© Mark J. Rebilas | 2016 Nov 8
Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper is fed up. Fed up with the ongoing negotiations between Major League Baseball and the Players Association that may lead to a cancelation of the season, and fed up with the folks leading those negotiations.
“I’m not calm about this at all,” Kuiper said on KNBR Tuesday. “My take on this is the first thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to be in the same room. And I know with the virus people are trying to stay away from large crowds, not too many people in a room…you’ve got to be in the same room. Emails and letters and texts, that’s what they do in high school. That’s how you get a date now, you text someone, you send them a letter. We’re talking about a game everybody loves. Get in the same room.”
The sniping back and fourth reached a tipping point on Monday, when Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that he’s no longer confident there would be a baseball season, just a week after guaranteeing it. This followed a letter from the Players Association telling the owners to tell them when and where they should start preparing for a season, after the owners’ latest proposal was rejected. It now appears that Manfred did not expect the players to call his bluff about imposing a 50-game season, and is scrambling as he tries to avoid a lawsuit.
“Since Manfred said ‘I guarantee you there’s going to be baseball 100 percent.’ Since he said that the players said ‘Alright, well if that’s what’s going to happen…when and where’ and I think it blew the other side away,” Kuip told Murph & Mac. “I don’t think they saw it coming at all. I think it totally flustered them, and it flustered them so much that now the Commissioner is saying ‘Well maybe we’re not gonna play.’ How can you go from 100 percent to maybe not?!”
The negotiations between the two sides have played out largely in public, between Executive Director of the Players Union Tony Clark, and Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem, who have continuously leaked strongly worded letters to the other side. Kuiper is done hearing from them.
“These two guys, Dan Halem on one side and Tony Clark on the other, these two negotiators, get them out of the room, they’re not doing the job. Go stand in the corner and shut up. What you’re doing in writing those letters, it ain’t helping. Get a couple of interns in here, they’ll figure it out, because you guys aren’t doing your job.”
Listen to the full interview below.