February 1st, 2022 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Since Day-1 of Major League Baseball’s lockout of players back on December 2, 2021, many have been reluctant to come right out and say that Spring Training 2022 probably would not start on time if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was not in place before pitchers and catchers were due to report on February 14, including and especially the media.
Not anymore.
On Monday, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription required) finally wrote what every baseball fan on the planet pretty much already knew – that the likelihood of Spring Training beginning as originally scheduled “is clearly in jeopardy,” as reported by MLB Trade Rumors.
(Images courtesy of Fox Sports and CSN)
The popular on-line publication added this late Monday night:
“Multiple reports over the course of the lockout have suggested March 1 could serve as a soft deadline for a new CBA to be in place if the season is to open on the currently-slated March 31. With the calendar flipping to February in a few hours, there’ll need be rapid progress over the coming month.“
If there is a silver lining to all of this it’s that MLB and the MLB Players Association “…have indicated that face-to-face meetings will continue on Tuesday,” as noted by ESPN’s Jeff Passan:
Stay tuned…
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Posted in 
I am starting to get worried that Spring Training and possibly the regular season will not start on time. Still hoping for a timely resolution of this issue.
Three years ago I had to cancel my hotel reservation and get refunds on all 8 of the ST games I had purchased. It would have been the first ST I had missed since CBR opened in 2009. Now I’m faced with the very same situation but not because of COVID. Why, you say??? It’s the greedy players and owners that only give lip service to appreciation of the fans which is probably going to cause me to miss my only vacation for 2022. Shame on them!!
Exactly!
Reading through the Rosenthal/Drelich article, every issue directly or indirectly is being driven by the small to mid-size market teams, and the union’s demand for significant improvement to pre-arbitration salaries while maintaining the escalating salaries for star players. Seemingly, there is no middle ground. What a mess! I love the game of baseball, hate the business.
If they mess this up fans will be disgusted. It’s so much less and less about playing the game we love and more and more about money.
Thank God we have memories of the old days when players worried about winning games.
👍👍👍👍👍👍