MLB cancels 2022 Opening Day, games will be lost to labor dispute for first time since 1995
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday announced he has canceled Opening Day and the first two series of the 2022 season, as the league’s lockout lurched into March with no new collective bargaining agreement – which could result in the first regular season games lost to a labor dispute since 1995.
The announcement comes 90 days after the previous CBA expired at midnight on Dec. 1, when MLB imposed a lockout of players and weeks of infrequent, haphazard and often brief and rancorous negotiations commenced.
With spring training games canceled and a semi-official MLB deadline of Feb. 28 looming to strike an agreement or cancel the March 31 openers, MLB and the MLB Players’ Association met for nine consecutive days in Jupiter, Florida, but the final flurry of negotations – covering 20 hours stretching from Monday morning into Tuesday afternoon – finally broke down.
The sequence began with MLB presenting an offer late Monday night that showed a modest increase in the luxury tax threshold – to $220 million for three years beginning in 2022, maxing out at $230 million in 2026. The players – locked in at $245 million in 2022 – countered with an offer of $238 million for the first year, increasing to $263 million in the final year of the five-year CBA. That prompted an MLB spokesman to tell reporters the players struck a “decidedly different tone” Tuesday.
When MLB countered that with what it called a “best” offer that made small concessions on a pool of money for pre-arbitration players and minimum salary – but no further movement on the luxury tax ceiling – there was little doubt the union would reject it.
And so MLB moved to announce, for now, Opening Day’s cancellation along with two series for each team, covering March 31-April 6 and 7. The declaration comes three months after Manfred, in an “open letter to fans,” called a lockout “the best mechanism to protect the 2022 season.”
Tuesday, he stepped to the podium at Roger Dean Stadium after that approach failed badly.
“Our failure to reach agreement was not for lack of effort by either party,” says Manfred, who said players will not be paid for any cancelled games. “The unfortunate thing is the agreement we offered players had huge benefits to fans and players.”
Manfred said with the MLBPA set to leave Florida for New York, the earliest possible negotiations would occur Thursday. Given a five-day lag time between an agreement reached and camps opening, he said a March 8 start to spring training would not allow enough time for teams and players to ramp up for Opening Day.
The MLBPA said in a statement that Manfred’s “defensive lockout” was “a culmination of a decades-long attempt by owners to break our player fraternity. As in the past, this effort will fail.”
The failure to reach an accord speaks to the mistrust existing between the parties, particularly since at this point, gaps that exist are merely dollars, and not massive philosophical wedges. Players dropped their demand for free agency after five years of service time instead of six and arbitration eligibility after two years instead of three early in bargaining.
But distrust of ownership goes back multiple years, when free agent markets collapsed on players both itinerant and elite – superstars Manny Machado and Bryce Harper did not sign contracts until March 2019 – and players seethed as numerous owners pocketed profits while showing indifference toward improving their rosters.
Tuesday, Manfred shifted the blame for deliberate negotiations to the players.
“Throughout the five-year period there was a lot of rhetoric with dissatisfaction with the deal that they made,” said Manfred, whose side did not tender an offer to the players until 43 days into the lockout. “A lot of rhetoric was negative with respect to the clubs, the commissioner’s office, me. That environment, someone else created. It’s an environment in which it’s tough to build bridges.”
Countered Clark: “The reason we’re not playing is simple: A lockout is the ultimate economic weapon. Let me repeat that – a lockout is the ultimate economic weapon. In a $10 billion industry, the owners made a conscious decision to use this weapon against the greatest asset they have – the players.”
Despite the lingering animus, momentum had built toward an agreement late Monday evening when the sides agreed to expanded, 12-team playoffs as owners agreed to walk back more onerous penalties for exceeding the luxury tax.
Yet while players sought significant changes in myriad corners of the game, the luxury-tax ceiling promised to be the sticking point in negotiations, and it did not disappoint.
Players have gradually seen the luxury tax evolve into a de facto salary cap over the past two decades, and were determined to make up ground lost in previous CBAs. The luxury tax ceiling has grown just 18% since 2011, from $178 million to $210 million, a period during which industry revenues grew 70%, from an estimated $6.29 billion to $10.7 billion in 2019, the last season untouched by pandemic.
Before Friday’s proposals, the two sides’ last exchange on the luxury tax left them a total of $204 million apart, with the union seeking a tax ceiling of $245 million in 2022 up to $273 million in 2026; MLB’s last formal proposal was $214 million in 2022, up to $222 million in 2026.
