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MLB lockout: Red Sox-Yankees among latest cancellations

By Bill Felber

Apr 16, 2021; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Brewers players line up for the playing of the National Anthem before their game with the Pittsburgh Pirates at American Family Field. On this day all players are wearing number 42 celebrating "Jackie Robinson Day". Mandatory Credit: Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 16, 2021; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Brewers players line up for the playing of the National Anthem before their game with the Pittsburgh Pirates at American Family Field. On this day all players are wearing number 42 celebrating "Jackie Robinson Day". Mandatory Credit: Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports /
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For Major League Baseball fans, because of the MLB lockout, April is rapidly becoming what T.S. Eliot once described it as “the cruelest month.”

Following the latest failure by the owners and the MLBPA to agree on terms of a new Basic Agreement, the league Wednesday announced cancellation of two more series.

That decision moved Opening Day (at the earliest) back to April 14.

It also jeopardizes the annual observance of Jackie Robinson Day April 15. That date carries special significance this year since 2022 is the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s major league debut on April 15, 1947.

If no deal is reached by this time next week, that anniversary would be the most notable of the third round of cancellations.

This latest round, coming atop the previously announced elimination of the original opening week, knocks out another 90 games. Assuming the owners and players do not try to cobble together some revised schedule as part of a new agreement, these latest cancellations mean teams will only play about 156 games at most.

Among the latest casualties are a scheduled three-game series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees April 7-10 at Yankee Stadium. A series between NL Central rivals in the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs was also cancelled.

The St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals also lost the St. Louis portion of their annual four-game home-and-home series, which was to have been contested April 12 and 13.

The next week’s worth of games now in jeopardy are to be played between April 14 and April 20. There are 94 games on that portion of the schedule.

Notable among those 94 games are a scheduled four-game showdown between the two leading preseason contenders in the NL Central, the Brewers and Cardinals. Those teams are supposed to play April 14-17 in Milwaukee.

The defending champion Atlanta Braves have a pair of high-profile West Coast series now in jeopardy. The Braves are supposed to face the San Diego Padres for four games April 14-17 in San Diego, then travel up the coast for a three-game replay of their NLCS showdown with the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

Other series of note now in trouble are a three-game visit by the San Francisco Giants to Citi Field April 18-20 to play the Mets, and a three game meeting those same dates between Mike Trout’s Los Angeles Angels and the Houston Astros in Houston.

Next. The links between Clayton Kershaw and Jackie Robinson. dark

From a public relations standpoint, the big loss, however, would be the cancellation of Jackie Robinson Day events. The loss, driven by the MLB lockout, would be especially felt in Los Angeles, where Robinson’s Dodgers are scheduled to host the Cincinnati Reds, and in New York, where the Mets are to host the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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