Lesky’s Notes: Six games gone...how many more?

There was so much hope on Monday night. For me, as I was trying to get to sleep for a 2:30 wakeup call to get to the airport, it was frustrating but sort of exhilerating that I couldn’t stop checking my phone. But I finally went to sleep hoping a deal had been struck. When I woke up, I saw that talks had broken up for the evening and they’d continue in the morning. I was optimistic, and as I wrote on Inside the Crown on Wednesday morning, I think I missed most of the signs that my heart was telling me to ignore. So things broke down, the owners gave their “best and final” offer and the players didn’t think it was enough. I agree that it wasn’t enough. Some parts likely were and the good news is that they’re both still negotiating and not starting from scratch, which was actually possible. But there’s six games off the schedule (for now) and another week is in jeopardy with just a few days. So how far does it go? From everything I’ve read, teams don’t have to start paying back their television deals until they dip under about 140 games so I wouldn’t be too surprised if we see an Opening Day similar to 1995 when it was toward the end of April. I’ll be happy when baseball is back, but this really sucks.

…