Both sides closed that gap Tuesday, though a significant chasremains on an issue that seems a curious one to torpedo a season, given the relatively small amount of teams it directly affects.
Just two teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres – exceeded the $210 million luxury tax ceiling in 2021, and massive-revenue teams like the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers dip and dive under and over the threshold, passing on high-end free agents hoping to reset their penalty rates.
A higher tax ceiling would allow them and upper middle class franchises more room to maneuver for impact players. That’s in part why a hawkish wing of smaller-market owners is determined to keep the ceiling low, although a lower limit certainly won’t ensure they’d bid on the sort of players likely to send a club’s payroll past the tax threshold.
If nothing else, the past decade has proven smaller-market teams such as the Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals can advance to and win the World Series while passing on the highest-end players.
Meanwhile, the term of the next CBA will cover a period during which more lucrative national TV deals will come online and MLB’s relationship with sports gambling will grow ever cozier. That means future revenues should only continue rising, which further compelled players to fight for both higher minimum salaries for young players as well as loosened governors on spending for veterans.
Both sides managed to agree conceptually on shifting greater salary to younger players by establishing a pool of bonus money for high-performing players with less than three years of service time.
Yet that speck of common ground only produced another yawning gulf by Tuesday afternoon – the players are seeking $85 million per year, with $5 million annual increases, while owners proposed $25 million per year, with no increases.
On minimum salary, the difference was much slimmer: MLB is offering $700,000 in the first year, with $10,000 increases per year. The union is seeking $725,000 with $20,000 raises for the first two years.
The disagreements amount to relative peanuts compared to more drastic shifts the players originally sought, and doesn’t seem so vast as to nuke
regular season ballgames, but here we are. MLB last suffered a work stoppage in 1994-95, when players went on strike in August 1994, fearful that owners would unilaterally impose a salary cap following the expiration of the CBA at season’s end.
The 1994 World Series was canceled and the rift extended into the next year, when owners tried using replacement players to break the union. Not until Judge Sonia Sotomayor – now a Supreme Court justice – issued a preliminary injunction forcing owners back to the bargaining table did the ’95 season commence. That was shortened to 144 games.
And what of the 2022 season? We only know it probably won’t consist of 162 games nor start on March 31, and if and when it does commence, will do so with an immeasurable loss of good will from fans who have seen this before – and many younger ones who have not.
The clock will continue to tick on the season and the players’ resolve, as the days continue to melt away on their finite careers.
“Games were cancelled today,” says Clark. “During the course of a player’s career, you don’t get many opening days.”
Source: usatoday
The Godfather 50th Anniversary: 10 facts you may not know about the cinema classic
It has been half a century since Marlon Brando first made cinema-goers an offer they couldn’t refuse.
As soon as it premiered on March 14 1972, Francis Ford Coppola’s Mafia drama was met with both critical and commercial acclaim, earning over $200 million – £147.5 million – at the box office and winning three Oscars, including Best Picture.
The film has gone on to be a beloved classic and is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time.
The odyssey of the Corleone family continued in two sequels – Part II in 1974 and Part III in 1990 – with the franchise going on to become one of the most iconic in film history.
With the first film now celebrating its 50th anniversary, we cordially invite you to peruse some Corleone trivia to mark the legacy of the enduring gangster classic…
Facts you may not know about The Godfather
The path to cinematic history didn’t always run smoothly across the production of The Godfather, as these facts more than demonstrate.
Francis Ford Coppola didn’t want to make it
When Paramount first bought the rights to Mario Puzo’s novel, they were keen to have an Italian American filmmaker be the one to direct it in order to stay true to the story and its characters.
When they first approached Coppola, however, he turned down the job as he hadn’t enjoyed Puzo’s novel, describing it as ‘pretty cheap stuff’.
But with his last movie – The Rain People – having underperformed and debts piling up, Coppola decided to take the paycheque – going on to make one of the greatest movies of all time in the process.
The studio didn’t want to cast Marlon Brando
Coppola’s first and only choice for the role of Don Vito Corleone – the mob boss and patriarch of the family at the centre of the story – was Brando.
But Paramount were not so keen on working with the notoriously difficult actor, with British thespian Laurence Olivier top of their list.
Coppola eventually persuaded them to consider Brando but under three conditions.
First, he had to do a screen test; secondly, if cast Brando would have to do it for free; and finally he would have to personally put up a bond to make up for potential losses caused by his infamously bad on-set behaviour.
