As mentioned with our Bob Uecker post this morning, Mark Attanasio talked with the Greater Milwaukee Committee, a nonprofit that tries to make Milwaukee the best place to work. Attanasio showed confidence in the Brewers having the ability to have a season in 2020. That was music to my ears. The Brewers owner is a players-owner and spends a lot of time with Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun, etc. It made me feel like perhaps they talked a bit about how this season gets off the ground. Then the owners’ recent proposal came out and things did not move an inch. Baseball is headed towards the finish line and they’re still lagging in last place.

The newest proposal features the players getting their pro-rated deals back with an exception. The salaries would be pro-rated plus a scale effect. The top players would get significantly less money while the low-level guys would recoup 90 percent of their salary. Baseball players believe the owners are trying to pit these factions of the superstars and everyday players against each other. But what all of us need to keep in mind is that this is the first proposal this week, and there will be many more before we conclude we all want by the end of the week.

Some contend that the union should throw it out and not make a counterproposal. I entirely disagree with that notion. Right now, we, the fans, do not know what the players want at all. Tony Clark is not on Get Up, First Things First or any other program explaining why the union is so upset. He did one interview with an ESPN reporter, but that was it. Clark does not lead the union like Donald Fehr, DeMaurice Smith, or Michelle Roberts. It is time for Clark to show what the players want from this season. Throwing it out and making the owners try again gives the impressions of a stubborn child who refuses to find any semblance of a compromise.

One thing to remember is negotiations take time. It is very rare to see a deal get done on the first try. Sometimes, it takes ten tries to finally get what each side was looking for. Hang in there, baseball fans.

Charlie.