Poll: How long will Opening Day be postponed?

We’re 13 weeks into the MLB lockout, and morale is lower than ever. The labor dispute has stretched long enough that the 2022 season is now being affected, as Opening Day has officially been postponed and the first two series of the regular season have been canceled.

For the Oakland A’s, that means seven games have been wiped from the slate. They were scheduled to open the year at home on March 31, with four against the Angels and three against the Tigers, but those matchups are gone. Literally, they have been deleted from the schedule on the team’s official site.

With negotiations still ongoing, and the owners and players still far apart on some key economic issues, there’s no telling how long this might last. And with each passing week, more games will be removed and the season will continue to shorten.

The question is, how much further will Opening Day be delayed? Right now, the A’s are tentatively set for April 8, on the road against the Phillies. Will that come to pass, with the two sides finally reaching a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in the next few days? Or will that Philadelphia series get canceled too, and more beyond it?

Let’s vote! There’s a poll below, but first let’s take a look back at the last time we voted on this topic. On Dec. 8, one week into the lockout, we asked how long the work stoppage would last. Here were the results, out of 1,940 submissions:

When will the MLB lockout end?

• 4%: Before the end of December, no biggie (73 votes)
• 17%: In January, season unaffected (330 votes)
• 34%: In February, slightly delaying spring training (658 votes)
• 17%: In March, slightly delaying Opening Day (339 votes)
• 17%: In April or later, shortening season (322 votes)
• 11%: Never! Season canceled entirely (218 votes)

More than half of us are already wrong, as we guessed the lockout would end by February or earlier, and it’s March now. In the comments section some of us also picked specific dates, but those comments are temporarily gone since they took place before the new Coral system rolled out, which is fine because now nobody will remember that I picked Feb. 15 and was way off.

So let’s try again! New poll below. If you want to pick a more specific date, then share it in the comments section.