What seemed inevitable for baseball fans — not to mention local businesses that thrive on spring training — became official Friday with news from Major League Baseball that the first week of scheduled exhibition games is canceled due to the owners’ lockout.
The announcement of games wiped out through Friday, March 4, at least for now, came with the lockout in its 79th day, and a day after economic talks between management and the MLB Players Association lasted just 15 minutes.
Spring training was to have started this week, and the exhibition schedule had been set to begin on Saturday, Feb. 26, including the planned opener of the spring at Camelback Ranch-Glendale, which serves as the shared home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. The Sox were to open the Glendale slate that day against the Oakland A’s.
