Major League owners and players continue to go back and forth about how a season is going to be put together, with the sticking points being the amount of games as well as how players are going to get paid.
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00:00MLB Players Union proposes a 110-game season, President Trump encourages governors to use
00:06aggressive tactics on protesters, while teams and athletes speak out against police brutality.
00:12Here are the stories shaping sports and business on this Monday, June 1st.
00:18Welcome.
00:19I'm Catherine Ross on the street alongside Sports Illustrated's Bill Enright.
00:24Bill, kick us off today.
00:26Catherine, this is another story about the MLB and the players going back and forth,
00:32something that you and I have talked quite a bit about the last few weeks.
00:35The latest is the Major League Baseball Players Association submitted their proposal on how
00:40to start this season, and it's quite different than the MLB's proposal from just last week.
00:47The players countered to the owner's 82-game schedule with a 114-game schedule to be played
00:54over 123 days.
00:56According to the Associated Press, that means the regular season will be played through
01:01October 31st, while the owner suggested that September 27th be the regular season finale.
01:08Both the owners and players do agree on an expanded playoff season for 2020, but that
01:14would only increase the amount of teams from 10 to 14 this year.
01:19The union wants the amount of teams to make the playoffs from 10 to 14 in 2021 as well.
01:28The MLB Players Union also countered the owner's suggestion about reducing salaries.
01:32The original amount is $4 billion.
01:35The owners want it reduced to $1.2 billion, with the union suggesting $2.8 billion.
01:41If the owners and players do agree to terms, the season would start on June 30th.
01:47On March 12th, the MLB postponed the season, which was originally scheduled for March 26th.
01:52So, Catherine, once again, the players and the owners in the MLB seems like they're quite
01:59a bit a ways from coming to an agreement on this.
02:01Normally, during this time, I would take it to give you a coronavirus update as the pandemic
02:06is still on the forefront of many Americans' minds, but I think that this time we need
02:11to talk a little bit more about the protests and the market reaction to that because people
02:15just tuning in might be a little confused to see that the major indices are up.
02:20And before we do that, I just want to fill you in on some news that hit the wires briefly
02:24before.
02:25President Donald Trump, on a call with governors and others, did ask governors to step up their
02:30actions against protesters.
02:32So we will see what happens there.
02:34But first, we've had a full weekend from coast to coast of protests and riots following the
02:40death of George Floyd, a man who was killed by police officers in Minneapolis last week.
02:46Now, this question has been asked today specifically because, as I said, the major indices are
02:52in the green on Wall Street.
02:53So many may be wondering, is there a disconnect?
02:56This is actually something I had a question for, for Jim Cramer.
03:00And he said that instead of looking at the major indices, you have to take a look at
03:03the stocks themselves.
03:06But there are also other global issues at play here.
03:10One of those issues is the China-U.S. tension that is starting to escalate.
03:15China has reportedly asked some of their biggest agricultural companies to stop buying U.S.
03:21farm goods such as soybeans.
03:23And then, of course, there is the never-ending optimism that stems from the reopening of
03:28the economy.
03:29Wall Street has been very, very focused on this and what the reopening will mean for
03:33the overall economy.
03:35This has been such a big focus for Wall Street that we've actually had days with negative
03:38coronavirus headlines that have still seen the major indices close in the green.
03:44Now, Tony Obusu, my colleague over on the street, did write an op-ed on why Wall Street
03:48needs to step up a little bit more and pay more attention to what's going on outside
03:53of Wall Street itself.
03:54He said, and I quote, Wall Street has mostly shrugged off the weekend's protest demonstrations.
03:59After all, the current protests are not as economically disruptive as they could be due
04:04to coronavirus lockdown parameters, but Wall Street should care because the anger and frustration
04:09that has driven people to the streets is not going away anytime soon.
04:13He continued to say, Wall Street has the power to aid people marching on main streets across
04:17America and we all have the power to advocate for real change at this crucial moment in
04:23history.
04:24Bill, what else is happening today?
04:26Catherine, nationwide rallies about the unfair treatment of black people and police brutality
04:31continued over the weekend, as you mentioned.
04:34And now some of the biggest stars in the sports world, including players and teams, are expressing
04:40their support of the movement.
04:42Players from the Los Angeles Lakers, including LeBron James, all posted the same message
04:46on their Instagram account stating, quote, if you ain't with us, we ain't with y'all.
04:51The Minnesota Vikings, Twins, and Timberwolves all took to Twitter to release a statement
04:56about George Floyd's tragic death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer, which
05:01happened within miles of where their stadiums and arenas are located.
05:06Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores released a statement over the weekend and made suggestions
05:10of, quote, how to make a real impact in this world.
05:15Flores says that, quote, honesty, transparency, and empathy go a long way in bringing people
05:21together and making change.
05:23He also added, quote, I hope the tragedies of the last few weeks will open our hearts
05:27and minds to a better way of communicating and hopefully create that change.
05:32Of the 32 coaches in the NFL, only Mike Tomlin, Anthony Lynn, and Flores are black.
05:37Now, Bill, it's not only athletes that have taken to social media to talk about the fight
05:43for racial equality that we're seeing in these protests.
05:46We've actually seen some corporations join in.
05:48For example, Target and Walmart, both Doug McMillan, Walmart CEO, and Brian Cornell,
05:53Walmart CEO, have taken to writing memos for their employees about the situation.
05:59Twitter tweeted out about allyship and also changed their main Twitter handle's bio to
06:06say, and I quote, hashtag Black Lives Matter.
06:09Amazon has put out a statement, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted that Google and YouTube's
06:14homepages would show support for racial equality.
06:17Nike has put out an ad saying, and I quote, for once, don't do it, which also said,
06:23and I again quote, don't turn your back on racism.
06:26The competitor Adidas actually retweeted that quote.
06:29Cardinal Health in a statement on Twitter said, and I quote, George Floyd's death never
06:33should have happened.
06:34Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith have both spoken out.
06:38Bank of America tweeted that it stands with its partners in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and
06:44it stands in inclusion and peace.
06:46We've heard also from Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison, Intel, Disney, ViacomCBS, Netflix, and Electronic
06:54Arts.
06:55We've also heard from Apple CEO Tim Cook, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, JP Morgan CEO Jamie
07:00Dimon, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
07:03Now, they've all spoken out as of this morning, and of course, I'm keeping a list over on
07:09my Twitter app by Katherine Ross of all corporations and CEOs that continue to speak out.
07:14And with that, it's a wrap for today.
07:16Thank you for watching.
07:17I'm Katherine Ross with The Street alongside Sports Illustrated's Bill Enright, and do
07:21not forget that The Street and Sports Illustrated are your go-to sports and business news.