As you have no doubt noted, the so-called "holiday season" is now behind us. Some small number of weirdos are still celebrating the 12 days of Christmas—enjoy your glut of pipers piping, you absolute freaks—but the rest of us have returned, however reluctantly, to the real world. Major League Baseball had the holidays as an excuse for making zero progress on labor negotiations stretching all the way back to their last meeting, on December 16, when nothing more pressing than "noncore economic issues" was broached by the two sides. With January upon us, an anxious baseball-watching public is now ready for ownership to get serious about hammering out a new collective bargaining agreement with the players association.
Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported back in December that the next opportunity for a discussion about "core economics" would come this month, but as of yet nothing appears to have been scheduled. Meanwhile, in a possible sign of where the league's attention is currently directed, MLB Network recently cut ties with reporter Ken Rosenthal, reportedly due to lingering hurt feelings over his critical coverage of commissioner Rob Manfred back in 2020. It is important, today, that someone politely knock on Manfred's office door and whisper into his ear a gentle reminder that spring training games are scheduled to commence on Feb. 26, in Florida and Arizona. Time, as they say, is a-wasting.
While the lockout endures, MLB's website continues to withhold the faces of our many baseball heroes. Just this morning I wandered over there to gaze upon the smiling face of young Juan Soto and was greeted by a fill-in banner featuring a photograph of some stadium lights against a sunset backdrop. Disheartening and disgusting, is what it is. To meet this hour of need, our project of showing the baseball faces continues for another day. Today's spread features many guys, most of whom I feel reasonably confident I have neither seen nor heard of before in my life. I recognize just five of them: one former National, one current world champion, one seven-time All-Star, one extremely cool Tiger, and one longtime tormenter of Adrian Beltre.
Please share below the names and biographical details of any guys you recognize, so that we may all enjoy remembering them, or possibly learning of their existence. Below you will find the key for the Day 16 collection, from more than two weeks ago. Congratulations to Domingo Acevedo for causing me to snort aloud every time I look at his terrified face. Let's support our baseball guys, by knowing that they exist.
