VeeshanVault

Agreement has been made.
News Conference to follow at 1pm et.

For those of you at work without news, thought I would let you know.

I was actually hoping for a strike just to end the Mets pathetic season Sick huh?

At this point, I don't care. I'm still pissed and not going to another game this year.

Grats MLB on empty stadiums tonight.

I was kinda hoping they would strike because my Fantasy Baseball team sucks ass. Also, I am all about the anarchy that follows.

MLB lost me as a fan after their last strike ('94?). I find it hard to believe the powers that be magically "got it" this morning, and found a path to repair the greater good of the game. I'm sure they were purely motivated by money, and realized that no one makes money when there are no games.

I was actually hoping for a strike, because I believe, to paraphrase Machiavelli in "The Prince", the patient must get worse before it can get better, and in my estimation, a stoppage would force the need to radically change how they go about business.

Well, at least they all saved their wallets ...

Who Cares! It's Football season!!!

Who Cares! It's Football season!!!

BINGO!

MLB can take their $30 seats and stuff it up their collective rectum.

Football /drool

There was a great photo of a couple guys holding a sign that said "2.86 Million Dollar average salary, HOW do you make ends meet?!" or something to that effect... that about sums up my feeling for baseball in general right now.

I'm glad football is starting, and hockey starts soon! (Not soon enough, though! =D)

Was kinda hoping for a strike so we wouldn't get stuck with more TV coverage of the Blue Jays. Also not a baseball fan to start with.

Haven't seen any details but did they actually agree to a luxury tax? A realistic one? I truly hope so: the madness of salary escalation in professional sport has to end, and baseball (IMO) was by far the worst of the offenders.

Details of the agreement, for those interested:

The agreement calls for $258 million to be transferred annually from richer clubs to poorer clubs. The deal will be phased in, with 60 percent being transferred in the first year, 80 percent in the second and full implementation of the $258 million in the third and fourth years.

The luxury tax threshold starts at $117 million next year and rises to $120.5 million in 2004, $128 million in 2005 and $136.5 million in 2006. The tax rate will be 17.5-40 percent, depending on the season and the number of times a team goes over the threshold.

In an effort to avoid the chaos of this year, when the sides were working without a contract, this deal calls for a rollover of the terms on revenue sharing and the luxury tax to rollover into 2007 if a new CBA still is being negotiated.

No contraction through 2006 and union would not contest in 2007.

The worldwide draft has been set aside for further study.

The minimum salary climbs from $200,000 to $300,000.

Players accepted a policy that authorizes random testing for steroid use.




Also, a minor point...Xou, you mention average salary. Just after the agreement, (On espn news, obviously) they dropped the fact that approx 40% of players were making below what is now the league minimum. 40% of players were making below 300k. Don't get me wrong, there are some obscenely overpaid people. But they are closer to the minority than the common rule.

Wow, I would love to be a PH in MLB, get ~30 AB a season and make 300k Prety sweet deal for benchwarmers

Wulfran wrote: and baseball (IMO) was by far the worst of the offenders.

Actually basketball salary average is almost twice what baseball is, 4+ mil vs 2.8mil or there about.

Reeling Mets finish worst home month in NL history

...that was latest ESPN.com tagline for Mets...and I thought the early 90s were bad..