26 Years of Peace

Major League Baseball and the Players Association gathered together in Irving, Texas to get a deal done for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which would have expired last night. Fortunately, Commissioner Rob Manfred (left) and Players Association President Tony Clark (right) along with the owners and players representatives convened for hours to get the deal done. Had the old CBA expired, a lockout would have immediately commenced and all baseball operations would have ceased. No winter meetings would occur, no trades, no signings, nothing. All facilities would have been closed to players and no communication could take place. With momentum and popularity in baseball at an all-time high - thanks to an incredible world series - even the smallest amount of time in a lockout would crush that momentum. Good thing the leaders of the league recognized this and worked as long and as hard as possible to get the agreement done. I remember the NFL lockout about five or six years ago and how everybody wanted football to come back, but it could not. Same thing with the NBA a couple of years ago when opening night was Christmas day. Lockouts can be terrible things, but it could have been devastating to Major League Baseball, a $10 billion industry.

Meanwhile, not many transactions have been enacted by the Padres, but one loss has occurred. Jon Jay has signed a one year deal with the Chicago Cubs for $8 million. This is not a bad thing. The Padres were interested in bringing back Jay because he was a good mentor to the younger players plus was a plus defender and hitter. But the Padres do have plenty of talent up their sleeve in the outfield, and center field in particular. Travis Jankowski and Manuel Margot will compete for the job, or platoon it and Michael Gettys is climbing the rungs in the minors and will be major-league ready within a year or two. In right field, we have Hunter Renfroe and in left we have Alex Dickerson. We will see what happens once spring comes around.

College football conference championship games are also coming to life this weekend. These games are the best of the best facing off with the highest stakes. I am excited to see what happens because Sunday is when the playoff committee decides who is in and who is out. The bowl schedule is also released. However, Navy has a game six days after the bowl schedule is released against Army. So if they win their conference championship game this week against Temple and then win next week against Army, the odds are likely that Navy will be handed a new year's six bowl game. Here are your games:
-(Friday) #8 Colorado vs #4 Washington (from Santa Clara), 9 ET, FOX
-Temple at #19 Navy, Noon ET, ABC
-#10 Oklahoma State at #9 Oklahoma, 12:30 ET, FOX
-#1 Alabama vs #15 Florida (from Atlanta), 4 ET, CBS
-#3 Clemson vs #23 Virginia Tech (from Orlando), 8 ET, ABC
-#6 Wisconsin vs #7 Penn State (from Indianapolis), 8 ET, FOX

Thank you for checking in this week. I apologize for last week. I was stuffing myself full of food. Comment below as to which championship game you are looking forward to the most.