Major League Baseball Players Association

19 Stories

Union Worries About Effect of Clock Change

After one season of limiting pitchers, MLB gives them less time when a runner is on base

(Newser) - Major League Baseball went nearly 150 years without limiting the time between pitches, before instituting a clock last season. Average game times fell 24 minutes, Yahoo Sports reports, to 2 hours, 40 minutes, and MLB has decided to give pitchers less time this season: 18 seconds instead of 20 when...

MLB Union Objects to New Rules Adding Clock, Limiting Shifts

Also coming next season: larger bases

(Newser) - Fans who disapprove of Major League Baseball's decision to have a clock govern the game for the first time can take comfort in the fact that the players union is unhappy, too. The sport's Competition Committee approved three rule changes on Friday, including adding a pitch clock. Afterward,...

Stuck on International Draft, MLB Cancels More Games
MLB Cancels
Another 93 Games
Mar 9, 2022 7:30 PM CST

MLB Cancels Another 93 Games

Owners, players are closer on some issues, but not an international amateur draft

(Newser) - Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred canceled 93 more games Wednesday, appearing to close the remaining chance to play a full 162-game schedule and threatening locked-out players with loss of salary and service time. After the sides narrowed many economic differences and became bogged down over management's attempt to gain an...

MLB, Players Keep Talking as Owners' Deadline Hits
MLB Talks
Go On as
Deadline
Arrives
Feb 28, 2022 7:45 PM CST

MLB Talks Go On as Deadline Arrives

Owners, players aren't close on economic issues

(Newser) - Major League Baseball hits its deadline Monday for reaching a deal with the players union in time to avoid canceling regular-season games—and kept right on negotiating. The owners and players remained far apart on the economic issues, CBS Sports reports. If no deal is reached Monday night, negotiations are...

Lockout Affects First Games
Lockout Affects First Games
Feb 18, 2022 4:36 PM CST

Lockout Affects First Games

MLB postpones spring training games until March 5

(Newser) - Baseball has canceled its first games because of the lockout. MLB announced Friday that spring training games won't be played until at least March 5, ESPN reports. Spring training had been scheduled to begin this week, with the first games taking place Feb. 26. Owners locked out the players...

As Spring Training Nears, Baseball Asks for Mediation
Players Reject
Federal Mediation 
updated
Feb 4, 2022 4:30 PM CST

Players Reject Federal Mediation

Hope dims for MLB starting spring training on schedule

(Newser) - Update: The Players Association on Friday rejected Major League Baseball's proposal to invite federal mediators into their negotiations. "Two months after implementing their lockout, and just two days after committing to Players that a counterproposal would be made, the owners refused to make a counter, and instead requested...

MLB Owners Lock Out Players in First Stoppage Since 1995

Agreement expired at midnight Wednesday

(Newser) - Major League Baseball plunged into its first work stoppage in a quarter-century when the sport’s collective bargaining agreement expired Wednesday night and owners immediately locked out players in a move that threatens spring training and opening day. The strategy, management’s equivalent of a strike under federal labor law,...

'Homerun Agreement' Reached Between US, Cuba

Players can sign MLB contracts without defecting

(Newser) - Major League Baseball, its players' association, and the Cuban Baseball Federation have reached an agreement that will allow players from the island to sign big league contracts without defecting, an effort to eliminate the dangerous trafficking that had gone on for decades. The agreement, which runs through Oct. 31, 2021,...

MLB Reaches Deal to Avoid Strikes for 5 Years

Contract will make it 26 years of MLB peace

(Newser) - Baseball players and owners reached a tentative agreement on a five-year labor contract Wednesday night, a deal that will extend the sport's industrial peace to 26 years since the ruinous fights in the first two decades of free agency. After days of near round-the-clock talks, negotiators reached a verbal...

