Depending who you asked Monday, there may be positive movement in what has already become the longest owners’ lockout in baseball history.
With the first spring training games still scheduled to start in 33 days, The Athletic’s Evan Drellich reported the Major League Baseball Players Association on Monday presented a counteroffer to the owners during an in-person bargaining session in New York.
Another baseball insider, Bob Nightengale with USA Today, noted the Monday meeting lasted two hours as compared with both sides’ last face-to-face negotiations on Dec. 1, which lasted only seven minutes. And after only two negotiating sessions in the past 54 days, Nightengale added the sides have another meeting scheduled Tuesday in New York where MLB is expected to present a counterproposal.
Positive signs that spring training, including Arizona’s Cactus League, could still take place?
Kevin Phelps, city manager in Glendale, which is home to the Camelback Ranch shared spring site of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox, is being more cautious than optimistic.
Phelps spent Monday morning in downtown Phoenix where the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee officially kicked off its ceremonial one-year countdown to Super Bowl 57, which will take place in February 2023 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
With the backdrop of celebratory big sports in the Valley getting ready for the Super Bowl, Phelps, for one, isn’t seeing hope on Arizona’s Major League Baseball front just yet.
“It’s becoming more and more apparent every day that we’re not going to have a spring training,” Phelps said Monday. “That’s going to be three years in a row without really a spring training. That’s devastating to the hotels, and it just continues to make the value proposition worse and worse.”
Since December Phelps has been vocal about uniting fellow managers of Valley cities that house spring training stadiums in a proactive effort to get MLB to more urgently look for an end to the lockout for the sake of the Valley’s usually bustling baseball tourism.
“They locked out first week of December and they only met for the first time here within the last week and a half,” Phelps said. “That shows me a disregard for the impact on the community.”
Overall the Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority has provided more than $84 million for Cactus League spring training facilities.
Pitchers and catchers generally report first to Cactus League sites around Valentine’s Day.
Steve Stockmar News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net @stevestockmar
Meet Steve Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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