纽约——美国职业棒球大联盟周二晚发布了一份60场比赛的时间表，将于7月23日或24日在空荡荡的棒球场开始，因为这项运动试图在一片混乱中向前推进冠状病毒经过几个月的激烈争吵。
充满新规则的比赛戏剧性地改变了赛季，这是失败的金融谈判的最终结果。但是对于渴望看到任何棒球今年，至少现在他们可以期待开幕日了。
MLB宣布这一消息的同时，更多的运动员继续检测出病毒呈阳性——仅费城人队就有至少7名运动员检测出病毒呈阳性。一个严峻的现实仍然存在，那就是如果健康状况恶化，所有的游戏仍然会被消灭。
一天后，球员协会拒绝了一项经济协议，并留下了申诉寻求数亿美元赔偿的可能性，争吵双方同意了操作手册。棒球专员罗布·曼弗雷德随后单方面强加了这一时间表，这是他与工会达成的三月协议下的权利。
在一个转折中，双方首次将指定击球手扩大到包括国家联盟球队的比赛中，并开始了一项激进的创新，即在二垒上有一名跑垒员的情况下开始加时赛。
季后赛队伍目前仍保持在10人——仍有扩大的可能。被拒绝的交易需要16个团队。
球员们将在7月1日开始报道恢复训练。哪些球员会回来工作还有待观察——高风险的人可以选择退出，仍然可以得到工资和服务时间，但是其他人没有得到钱，也没有资格获得自由代理和工资仲裁所需的服务信用。
根据美联社获得的细节，每支球队将与四个联赛对手中的每一个进行10场比赛，并与另一个联赛中相应联赛中的五个俱乐部中的每一个进行4场比赛。
在MLB自1878年以来最短的季节里，一个团队计划只去一个城市旅行一次。如此简短的时间表，以至于一些粉丝可能会质疑记录的合法性。
无论如何，对于一项以冠军争夺是马拉松而不是短跑为傲的运动来说，这个赛季将是最不寻常的一个赛季:华盛顿去年以19胜31负和27胜33负开始比赛，但以93胜69负结束比赛，赢得了一张外卡，并赢得了七场世界大赛的首个冠军。
交易的截止日期是8月31日，在一个组织中获得季后赛资格的截止日期是9月15日。球队可以在周五恢复交易，届时名单将不再冻结。
在赛季的前两个星期，现役球员将有30人，后两个星期有28人，之后还有26人。它们不会像今年最初计划的那样，在9月1日扩大到28个。
由于没有小联盟，球队将被允许保留60名球员，包括一个出租车队。出租车队中最多有三名球员可以随队去看比赛，其中一名必须是接球手。
MLB保留了计划中的创新，投手必须面对三名击球手或完成半局——一年前，球员拒绝同意，但也放弃了阻挡权。
受伤名单上的投手最少只能打10天，而不是像最初计划的那样回到15天。
在一场导致美国12万人死亡、230万人感染、失业率高达14.7%的大流行期间，公众舆论将双方锁定在一场激烈的金融战争中，这是自大萧条以来的最高水平。
MLB原本希望成为第一个回归的美国职业棒球大联盟，从7月4日开始有82场比赛的赛程，但是管理层和球员之间爆发了公开的冷嘲热讽，他们不相信球队在多年的特许经营升值后所声称的经济损失。MLB声称，如果没有与大门相关的收入，它每多打一场常规赛就会损失640，000美元，这个数字遭到了联盟的质疑。
MLB对由前全明星一垒手托尼·克拉克和2018年8月聘请的诉讼律师布鲁斯·迈耶领导的联盟领导团队感到愤怒。当克拉克说他认为上周与曼弗雷德一对一会谈的结果是一个提议，而不是MLB所说的协议框架时，曼弗雷德和副专员丹·哈莱姆非常愤怒。
这个赛季不是186天打162场比赛，而是66天或67天打60场比赛，这取决于周四晚上是否有全国直播的首场比赛。该计划将于9月27日结束，这使得弥补9月份的降雨所剩无几。
运动员在几天内被给予错开的报到时间来进行录取筛选。该时间将用于恢复锻炼前的冠状病毒检测，由于流感大流行，锻炼已于3月12日停止。
由于佛罗里达州感染人数的上升和亚利桑那州的夏季高温，目前有28支球队倾向于在他们的常规赛球场进行训练。底特律仍然偏爱佛罗里达的莱克兰，多伦多希望获得政府许可在罗杰斯中心锻炼。
根据双方3月26日达成的协议条款，如果60场比赛的时间表没有被病毒缩短，球员将按比例获得他们的工资。最初的工资总额为40亿美元，约37%的按比例分配部分将工资降至14.8亿美元。
迈克·特劳特和格里特·科尔的起薪最低为563，500美元，最高为3，600万美元，但现在的差距是从208，704美元到13，333，333美元。
MLB上个月在最初的经济提案中曾寻求将薪酬降低到10亿美元左右，球员们发誓不会放弃全额按比例分配的薪酬，并提出了一个114场比赛的时间表，总计28亿美元。
这种关系又回到了1972年至1995年导致八次停工的劳工战争的水平，工会威胁要进行申诉，声称MLB没有履行3月份协议中的条款，该条款要求在经济上可行的最长季节，但受到其他几项条款的限制。MLB声称工会的谈判是不诚实的，此案将在仲裁人马克·欧文面前进行辩论。
这将是当前劳动合同于2021年12月1日到期的前奏，之后很可能是停工。
Baseball's back: MLB sets 60-game sked, opens July 23 or 24
NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball issued a 60-game schedule Tuesday night that will start July 23 or 24 in empty ballparks as the sport tries to push ahead amid the coronavirus following months of acrimony.
