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Union delivers 70-game plan to MLB in counterproposal Both MLB and the union proposed starting the season on July 19, and players said it should end Sept. 30, three days later than management. Citing Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, MLB does not want to extend playing deeper into the autumn.
Twins remove statue of ex-owner Calvin Griffith over comments
The Minnesota Twins announced Friday the removal of a statue in front of Target Field of former owner Calvin Griffith. Griffith relocated the Washington Senators to Minnesota ahead of the 1961 season and remained owner until 1984. He died in 1999 at the age of 87. Griffith was a major figure in the franchise's history, but racist remarks he made at a 1978 speaking engagement marred his legacy.
"I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here," Griffith said then. "Black people don't go to ballgames, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. We came here because you've got good, hardworking white people here."
He was unaware a newspaper reporter was present at the dinner. Target Field, which opened in 2010, is in Minneapolis, the same city in which George Floyd, a black man, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for over seven minutes.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred quickly rejects union's 70-game proposal
The Major League Baseball Players Association on Thursday proposed a 70-game regular-season schedule, a plan immediately rejected by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. In a statement announcing the counterproposal, which included expanded playoffs in 2020 and 2021, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said: "We believe this offer represents the basis for an agreement on a resumption of play." The union disagreed with that accounting, and players said Wednesday that they viewed MLB's proposed 60-game schedule as too short.
Virus prompts 3 MLB teams to close spring camps The Philadelphia Phillies closed their spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida, after five players and three staff members tested positive for the coronavirus. The Toronto shuttered their site in Dunedin, Florida, about 5 miles from the Phillies' camp in Clearwater, after a player showed symptoms consistent with the virus. The San Francisco Giants facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, was shut after one person who had been to the site and one family member exhibited symptoms Thursday.
Five best MLB franchises to bet on over the past 20 years
Maybe baseball isn't that profitable for bettors. Twenty-six of the 30 MLB teams have shown less than a 20-unit profit over the past 20 seasons, with the Braves coming in at 19.22. So which teams have paid off the most for bettors over the past two decades?
Five worst MLB franchises to bet on over the past 20 years
While proposals are sent back and forth, we went ahead and decided to break down which teams have given bettors the most trouble over the past 20 years combined.
MLB MVPs say time to pull Kenesaw Mountain Landis' name off plaques
Something still bothers Barry Larkin about his Most Valuable Player award. The other name engraved on the trophy: Kenesaw Mountain Landis."Why is it on there?" said Larkin, the Black shortstop voted National League MVP in 1995 with the Cincinnati Reds. "I was always aware of his name and what that meant to slowing the color line in Major League Baseball, of the racial injustice and inequality that Black players had to go through,". Hired in 1920 as the sport's first commissioner to help clean up rampant gambling, Landis and his legacy are "always a complicated story" that includes "documented racism," official MLB historian John Thorn said. This much is true, in black and white, about the son of a Union Army doctor wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia during the Civil War: No Blacks played in the majors during his quarter-century tenure; Jackie Robinson broke the barrier in April 1947, about 2 ½ years after Landis died.
MLB schedule release MLB Opening Day games on ESPN July 23: Yankees at Nationals (7 p.m. ET), Giants vs. Dodgers (10 p.m. ET) July 24: Braves-Mets (4 p.m. ET), Brewers-Cubs (7 p.m. ET), Angels-A's (10 p.m. ET)
Donald Trump defends Indians team name
Cleveland All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor said Monday he is in favor of the Indians changing their nickname, which they've had since 1915. "If changing the name brings more love and more peace to society, I'm open to listening to the change of names,'' Lindor said Monday. "I know society is shifting and we are due for some change. So along those guidelines, yeah, I'm open for a change in name if it's going to bring love and happiness and more peace to the world.''
Sources: Mookie Betts, Dodgers finalizing new 13-year, $380M-plus deal Betts is considered one of the best all-around players in baseball, an elite leadoff hitter with power, speed and four Gold Gloves in right field. He capped his championship-winning 2018 season with an MVP award and followed it last year by hitting .295/.391/.524. Betts has posted four straight seasons with at least 100 runs, 40 doubles and 20 home runs.
MLB, players' union agree to playoff expansion for 2020 The playoff expansion plan had previously been part of MLB's proposal to restart the season before the union ended talks and told the league to unilaterally announce a schedule. The postseason last expanded in 2012.
Nationals catcher Tres Barrera tests positive for steroid, gets 80-game ban He is the seventh player suspended this year under the major league drug program, one shy of last year's total. He appeared in two games in 2019 and was not a member of the postseason roster as the Nationals went on to win the franchise's first title.
Some MLB games postponed after Marlins' coronavirus outbreak Miami just completed a series in Philadelphia, and seven more players and two coaches with the Marlins tested positive for the coronavirus. An outbreak has spread throughout their clubhouse and brought the total cases in recent days to at least 13, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN's Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers.
White Sox manager Rick Renteria not with team, pending test
The White Sox announced on July 5 that they had two players test positive for the coronavirus. The team never identified the players, but star third baseman Yoan Moncada revealed his positive test result after he rejoined the team.
Memo details new MLB rules to discipline electronic sign-stealing The one exception to the sign-stealing rule is what players have always done to acquire a competitive edge: If a baserunner or coach identifies an opposing team's signs or pitch information through his own unaided observation of the pitcher, catcher or opposing team's dugout, that person may communicate that information to an on-field player or coach.
Division Leaders American League EAST: New York Yankees (14-6) GB-2 CENTRAL: Minnesota (13-8) GB-1 WEST: Oakland (15-6) GB-4 National League EAST: Miami (9-5) GB-1 CENTRAL: Chicago Cubs (13-5) GB-3.5 WEST: Los Angeles Dodgers (15-7) GB-2