LockedOut Landing Podcast 181: Pain Is An Old Friend

Hello Seattle Mariners fans, baseball fans, sport enthusiasts and workers rights advocates.

Today is a hard day. John, Kate and I were hoping to discuss the terms of the new agreement between the players and the league. After 9 consecutive days of negotiating, including deep into the morning hours on March 1^st, the two sides ultimately did not come to an agreement. I don’t want to get too deep into the general notes about those disagreements, as I am reading the same news as everybody else, but the short version is that the league continues to seemingly act in bad faith, pushing the players to the edge of self-imposed deadlines and then resisting substantive changes. This sucks. After sorting through that mess of news, we move on to some Twitter questions regarding expectations for the team in 2022, the minor leagues, and whether or not some of baseball’s biggest stars might go overseas to play in the interim. It’s always darkest before the dawn, but it feels very dark right now in regards to baseball and all the social systems intertwined with the sport. We all feel extremely lucky to be able to congregate and talk to you guys, the fans during such a tumultuous time, and we thank you for sticking with it while we navigate these uncharted waters ahead.

Note: The levels are a little all over the place on this one, and I applied some adjustments to it but ultimately ran out of time to get it as perfect as I would like, so my apologies if it’s a little too hot/cold in spots.