Mom of Former Mets Pitcher Kidnapped

Victor Zambrano's mother snatched off his Venezuelan farm

(Newser) - The mother of former Major League Baseball pitcher Victor Zambrano has been abducted in Venezuela. Elizabeth Mendez Zambrano was kidnapped yesterday morning from her son's farm in central Venezuela, reports AP . Dozens of US major leaguers come from Venezuela, where families of wealthy athletes are targeted by kidnappers. Zambrano pitched...

Fehr's Whiff on Steroids Tarnishes Great Legacy

(Newser) - If not for one pesky scandal, “Don Fehr might rightly be hailed as one of the greatest leaders in the history of American labor,” Ken Rosenthal writes for Fox Sports of the retiring baseball players union boss. “Alas, he missed on steroids, missed about as badly as...

Fehr, Head of Baseball Players Union, Will Retire

(Newser) - Baseball players union chief Donald Fehr said today he’ll retire by March 31, the New York Times reports. His likely replacement as executive director will be Michael Weiner, the union’s general counsel. In Fehr’s 26 years at the helm, the average player salary rose from $289,000...

Players OK More Drug Tests
 Players OK More Drug Tests 
May 24, 2008 9:44 AM CDT

Players OK More Drug Tests

Tougher doping rules kick in immediately

(Newser) - Baseball players agreed to more frequent drug tests yesterday and gave more clout to the drug program's independent administrator, the AP reports. The tougher guidelines follow recommendations made in the Mitchell Report and mark the third time the league has toughened its doping policy since 2002—each time under the...

Selig Wants to Avoid Repeat of 2005 Hearings

Commish hopes Congress sees Mitchell Report as progress

(Newser) - It has been nearly three years since MLB commissioner Bud Selig was taken to task by members of Congress for allowing steroids to permeate the nation’s pastime. But while Selig has toughened the league’s stance on PEDs and commissioned George Mitchell to investigate baseball’s steroids era, the...

Rocket Refused to Address 'Roids Allegations: Mitchell

Players were notified of accusations in advance

(Newser) - Roger Clemens twice declined entreaties by George Mitchell to respond to allegations that he had used steroids, USA Today reports. Mitchell said that last summer and fall, as his investigation developed, he sent the players union requests to interview players who faced accusations of drug use. Clemens never responded, Mitchell...

Mitchell Report Will Be Flawed, Insiders Say

Players, others complain of missteps in the investigation

(Newser) - George Mitchell is poised to release his long-awaited report on steroid use in baseball—but many of those interviewed by his investigators have serious doubts it will solve anything, reports ESPN's Howard Bryant. Players, trainers and managers say the 20-month investigation has been hamstrung by tension between owners and the...

MLB Now in Possession of Mitchell Report

Steroid investigation findings to be made public Thursday

(Newser) - Major League Baseball is finally in possession of the much-anticipated steroid report produced by George Mitchell, 21 months after the former senator was commissioned to investigate the use of performing-enhancing drugs in the pro game. Baseball officials are expected to review the document for 48 hours before it is released...

Two Players Suspended for PED Buys
Two Players Suspended
for PED Buys
Dec 7, 2007 4:00 AM CST

Two Players Suspended for PED Buys

15-day penalties may indicate severity of Mitchell punishments

(Newser) - Baltimore's Jay Gibbons and Kansas City's recently signed José Guillén were publicly given 15-day suspensions for having acquired HGH and steroids; Commissioner Bud Selig passed the sentences despite any positive drug tests from either player. Instead, documentary evidence indicates they received shipments after baseball's drug rules went into effect,...

Ex-Commish Kuhn Headlines HOF Class

Former adversary and players' union head Miller rejected, again

(Newser) - Former commissioner Bowie Kuhn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the overhauled Veteran’s Committee, along with former owners Walter O’Malley and Barney Dreyfus and ex-managers Dick Williams and Billy Southworth. Noticeably rejected from the hall was former players’ union head Marvin Miller, who vigorously fought...

19 Stories