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A16 sports
Friday 11 March 2022
MLB players vote to end lockout, salvaging 162-game season

By RONALD BLUM expired Dec. 1, which
AP Baseball Writer saw payrolls decline 4% in
NEW YORK (AP) — Players 2021 compared to the last
have voted to accept Ma- full season, back to their
jor League Baseball’s latest 2015 level. The union had
offer for a new labor deal, an ambitious negotiating
paving the way to end a stance in talks that began
99-day lockout and sal- last spring, asking for free-
vage a 162-game regular agency rights to increase
season that would begin with an age-based back-
April 7. stop and for an expansion
The union’s executive of salary arbitration to its
board approved the level from 1974-86.
agreement in a 26-12 vote In the late stages, the level
Thursday, pending ratifica- and rates of the luxury tax,
tion by all players, a person designed as a break on
familiar with the balloting spending, became the key
said, speaking to The As- to a deal. Players think that
sociated Press on condition San Diego Padres left fielder Allen Cordoba passes a logo for Play Ball, an initiative from Major too low of a threshold and
of anonymity because no League Baseball and USA Baseball, during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Colorado too high of a rate acts tan-
announcement was autho- Rockies on June 3, 2017, in San Diego. tamount to a salary cap,
rized.MLB sent the players Associated Press which the union fought off
an offer Thursday and gave week in Florida and Arizo- bargaining agreement also game schedule along with with a 7 1/2-month strike in
them until 3 p.m. to accept na, more than three weeks expands the playoffs to 12 full pay and service time re- 1994-95.
in order to play a full sea- after they were scheduled teams and introduces in- quired for players to reach The agreement came after
son. The union announced to on Feb. 16. Fans can centives to limit so-called free agency. Talks spilled three days of shuttle nego-
the player vote around start making plans to be at “tanking.” The minimum past the deadline and tiations between the MLB
3:25 p.m. Owners planned Fenway Park, Dodger Sta- salary will rise from $570,500 Manfred announced more offices in midtown Manhat-
to hold a ratification vote dium and Camden Yards to about $700,000, and the cancellations Wednesday, tan and the players’ asso-
at 6 p.m. next month. Opening day is luxury tax threshold will in- increasing the total to 184 ciation headquarters, three
“The deal pushes the game being planned a little more crease from $210 million of the 2,230 games. blocks away.
forward,” Yankees pitcher than a week behind the to $230 million this year, a After yet another snag, this Despite hundreds of hours
Gerrit Cole, a member of original date on March 31. slight loosening for the big- time over management’s of threats and counter-
the union’s executive sub- The deal also will set off gest spenders such as the desire for an international threats, the sides are set
commitee, said in an tele- a rapid-fire round of free Yankees, Mets, Dodgers amateur draft, the deal to avoid regular-season
phone interview with The agency. Carlos Correa, and Red Sox. A new bonus came together Thursday games being canceled
Associated Press. “It ad- Freddie Freeman and Kris pool was established for afternoon and capped by labor conflict for the
dresses a lot of the things Bryant are among 138 players not yet eligible for nearly a year of talks that first time since the 1994-95
that the players in the big leaguers still without arbitration, a way to boost saw pitchers Max Scher- strike. Games originally an-
game should be focused a team, including some salaries for young stars. zer and Andrew Miller take nounced as canceled by
on: the competitive integ- who might benefit from Commissioner Rob Man- prominent roles as union Manfred were changed
rity aspect of it.” the adoption of a universal fred had set a Tuesday spokesmen. to postponed, and MLB
The agreement will allow designated hitter. deadline for a deal that Players had fumed for will modify the original
training camps to open this The sport’s new collective would preserve a 162- years about the deal that schedule.q

Iditarod mushers taking break at race’s

halfway point

where along the Yukon Riv- sled dog race. mushers Sunday in Willow,
er and another eight-hour When Seavey arrived in just north of Anchorage.
layover at White Mountain, Cripple, he asked race offi- Late Wednesday evening,
which is 77 miles (124 kilo- cials where long-term park- musher Anja Radano of
meters) from the finish line. ing was, as he declared Talkeetna withdrew from
Five mushers and their dog he was taking his 24-hour the race, saying the deci-
teams arrived Wednesday, layover there, according sion was in the best inter-
and none had left as of to video posted on the Idi- est of her dog team. She
Thursday morning. tarod website. scratched at the Nikolai
Brent Sass was the first Other mushers who arrived checkpoint, and she had
musher to reach Cripple in Cripple Wednesday night 12 dogs in harness.
Brent Sass heads down the Yukon River between Ruby and Wednesday afternoon, were Hugh Neff, Ryan Red- The route for the remaining
Galena, Alaska, on March 13, 2020, during the Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race. winning $3,000 in gold nug- ington and Mitch Seavey, a mushers will take them over
Associated Press gets for the feat. three-time champion and two mountain ranges, the
By MARK THIESSEN Alaska. He was followed into Crip- Dallas Seavey’s father. frozen Yukon River, along
Associated Press All mushers in the nearly ple about three hours later Eleven other mushers were Alaska’s windswept west-
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) by defending champion en route to Cripple from ern coast and onto the
— The top five mushers in race across Alaska must Dallas Seavey, who is try- the previous checkpoint of treacherous Bering Sea ice
the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog take three mandatory rest ing to win his sixth champi- Ophir, where they all had to the finish line in Nome.
Race appear to be tak- periods: a 24-hour layover onship. That would be the completed their 24-hour The winner is expected un-
ing an extended break in at any checkpoint, an most ever by a musher in layover. der the burled arch finish
the ghost town of Cripple, eight-hour layover some- the world’s most famous The race started for 49 line sometime next week.q