Clark is gone.
Tony Clark is no longer the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association and that comes months before the Players Association and the Major League Baseball owners’ collective bargaining agreement ends. Clark was not the lead negotiator for the players but he was the guy who was the face of the negotiating team. The collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1st. Clark quit with some legal problems that include alleged misuse of the MLBPA’s funds. Clark became the Executive Director of the MLBPA in December 2013. He was the first former player to lead the association. Clark headed up the players during the 2021–2022 MLB lockout. What happens now with the negotiations? That is the problem as the MLBPA may have to recalibrate its strategy with a new person in charge.
There is a sense that MLB owners want a salary cap, something that Clark adamantly opposed. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred recently tried to put a positive spin on the negotiations. “Until I got elected commissioner, all I did was labor relations. That’s how I made my living. I’ve never been in a negotiation where, before the first piece of paper went across the table, I, or anyone I represented, was out there saying, this, we absolutely will not talk about. I just think it’s a hard way to begin a negotiation.” Clark and the players then put out a statement. “The league and owners say they want to avoid missing games but at the same time they appear to be dead-set on trying to force players into a system that, the last time they proposed it, led to the most missed games ever and a cancelled World Series” in 1994. Now, at least one person at the table is gone. The negotiations will go on.
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