Chapter 1: Why is a lockout anticipated for the upcoming baseball season?
Everybody just feels like it's a foregone conclusion. I guess I'm part of this as well because just listening to everybody talk about it and the experts that we're not going to have a season that starts on time next year.
And that's if anybody needs to make sure that they don't have any sort of work stoppage, it is Major League Baseball because that is the one example in pro sports in this country where there was a massive effect when games stopped after 1994. And I understand the NHL lockout, that changed a lot of things. It almost was good for the league eventually, and the fans came back.
But that was a major one as well, so I should include that. But as far as losing fans and needing fans to come back, there was nothing worse than 1994. We all know that the steroids in 98 and the home run chase brought it back. But I mean, Rob Manfred and... Whoever the guy is that replaces Tony Clark now, I know his name.
Chapter 2: How did past work stoppages affect Major League Baseball?
I saw it in a bunch of articles, but I forget already. I mean, these guys have to be like, man, there's so much money to be had for all of us. You know, let's not ruin this damn thing.
The only people that are going to ruin this are the other owners. This is not about the players. The players are happy with the current system. Yeah, the players don't want a salary cap. Well, listen, again, this is not a strike or it will not be a strike unless they come to some agreement. It will be a lockout. So this is a disagreement between the owners of the baseball teams.
Now, Major League Baseball just signed a huge deal with Polymarket. So Rob Manford is working hard. They're trying to get as many sponsors as they possibly can. They want to keep building the war chest, much like the NFL has done, and nobody's done it better than the NFL.
You could argue that the NBA has done really well in that regard, too, especially internationally with the NBA and all the international players. that they have and all the different contracts they have all over the globe. But when it comes to what's going on right now, and I went through a work stoppage with the NFL in 1987, we, the players, struck on the owners.
And the players of today are benefiting from that strike. I firmly believe it. It took a while to get it going. But after about 15 to 20 years, the players started really making some serious money. And they can look back at that strike and they can say that's one of the reasons why they were able to do this.
In this case, this is probably three-quarters of the owners against the top quarter of ownership in terms of spending money when it comes to the Dodgers, the Mets, the Yankees, the Phillies, the Cubs, the Red Sox, teams like that. And they're going to want a salary cap. They're going to want to jam it down the players' throats. And they're going to just basically threaten not to pay the players.
So if you're Juan Soto, at this point, you have this huge contract. You're Shohei Otani. You have this huge contract. Kyle Tucker, you've got this huge contract. I mean, you want to go to work. You don't want to be told not to come. Well, of course, but you don't want to go to work so bad that you accept a salary cap.
Yeah, but the pressure is going to be coming from players who are, number one, who are not going to want to lose years of service, and number two, are going to want to get their paychecks. So that's what the owners are banking on, that the players are going to end up acquiescing to their wishes and getting some sort of salary structure. It may not be called a cap, it may be called something else.
The other thing that's going to be interesting is you see how the Dodgers are writing contracts. So Shohei Ohtani has deferred $680 million of his $700 million deal. That means he is basically skirting 14.1% of California state tax, essentially over $68 million he'll be able to keep when he leaves.
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Chapter 3: What are the owners' motivations behind a potential salary cap?
McClain and Bench are both going to be up here. And I like that. I mean, you know, listen, David Stearns has completely changed his team. He's brought in a lot of professional Major League Baseball players, and he's got a couple of young guys that he's counting on. And, you know, I think harmony in a locker room is really important to the success of a team. And nobody is more...
That's not more obvious to me than what St. John's has under Rick Pitino right now. Every one of these players has bought in. Every one of these players is unselfish. Every one of these players love playing for Coach Pitino and love playing for St. John's. And if you would have told me this was going to happen six years ago about St. John's, where they were, I would tell you no way.
There's no way this would ever happen. Nobody's going to want to come to Queens. Nobody's going to want to go play basketball at St. John's until Rick Pitino got here and made it a thing.
And the same thing I would also say. But here's the thing, though. You can't ignore the money factor and having such a huge ā there's no rules right now there.
I'll give you another example. And you're wearing their shirt today, the pullover, and that's the New York Islanders. For years and years and years, the Islanders had just a horrendous reputation. They had an average practice facility. They played in the old barn, which many people miss and would say that was the greatest place to play hockey. But that's not how you can make money in 2026.
You need a building like UBS. You need a practice facility that's first class like they have at Eisenhower. And then you need the right group of players to actually tell the rest of the league that this is a great place to play hockey and a great place to live. There's a passionate fan base.
And, you know, and I do give my son-in-law and Casey Zizekas and Cal Clutterbuck and that group of players that, you know, that were here, that Garth Snow brought in. And then Lou Lamarillo took it to the next level with all the new stuff that was going on around them.
And even when John Tavares left and they were playing in Brooklyn and nobody wanted to play there, it was just a temporary kind of fix. Yeah. there was a concerted effort by those players letting players around the NHL know this is a great place to play hockey, it's a great place to live, and Long Island is a great place to raise your kids.
And now all of a sudden the Islanders have turned it around. Now, in large part due to a couple of their players that they have, and of course Matthew Schaefer is a big part of that, but Matt has always told me that It's the hidden gem in the NHL that people didn't realize how great it is to live here. And sometimes we take that for granted.
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Chapter 4: How are current players impacted by the owners' decisions?
How many Mets players are living on Long Island where the Islanders are living? They're not.
I think a bunch of Mets players live on Long Island. I know Jose Reyes lived out there.
He hasn't been here in 15 years.
I'm just saying, I know it's closer to live on Long Island to Citi Field than it is to live in the city. And I guess single guys could still live in the city, just like a number of Ranger single guys live down here. Yeah. But they practice up in Tarrytown. You know, that kind of thing. So I just say that there's a lot of reasons why that you'd want to play for Steve Cohen.
And one of those things is, and I remember when we did our show out there in Huntington, we had, what's his name, Iglesias on. That's right. And he said that Alex Cohen gave him an, oh my God, necklace of diamonds.
That's right.
That's the kind of thing that players want. You know, they don't want necklace of diamonds, but they just want appreciation from ownership. And then they didn't re-sign him and he was pissed off. Well, he didn't fit the model that David Stearns was trying to fix here.
I'm just saying. He went from loving those guys to being pissed off at them.
I just think that what you have to do is if you are the Mets, if you are the Islanders, if you are the Jets, and you have this stench that had been attached to you, The way to get rid of that is, number one, by winning, but also going out and getting the right players. And then when the players get here, you treat them the way that they should be treated, and that's professionally.
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