Thursday early p.m. lockout update: Soon?

Good afternoon.

It is the early afternoon of Thursday, March 10, 2022, and the lockout is still on.

I do not know when it will end.

National reporters are tweeting that progress is being made and the sides are close and this time — THIS TIME — it is really true!

I don’t want to believe that. I mean, I would like to believe that, but I don’t want to allow myself to believe that, because of how often there’s been positivity coming, only for things to be shot down and, well, in reality, things are worse than ever before.

But there are some specifics that leads one to believe maybe its for real this time.

Jon Heyman says MLB has proposed spring training games beginning “on or about” March 17, with Opening Day being “on or about” April 5. That would seem to indicate that maybe a deal could be done soon.

Jesse Rogers says that if there’s an agreement and ratification today, free agent would begin tonight, which means that we will spend the weekend and spring break drinking from a fire house of free agent rumors and signings.

MLB has reportedly set a deadline of 3 p.m. Eastern Time for a deal to be reached, though I’m not sure there’s any reason to believe that deadline is any more real than the various other deadlines they’ve set and then moved or ignored or changed.

Reports on the “core issues” seem to indicate the parties are real, real close. Reports have been wrong before though. So who knows.

Let’s see how this plays out.