Elephant Rumblings: Minor leagues facing elimination of over 40 teams

A’s Coverage:

• ESPN Audio: Sandy Alderson on Rickey Henderson, Moneyball and Michael Jordan
• Castrovince: Jordan to the A’s? His Airness had MLB offer
• Slusser: A’s mailbag: Is shutdown impacting stadium push? What about ticket refunds? ($)
• Slusser: A’s Gone By: Reliever Micah Bowie deals with harrowing lung problems ($)
• Hickey: What To Do About Baseball Brawls in a Time of Social Distancing?
• Hickey: Two Years Ago Today, Manaea No-Hit the Red Sox, the Hottest Team in MLB
• Gallegos: HOFers help A’s rally for 1st-round Dream Bracket win

MLB News:

• Cooper: Sources: MiLB Ready To Agree To Significant Reduction In Teams ($$$)
• Cohen: A lost season? Minor league teams, players face bleak future
• Passan: Manfred “fully anticipate[s] baseball will return this season”
• Rogers: Fans sue over ticket refunds, ask for class action

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Coffey: The brilliance and backstory of @OldHossRadbourn ($$$)
• Randhawa: Who ya got: Mantle or Mays ... or Trout?
• Clair: We finally found one thing Ichiro isn’t good at
• Chesterton: Can you name the missing piece in these trades?
• MLB Trivia: Can you name the missing piece in these trades?
• Adams: The Royals’ Outfield Of Infielders
• Adams: Did The Rangers Find A Bullpen Gem In The Bargain Bin?
• Byrne: An Under-The-Radar Brewers Hurler
• Byrne: When The Padres Fleeced The Marlins
• Byrne: A Mariners-Yankees Blockbuster That Busted
• Dierkes: How Did The White Sox Trade Fernando Tatis Jr.?!

Today in Baseball History:

• 1876 - In the first National League game ever played, Joe Borden of the Boston Red Caps beats the hometown Philadelphia Athletics team, 6 - 5.
• 1906 - A new baseball rule puts the umpire in sole charge of all game balls. The home team manager previously had some say as to when a new ball was introduced.
• 1915 - Pinstripes first appear on New York Yankees uniforms.
• 1916 - Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Jack Nabors tops the Boston Red Sox, 6 - 2. His only victory of the season evens his record at 1-1. Nabors will follow with 19 straight losses to set a major-league record. Teammate Tom Sheehan will be right behind him at 1-16.
• 1937 - Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson are among 18 black players who jump to the Dominican Republic league. Negro League owners regard this as desertion and plan to ban the players from the league. In May, Paige will be banned for life.
• 1969 - In his first major league start, Rollie Fingers of the Oakland Athletics shuts out the Minnesota Twins, 7 - 0, at Metropolitan Stadium, stopping Minnesota’s seven-game winning streak.

Best of Twitter:

From the article: “Now MiLB is expected to signal its assent to a system going forward where each MLB team will have four full-season affiliates, plus one Rookie-level team at its spring training complex.” The 120 number does NOT include Rookie Ball, so really it’s 4 affiliates plus Rookie Ball, or 5 minor league teams per organization.

But wait! What a twist!

What Michael Jordan would have looked like in an A’s uniform