, reworded the same proposal, argument, has been hard to follow.

Therefore Levine puts some layman terms on the matter.

"Everyone here wants to get down to business as soon as possible and play games. From what I’ve discovered, the holdup is not about the number of games or money at this time.  The holdup, as I understand it, is about resolving the other items in the March 26 agreement. They include  final agreement on all of the health and safety protocols, deciding what happens if a season is interrupted by a second wave of the virus, which players can opt out and under what circumstances can they, and a host of issues like that."

Thus far what has been assumed to be the holdup is the argument over the number of games played, leading to the number of money players can earn and the number of money owners lose if games are played in empty stadiums.

Levine spins a different yarn in the issues at hand stem directly to the health of players and the ramifications if the season were to be stopped due to another spike in coronavirus cases.

The legitimacy of this claim by Levine is lost on me, as I am thinking disagreements over money still have something to do with the halt in negotiations.

I side with Randy Levine though, let’s get the players and owners back to the table and let the talks resume. America needs to see its baseball players back in action.