After convincing Brando to do a screen test, under the pretence it was a makeup test, Coppola shot the required ‘audition.’
When he showed the studio the test they liked it so much they dropped the second and third stipulations in an instant.
Brando read his lines off of cue cards
Having landed the role, you would think Brando would take things a bit more seriously considering how many hoops Coppola had to jump through.
But the eccentric Oscar winner continued to display some of the behaviour he became notorious for, often playing pranks on set as well as never learning his lines.
Instead, cue cards were often placed in strategic places throughout the set for Brando to refer to, a practice he employed on numerous other movies including Superman and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Robert Duvall – who plays adopted son and family lawyer Tom Hagen – even had lines taped to his chest when sharing scenes with Brando.
Brando turned down his Oscar
In what is now one of the most memorable moments in Oscar history, Brando refused to accept his Oscar for Best Actor when he was announced as the winner.
He didn’t even attend the 1973 ceremony – instead, a young Native American woman named Sacheen Littlefeather rejected the award on his behalf and read from a statement:
‘I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to say that he cannot accept this very generous award…because of the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry’ she read.
Brando became the second person to decline the Award for Best Actor – the first being George C. Scott for Patton in 1971.
Paramount also weren’t too keen on Al Pacino
While Vito may be the titular Godfather, the doomed heart and soul of the story belongs to his son Michael, who was played by a young up and coming actor by the name of Al Pacino.
Why he is considered an acting great today, Pacino was a relative unknown at the time and Paramount wanted a star to lead the picture like Robert Redford, Ryan O’Neal or Jack Nicholson.
Coppola however pushed for the young Italian American Pacino, who was eventually offered the role a mere three weeks before production began.
Robert De Niro auditioned for the role of Sonny
A fellow young upcoming actor by the name of Robert De Niro put his hat into the ring for one of the other Corleone siblings – the hot-headed Sonny, who would go on to be portrayed by James Caan.
While he lost out on the role, De Niro was then offered the part of Paulie Gatto. but had to turn it down after inheriting a part originally held by Pacino in the comedy The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
Coppola wouldn’t forget De Niro however, as he would go on to win an Oscar for his role as a young Vito Corleone in the sequel two years later.
Paramount didn’t want a period setting and nearly fired Coppola
Both the film and Puzo’s novel take place in the mid-1940s shortly after the end of the Second World War.
Paramount were keen to cut costs and thought a way of doing this was by setting it in the present day.
However, once Coppola came aboard, he was adamant about keeping the period setting.
This, coupled with the battles overcasting, made things tense between him and the studio.
Coppola later said that he was nearly fired several times during the shoot as it began to go over schedule and over budget.
He became convinced that he was only saved by winning an Oscar during filming – a Best Original Screenplay Award for Patton.
The word Mafia is never used, thanks to the real-life mob
The real mob was very much involved in the production of the first Godfather before it started shooting in New York.
The Italian American Civil Rights League was a group designed to combat offensive stereotypes and depictions in the media – it was partly led by a real-life crime family boss, Joe Colombo Sr.
The League protested the film from the moment it was announced, and production was threatened with shutdowns thanks to crime bosses who had links with labor unions.
‘There were major threats, they were serious,’ Gianni Russo, an actor who appeared in the movie and who had real-life mob connections, said to ShortList.
Producer Albert Ruddy’s car windows were blown out, and Paramount chief executive Robert Evans even claims to have received phone calls threatening him and his family.
In February 1971, just before filming began, Ruddy sat down with the League to figure out a compromise.
The resulting deal meant the League were allowed to review the script and asked for mentions of ‘mafia’ to be removed so that audiences would not associate the violent actions in the film with real-world mafia bosses.
While Colombo may have given his blessing for The Godfather to go ahead, not everyone was happy that he had waged such a public campaign against the film.
In 1971 as the movie was being filmed, Colombo was shot in the head and neck by a hitman.
‘Carlo Gambino [head of the Gambino crime family] and Frank Costello [head of the Luciano crime family] had warned him,’ claimed Russo.
‘He was bringing too much attention [to the mafia way of life]. If that doesn’t tell you that what was happening in the film was real, then I don’t know what can.’
Colombo was left paralysed following the shooting and died seven years later in 1978.
That’s a real horses head
One of the film’s most iconic sequences sees Hollywood producer Jack Woltz on the receiving end of an act of intimidation by the family.