A dramatically altered season with games full of new rules was the final result of failed financial negotiations. But for fans eager to see any baseballthis year, at least now they can look forward to opening day.
The announcement by MLB came while more players continue to test positive for the virus — at least seven on the Philadelphia Phillies alone. And a stark realization remained, that if health situations deteriorated, all games could still be wiped out.
One day after the players' association rejected an economic agreement and left open the possibility of a grievance seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, the bickering sides agreed on an operations manual. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred then unilaterally imposed the schedule, his right under a March agreement with the union.
In a twist, the sides expanded the designated hitter to games involving National League teams for the first time and instituted the radical innovation of starting extra innings with a runner on second base.
Playoff teams remain at 10 for now — there is still talk of a possible expansion. The rejected deal had called for 16 teams.
Players will start reporting for the resumption of training on July 1. It remains to be seen which players will report back to work — high-risk individuals are allowed to opt out and still receive salary and service time, but others who sit out get neither money nor the service credit needed for eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration.
Each team will play 10 games against each of its four division rivals and four games vs. each of the five clubs in the corresponding division in the other league, according to details obtained by The Associated Press.
A team is scheduled to make only one trip to each city it visits in MLB's shortest season since 1878. a schedule of such brevity that some fans may question the legitimacy of records.
No matter what, the season will be among the most unusual ever for a sport that takes pride that the race for titles is a marathon and not a sprint: Washington started 19-31 and 27-33 last year but finished 93-69 to earn a wild card and won a seven-game World Series for its first title.
The trade deadline will be Aug. 31 and the deadline to be in an organization for postseason eligibility is Sept. 15. Teams can resume making trades Friday, when rosters will no longer be frozen.
Active rosters will be 30 during the first two weeks of the season, 28 during the second two weeks and 26 after that. They will not expand to 28 on Sept. 1, as originally intended this year.
With no minor leagues, teams would be allowed to retain 60 players each, including a taxi squad. Up to three players from the taxi squad can travel with a team to a game, and one of the three must be a catcher.
MLB is keeping the planned innovation that pitchers must face three batters or finish a half inning —- players refused to agree a year ago but also waived their right to block.
The injured list minimum for pitchers at 10 days rather than revert to 15, as initially intended.
Public opinion shredded both sides as they locked in a ferocious financial battle during a pandemic that has led to more than 120,000 deaths and 2.3 million infections in the U.S. and led to a 14.7% unemployment rate, the highest since the Great Depression.
MLB originally hoped to be the first U.S. major league to return, with an 82-game schedule starting around the Fourth of July, but public sniping broke out between management and players who distrust teams’ claims of economic losses following years of franchise appreciation. MLB claimed that without gate-related revenue it would lose $640,000 for each additional regular-season game, a figure the union disputed.
MLB became exasperated with the union’s leadership team, headed by former All-Star first baseman Tony Clark and Bruce Meyer, a litigator hired in August 2018. Manfred and Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem were infuriated when Clark said he considered the result of a one-on-one meeting with Manfred last week a proposal rather than what MLB termed a framework for a deal.
Rather than play 162 games over 186 days, the season will be 60 games over 66 or 67 days, depending on whether there is a nationally televised Thursday night opener. It is scheduled to end Sept. 27, which leaves little margin to make up September rainouts.
Players are being given staggered reporting times over several days for intake screening. The time will be used for coronavirus testing ahead of the resumption of workouts, which were stopped March 12 due to the pandemic.
Because of an uptick of infections in Florida and Arizona's summer heat, 28 teams currently are leaning toward training in their regular-season ballparks. Detroit remained partial to Lakeland, Florida, and Toronto was hoping to gain government permission to work out at Rogers Centre.
Under terms of the deal the sides reached on March 26, which was to have been opening day, players would receive prorated portions of their salaries if the 60-game schedule is not cut short by the virus. Salaries originally totaled $4 billion, and the prorated portion of about 37% reduces pay to $1.48 billion.
Salaries were to have ranged from $563,500 at the minimum to $36 million for Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole at the top, but the spread would now be from $208,704 to $13,333,333.
MLB initially had sought last month in its initial economic proposal to reduce pay to about $1 billion, and players vowed not to give up full prorated pay and proposed a 114-game schedule that amounted to $2.8 billion.
The relationship deteriorated back to the level of the labor wars that led to eight work stoppages from 1972-95, and the union has threatened a grievance claiming MLB didn’t fulfill the provision in the March deal requiring the longest season economically feasible, conditioned by several other provisions. MLB would claim the union bargained in bad faith, and the case would be argued before arbitrator Mark Irvings.
That would be a prelude to the expiration of the current labor contract on Dec. 1, 2021, which likely will be followed by a lockout.
