2011 Opening Day

MLB Opening Day 2011 to fall on Friday, April 1

By Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY

Major League Baseball, trying to avoid having long underwear as part of its players' postseason apparel, is planning to start the 2011 season in earnest on Friday, April 1 - three days earlier than the traditional Monday opener.

It would be the first time a majority of teams start the season on a Friday since 1905, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The regular season would end Wednesday, Sept. 28 with playoffs opening on Sept. 30 or Oct. 1. The World Series is scheduled to start Wednesday, Oct. 19, a week earlier than the last two years. It would virtually assure the World Series would not be played in November.

"Anything we could do to finish in October,'' commissioner Bud Selig told USA TODAY, "is what I wanted to do. It shows how serious we are in doing this. I feel very good about it, and am pleased at everybody's reaction.''

Says Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Players Association: "Starting the season midweek, as we understand it, will allow for a much better postseason schedule than if we had the season begin on a Sunday night. We think that's a positive step.''

The playoffs have started in September only three times since the current postseason format was adopted in 1995. It opened last year on Oct. 7, and the World Series didn't conclude until Nov. 4 - the same date Game 7 is scheduled this year.

"If we can start a little earlier, and end a little earlier," says Texas Rangers veteran third baseman Michael Young, "that would be a good thing. Watching the playoffs last year, you saw guys freezing out there in New York. That time of year, you expect cold."

Said Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports, which broadcasts the World Series: "I think the commissioner is sensitive to getting the postseason over in October. But I've been in cities where the weather is awful in mid-October, and beautiful the first of November. So if we're playing Game 7 of the World Series on Oct. 28, and it's snowed out, don't blame baseball."

The season actually could start around on March 25 or 26 if MLB and the players association approve a proposed two-game series between Arizona and San Francisco in Taiwan. The teams would leave spring training on March 21, play two exhibition games in Taiwan, and then face one another in two regular-season games that would cut one home game off their schedules.

"I'm really excited about the possiblity,'' said Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall. "I've been asking Major League Baseball for years to please consider us. We would be honored.''

Baseball has opened the season in Asia on numerous occasions, most recently in 2008 with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's playing Tokyo. The Diamondbacks and Giants players are expected to vote on the proposal in August, says Arizona infielder Augie Ojeda, who doubts they would stand in the way of the historic trip.

By Bob Nightengale

Trust broken, millions apart, NFL players and owners head to court

After 16 days of hard negotiating, the NFL and its players failed to reach a contract agreement by a 5 p.m. deadline. The players' union disbanded in order to take its case to court.
By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / March 11, 2011

Shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) officially disbanded, opting to fight the NFL and its owners in court rather than bargain across the table.

The negotiations, refereed by federal mediator George Cohen and twice extended beyond the original deadline, have in part been public theater. Both parties have now arrived at what they had been expecting for nearly three years: a lockout that will test the constitution and patience of players, owners, sponsors and, ultimately, fans.

Most dramatically, the decertification of the union allows star players like Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning to sue the owners of their football teams. The legal drama will play out in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Minnesota, where federal Judge David Doty – who has already ruled once on behalf of players and against the league – will now hear a flurry of filings and injunction requests from both sides.

Almost immediately, the players are expected to file an injunction to try to stop the owners from locking them out after midnight.

What's at stake

The owners are locking out the players because they want to keep more of the league's revenue for themselves. They say this is necessary for the future health of the NFL. In short they want $2 billion of the NFL's $9 billion in revenue to go directly to them, instead of the current $1 billion. The remainder of the pot is split between the owners and players, with the players currently getting 57 percent.

As one way to split the difference, owners have proposed adding two regular season games to the schedule, which would add revenue so that players' salaries would not decrease. Players see that as being paid the same money for doing more work – not to mention an injury threat.

Fifteen minutes before the 5 p.m. deadline, player representative DeMaurice Smith also said the union wanted 10 years of audited financial information from the league. Players argue that they cannot verify the owners' claims that the league would be headed for trouble if it stayed on it's current financial path.

"The main thing now is transparency," said sports-business expert Andrew Brandt, formerly of the Green Bay Packers, in an ESPN interview. "It's a tough one. I think owners have concerns about showing too much information that would make it seem like things look rosy now, but down the road they're looking at problems, including player costs outpacing revenues."

Closer ... but not close enough

Both sides had moved closer to a deal during 16 days of hard negotiating. Owners offered five years of financial information, including profit information, but the players union turned it down. Moreover, both sides had moved from being $1 billion to $540 million apart in the final breakdown of the $9 billion NFL pie.

Ultimately, sports business analysts say a lack of trust and largely untested chief negotiators on both sides played a role in the breakdown.

"They haven't been able to resolve strongly held competing views that separate them on core issues," federal mediator George Cohen said, leaving the negotiations with "no constructive purpose."

NFL counsel Jeff Pash said owners had agreed to change their stance on a rookie wage scale, offered more benefits for retired players, put off a decision to expand the season to 18 games until 2013, reduce full contact practices, and increase days off for players – all of which, Mr. Pash said, was "evidently not good enough" for players.

Washington Redskins player representative Vonnie Holliday countered that "at the end of the day, the owners wanted money, they wanted to change the breakdown, the percentages, and would not give us audited financial statements. That's big for us. We're not opposed to giving money, but we want to evidence to show why we should do that. We believe we have a system that works, and they could not show us why it does not work."