Officials from both Minor League Baseball (MiLB) and Major League Baseball (MLB) will meet Thursday Feb., 20 in Dallas to continue negotiations regarding The Professional Baseball Agreement (PBA), which is set to expire in September.
The MLB's current plan proposes that 42 minor league teams will lose their MLB affiliation status. Three of these 42 teams are in Iowa: the Burlington Bees, the Clinton Lumberkings and the Quad Cities River Bandits.
"The last couple negotiation sessions have been a little more cordial," said Jeff Lantz, Senior Director of Communications for Minor League Baseball. "There's some progress being made. It's just a matter of continuing the dialogue and both sides kind of being a little more open minded."
On this edition of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe speaks with a variety of guests about the state of minor league baseball in Iowa. Along with Lantz, Iowa baseball historian John Liepa talks about the breadth of baseball's history in the hawkeye state. You'll also hear from the Des Moines Register's Iowa Cubs beat reporter, Tommy Birch.
Listeners, including the Kim Parker and Ted Tornow, who are general managers for the Burlington Bees and Clinton Lumberkings, call in to explain what their teams mean to their communities.
Guests:
- Jeff Lantz, Senior Director of Communications, Minor League Baseball
- John Liepa, Iowa Baseball Historian, Emeritus Professor of Politcal Science and History at DMACC
- Tommy Birch, Sports Reporter, Des Moines Register
