Will There Be Baseball This Year?

I have held out hope all along that the Major League Baseball season will in fact take place. I think the idea of a 4th of July without baseball is something no one wants. The players and the league both know that no baseball on America's birthday is a lose-lose situation. Could the latest proposal from the MLB owners be the one that sticks?

ESPN's Jeff Passan lays out the early details on the latest proposal from the MLB to the MLBPA. Would 50 games be enough in the eyes of the players?

Passan went on to clarify this proposed deal in another Tweet and an article on ESPN.com.

An important clarification to this news: MLB will continue discussing alternatives to the shorter season with players but believes that its March agreement with players allows it to mandate a shorter season and is prepared to use that option in the absence of a deal with MLBPA.

So here we are on what appears to be the third proposed version of this COVID-19 shortened season. I feel we're still a little ways off but there is hope. The fact that the counter-proposals are coming faster shows a sign of willingness to work out a deal. I also think the fact that the NHL and NBA appearing to have ironed out their labor issues in relative silence makes the MLB and MLBPA realize they look childish at best here. My prediction remains that there will be baseball and we will have games on 7/4/2020.