After turning down a request from the Corleones, Woltz wakes up one morning to find his bed covered in blood and the head of his horse’s head underneath the sheets.
While the blood may have been fake, the head itself was the genuine article after Coppola wasn’t happy with the fake props conceived for the scene.
They ended up procuring a real head from a local dog food company to use for the now infamous scene.
It’s a family affair
The Godfather is all about family – even if it is a violent one that makes its fortune through organised crime.
Like with many of his films, the cast and crew feature members of Francis Ford Coppola’s own family.
His sister Talia Shire plays Connie Corleone, while their father Carmine Coppola composed piano parts for the film’s score, and also appeared alongside his wife Italia during a restaurant scene.
Francis’ daughter Sofia Coppola – who is a renowned filmmaker herself – made her screen debut as the baby being christened in the film’s nail-biting climax – and would later go on to appear as Michael’s daughter in Part III.
HOUSTON SYMPHONY ANNOUNCES PROGRAMMING FOR “ANDRÉS FEST: A SYMPHONIC CELEBRATION”
Honoring and celebrating the legacy of Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s eight-year tenure in his last season as Music Director, the Houston Symphony has announced full programming for the March 2022 two-week festival “Andrés Fest: A Symphonic Celebration.” Paying tribute to what Orozco-Estrada has brought to the Houston Symphony and to the city of Houston, the festival’s performances feature repertoire associated with the conductor’s time with the organization, Houston Symphony commissions including two world premieres, and solo performances by Symphony musicians.
“This festival captures all of the excitement and superlative artistry that have characterized Andrés’ time as Music Director of the Houston Symphony,” said Executive Director, CEO, and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair John Mangum. “We wanted to dedicate two weeks to performances that sum up Andrés’ achievements during his transformative eight-year tenure, and to celebrate his incredible relationships with our Symphony musicians. It’s a wonderful way to salute someone who’s brought so much to our organization and to our city’s cultural life.”
Highlights of the festival include the world premiere commission Bruce Broughton’s Horn Concerto, underwritten by The Martine and Dan Drackett Family Foundation, with Principal Horn William VerMeulen, and the Texas premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Tuba Concerto, a Symphony co-commission, featuring Principal Tuba Dave Kirk (who attended Juilliard with Marsalis when both were 18 years old), both on March 26 and 27. Broughton is the Academy-Award-nominated American composer whose works include the scores to such major motion pictures as Silverado, Tombstone, and The Rescuers Down Under, and Marsalis is the Pulitzer and multi-Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center who holds the distinction of being the only artist to win classical and jazz Grammys in the same year.
The festival also marks the world premiere of Kyle Rivera’s theme and variations on George Bridgetower’s Henry: A Ballad on March 18 and 19. Kyle Rivera is a Houston-based composer whose Houston Symphony debut came in 2019’s ground-breaking Resilient Sounds concert celebrating the inspiring, diverse stories of Houston’s refugee communities. Henry: A Ballad is one of the few surviving works by 18th-century Afro-European composer George Bridgetower, a celebrated violinist of his time with close ties to Europe’s royalty and Ludwig van Beethoven.
The festival spotlights Symphony musicians–a hallmark of Orozco-Estrada’s programming–including Principal Keyboard Scott Holshouser alongside piano superstar Emanuel Ax in Saint-Saëns’s beloved Carnival of the Animals (March 18, 19, and 20); Principal Second Violin MuChen Hsieh and Acting Principal Viola Joan DerHovsepian in Bruch’s Concertino in E minor for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra (March 19 and 20) ; Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio in Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs (March 18 and 20) and Artie Shaw’s Clarinet Concerto (March 18 and 20); Principal Trumpet Mark Hughes featured in Jolivet’s Concertino (March 18 and 19); and the aforementioned concertos featuring Dave Kirk and William VerMeulen (March 26 and 27). And the entire orchestra is featured in works that have played a pivotal role in Orozco-Estrada’s music directorship, such as Bernstein’s Overture to Candide (March 20), and Gershwin’s An American in Paris (March 26 and 27), both of which are featured on the Pentatone 2018 release Music of the Americas with Orozco-Estrada leading the Houston Symphony.
Andrés Fest: A Symphonic Celebration is part of the Shell Favorite Masters Series and the Rand Group Great Performers Series. Additionally, the festival is generously supported by Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods/ Spec’s Charitable Foundation, Houston Methodist, United Airlines, Tenenbaum, the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, the Houston Symphony Endowment, Gary and Marian Beauchamp/The Beauchamp Foundation, Rochelle and Max Levit, and the Houston Symphony Young Associates Council. Livestream of Houston Symphony concerts is made possible by Barbara J. Burger and supported by the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation.
