MLBPA: The Union takes another L

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week your hosts examine the recently settled Major League Baseball lockout. The ninth work stoppage in league history and first since 1994-95 that cancelled the ’94 World Series, players and owners came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement following a three month-plus impasse. Union leaders sought most notably to increase the competitive balance tax threshold disrupt ownership manipulation of player service time in the interest of the game’s younger and middle classes, as well as competitive balance within the league. Whether or not they succeeded is the question. The details of the agreement, that appeared to only further erode the power of the once-mighty MLBPA, are considered, as well as the exact bargaining positions of each side, a background on this and past stoppages and the representative dilemma facing the union ratification process. But first we rant, as Zak bids a hopeful adieu to the David Cox era of URI Rams men’s basketball while making a spirited case for a certain notable alumnus to take the reins of the slumping program; Ed unmasks yet another ghastly piece of proposed legislature in the form of a horrifying Missouri anti-abortion bill; and finally Andrew describes the scene in Durham, North Carolina the night a coaching legend went out with a whimper in his home curtain call against his most storied rival.