No bats, no balls, no fans: Pitchers, catchers don't report

Max Scherzer won’t be starting spring training workouts Wednesday in the warmth of Mets camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Marcus Stroman won’t be shaking off rust amid the cactus at the Cubs complex in Mesa, Arizona.

No crack of bats or thwacks of balls popping into mitts.

No free agents putting on new uniforms for the first time.

No veterans hugging teammates following months apart.

No kids leaning on chain-link fences waiting for autographs.

No sign of getting ready for an opening day that may not happen on March 31.

Not even a negotiating session.

Neither side made any public statement this week to acknowledge the obvious: Spring training is failing to start on schedule for the first time since 1995, victim of a lockout that stretches into its 77th day Wednesday as players and management squabble over how to apportion an industry with $10 billion annual revenue.

So instead of debating RBIs and ERAs, Major League Baseball has been reduced to disputing CBTs and AAVs.

Pitchers and catchers won't be reporting to camp as scheduled, but MLB doesn't plan to announce a disruption to spring training until Feb. 26 exhibition openers can't be played.

If talks stretch into March — all signs are they will— season openers are likely to be pushed back.

"I am an optimist and I believe we will have an agreement in time to play our regular schedule,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said at a news conference last Thursday. “I see missing games as a disastrous outcome for this industry, and we’re committed to making an agreement in an effort to avoid that.”

Those were Manfred's first comments to media since Dec. 2, the day baseball's ninth work stoppage began, its first since 1995.

Pace of bargaining has been even slower than pace of...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/No-bats-no-balls-no-fans-Pitchers-catchers-16921836.php