For tickets and more information please call 713-224-7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org/andres-fest-a-symphonic-celebration. Tickets to individual concerts and a limited number of all-access passes to all of the events of Andrés Fest: A Symphonic Celebration are available. Everyone in the audience is required to wear a mask while in Jones Hall. For a comprehensive schedule of safety measures, visit houstonsymphony.org/safety. Socially distanced seats are available in some portions of the auditorium. Livestreaming of select performances are available via a private link to ticket holders for $20. All programs and artists are subject to change.
ANDRÉS FEST
Friday, March 18, 2022
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Mark Nuccio, clarinet
Mark Hughes, trumpet
Emanuel Ax, piano
Scott Holshouser, piano
Bridgetower/Kyle Rivera: Henry: A Ballad**
Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals
Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs
Shaw: Clarinet Concerto
Jolivet: Concertino for Trumpet
Shostakovich: Suite for Variety Orchestra, No. 1
Saturday, March 19, 2022*
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Scott Holshouser, piano
MuChen Hsieh, violin
Joan DerHovsepian, viola
Mark Hughes, trumpet
Bridgetower/Kyle Rivera: Henry: A Ballad**
Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals
Bruch: Concertino in E minor for Violin and Viola, Op. 88
Jolivet: Concertino for Trumpet
Shostakovich: Suite for Variety Orchestra, No. 1
Sunday, March 20, 2022*
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Scott Holshouser, piano
Mark Nuccio, clarinet
MuChen Hsieh, violin
Joan DerHovsepian, viola
Bernstein: On the Town: Three Dance Episodes
Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals
Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs
Shaw: Clarinet Concerto
Bruch: Concertino in E minor for Violin and Viola, Op. 88
Bernstein: West Side Story: Symphonic Dances IV. Mambo
Saturday, March 26, 2022 & Sunday, March 27, 2022*
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor
William Ver Meulen, horn
David Kirk, Tuba
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Bruce Broughton: Horn Concerto**
Wynton Marsalis: Concerto for Tubist and Orchestra***
Ravel: Bólero
*livestreamed
**Houston Symphony commission, world premiere
***Houston Symphony co-commission
Ricky Martin – La Copa de la Vida
La vida es Pura pasión Hay que llenar Copa de amor Para vivir Hay que luchar Un corazón Para ganar Como Cain y Abel Es un partido cruel Tienes que pelear por una estrella Consigue con honor La copa del amor Para sobrevivir y luchar por ella Luchar por ella (si) Luchar por ella (si) Tú y yo, ale, ale, ale Go, go, go, ale, ale, ale Arriba va, el mundo está de pie Go, go, go, ale, ale, ale La vida es Competición Hay que sonar Ser campeón La copa es La bendición La ganarás Go, go, go Tu instinto natural Vencer a tu rival Tienes que pelear por una estrella Consigue con honor La copa del amor Para sobrevivir y luchar por ella Luchar por ella (si) Luchar por ella (si) Tú y yo
Ricky Martin – Livin’ La Vida Loca
La reina de la noche
La diosa del vudú
Yo no podré salvarme
Podrás salvarte tu?
La tela de la araña
La uña del dragón
Te lleva a los infiernos
Ella es tu adicción
Te besa y te desnuda con tu baile demencial
Tu cierras los ojitos y te dejas arrastrar
Tu te dejas arrastrar
Ella que será
She’s livin’ la vida loca
Y te dolerá
Si de verdad te toca
Ella es tu final
Vive la vida loca
Ella te dirá
Vive la vida loca
She’s livin’ la vida loca
Se fue a New York City
A la torre de un hotel
Te ha robado la cartera
Se ha llevado hasta tu piel
Por eso no bebía
De tu copa de licor
Por eso te besaba
Con narcótico sabor
Es el beso de calor
Te besa y te desnuda con su baile demencial
Tu cierras los ojitos y te dejas arrastrar
Tu te dejas arrastrar
Ella que será
She’s livin’ la vida loca
Y te dolerá
Si de verdad te toca
Ella es tu final
Vive la vida loca
Ella te dirá
Vive la vida loca
Mar 03 – Mar 09, 2022 | Weather
¡Que Onda Magazine!
El Líder del Clima.
Mantente informado.
Click on the map to view details or click here: QOHW0303
