C O N F E S S I O N S

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• AN AUDIO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR CATCHERS

TO GIVE SIGNS TO PITCHERS, akin to an NFL coach

communicating with the quarterback. A boon to pace of

play, it underwent testing in spring training and could

be ready as soon as this season.

• MORE STREAMING AND GAMBLING. Apple TV+ and
  Peacock are streaming games this year. Several ballparks
  already have betting parlors, but the future there includes
  seatback devices or apps that allow fans to engage in
  proprietary betting action.
  Change in baseball is met with more resistance than
  in other sports. But after predictable howls of protest,
  changes to the slide rule at second base, to the virtual
  outlawing of catcher collisions and to the midseason
  crackdown on sticky substances led to little more than a
  few weeks of bellyaching. To think even bigger, baseball
  needs to repair the distrust between owners and players
  the CBA negotiations exposed. When the agreement was
  reached to save the 162-game season, there was no joint
  press conference. The two sides retreated to their respec-
  tive corners, casting the same wary eyes at each other.
  Asked whether he expected the next five years to be
  better and more harmonious than the previous handful,
  Astros pitcher Justin Verlander says, “I hope so. That’s
  to be determined. We have to see how the adjustments
  we made play out.”
  In 1968, 22-year-old Reggie Jackson hit 29 home runs
  for the A’s. Only three players in the American League hit
  more. In the wake of subsequent changes, Jackson and
  the game thrived. The brash slugger was at the nexus
  of free agency, athleticism, more offense, the DH and
  the flourishing of personality. Reggie (one name was
  enough) personified the new game.
  Jackson is 75 now. He works as an adviser to Astros
  owner Jim Crane. In spring training he pulled on a
  Houston uniform as a rare professor emeritus of the
  game, lending advice to players born long after he played
  his last game in 1987.
  “What do I think of the game?” he says. “There are
  no baseball people in the game. They’re gone.” Jackson
  is careful not to say these lifers have been pushed out,
  but organizations no longer value them as they once did.
  During CBA negotiations, players routinely took
  shots at Manfred. Meanwhile, from the comfort of
  “rebuilds,” the consecutive losing seasons of the Orioles
  and Tigers (five), Pirates and Royals (six), and Marlins (11)
  all included payrolls of less than $100 million last season.
  Such is the distrust on both sides, as Jackson put it,
  “Now I have to watch you when you go into the kitchen
  when I make chocolate chip cookies.”
  It is time to share the cookies instead of swiping them.
  Under the new CBA, active players for the first time will
  sit on the Competition Committee, which was established
  in 2017. This year, the committee will consist of four
  current players, six MLB-appointed members and one
  umpire. It’s a start. Changes are coming. But changes
  succeed only with trust.