The Minnesota Twins canceled baseball this weekend after some surprise positive COVID-19 tests that showed up late last week and into this weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, however, they announced their return for Tuesday afternoon, when they’re tentatively scheduled to play a doubleheader vs the Oakland Athletics.

Monday’s scheduled game between the Athletics & #MNTwins has been postponed to allow for continued testing & contact tracing involving members of the Twins organization. Subject to change, a traditional doubleheader has tentatively been scheduled for 3:30 p.m. (PT) on Tuesday.

— Dustin Morse (@morsecode) April 18, 2021

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

The Division 1 NCAA Council (whatever that is) has implemented a plan to bring back our major college fall and winter sports. For teams that begin their regular season on Labor Day, they will start back on campus on July 13, with enhanced training starting on July 20 and finally fall practice slated to start August 7.

Division 1 council has adopted plan where starting July 20, required summer athletics activities may begin and can last up to eight weeks or until the school’s first day of classes or Sept. 15, whichever is earlier.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 17, 2020

So, to recap:

July 13 – College football summer access

July 20 – College Basketball summer access

August 7 – College football practice

– No recruiting weekends for college hoop in August or September have been sanctioned yet.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 17, 2020

Right now teams are doing voluntary work outs. This plan will transition teams to a typical mandated schedule that is meant to prepare them for fall. The NCAA has approved the plan, but the coaches and universities will make decisions on how practices and locker rooms will operate, regarding social distancing and other safety measures.

The goal is to run an effective camp and preseason, allowing the season to start on time and hopefully run even more smoothly. Fans are on edge, wondering how this will all play out, especially since the University of Houston had 6 football players reportedly test positive for the virus just last week.

There are still questions that players, parents and fans have, regarding player safety. How will universities handle players or staff testing positive for the virus? Is there any chance at having fans in the stands? These are all questions that the NCAA will have to answer… unless they leave that up to individual campuses, too.

For those who follow the recruiting side of things, nothing has been decided on that yet. However, Jeff Goodman is also reporting that on the upcoming agenda.

The Council intends to hold a teleconference within the next few weeks to vote on the recruiting calendars. https://t.co/77AAZWE8sv

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 17, 2020

While there are risks involved, the idea of being able to cheer on our Golden Gophers are a glimmer of normalcy in what has become a really weird world.

Sherry Cerny | Minnesota Sports Fan

The mood surrounding the state of “return to play” affairs for Major League Baseball, has darkened recently. Days have gone by and negotiations between the MLB owners and MLBPA have unravelled, deepening the riff between the two factions. I was starting to worry about whether we would see the Minnesota Twins play baseball at all in 2020…

But then….. huge news started dropping this morning, by way of MLB insider Jon Heyman’s twitter account.

MLB has made a new proposal to players. They are trying to get a deal done.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020

The new MLB proposal Is for 76 games

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020

In new MLB proposal season would begin about July 10. The delays cost the July 4 start.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020

Season Length

Wow… so there is a lot to go over here and news on this proposal will continue to drop over the next few hours, I’m sure. The proposal for 76 games, seems to be what the MLB had offered last week (82 games), minus the one extra week of negotiations.

That extra week would also cost them a 4th of July weekend start… which will now be moved to July 10. The major differences though, are marked in the money (of course).

MLB has made proposal to Players. 75 percent Prorated salary. 76 game season. Playoff pool money. No draft pick compensation for signing player. Season finishes September 27th. Post season ends at end of October. Significant move towards players demands and effort to play more.

— Karl Ravech (@karlravechespn) June 8, 2020

MLB seems to have made decent move. 75% of salaries plus no draft pick compensation this offseason for the first time in 45 years

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020

New MLB offer is for 25% paycut for players rather than 40%. Also not a sliding scale. Players preferred to avoid the sliding scale/progressive cut and MLB listened.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020

Money, Money, Money…

The MLB owners are now offering 75% of salaries across the board, which is much closer to the original agreement, signed right after the coronavirus shutdown. Their last offer was a tiered system they knew would be thrown out by the players.

In last week’s proposal from the owners to the MLBPA, the players took 40% total cut in salaries. The structure of the pay cuts involved the highest-paid stars in the league, taking the biggest brunt of revenue loss, which made no sense to anyone. This is a much more feasible and serious offer.

Last week’s squabbling however, wasn’t the first conversation the two sides had. Why will this deal get done when others haven’t moved the needle? It doesn’t apparently. Jon Heyman’s last tweet tells us why the owners think it should. Signing off on this deal, would make the players more money than even the best deal would, should they decide to wait. But, the players clearly don’t see it that way…

Under this proposal each player earns ~19% more under this offer than if forced to play a shorter season at 100% of prorated salaries

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 8, 2020

The MLBPA regards today’s offer from MLB to be worse than the league’s last because it shifts greater emphasis on risk sharing in the postseason. Players would receive 50 percent of pro rata if there is no postseason, 75 if there is. @karlravechespn first on a new offer coming.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) June 8, 2020

MLB’s first offer to the union included about $1 billion in regular season and another $200 million in postseason. This offer basically doubles amount of postseason money, to more than $400 million. MLB points to potential total dollars as improvement. Union sees other factors.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) June 8, 2020

DO NOT SCREW THIS UP.

Now I say this to both the MLB owners and the MLBPA and its players… Please… do not screw this up. I need the Minnesota Twins in my life, right now. My life is empty without sports. Is it selfish that I am thinking of myself, when others have much more important things to be worried about?

Yes…. but Karl Ravich makes me feel better about the situation. He says baseball is coming back. It’s just a matter of when and how many regular season games.

Yes. Extremely. https://t.co/8WQxLeiumE

— Karl Ravech (@karlravechespn) June 6, 2020

According to sources this equates to roughly 200 million more in player salaries. The 50 game season is not a threat rather a negotiated right. Hopefully this spurs further dialogue, if not we will play a short season

— Karl Ravech (@karlravechespn) June 8, 2020

Eric Strack | Minnesota sports Fan

The National Basketball League is officially returning, as the country looks to start rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic. Well, most of the NBA is returning. The Minnesota Timberwolves won’t be. They will be watching from home, preparing for the NBA Draft (and crossing fingers for the lottery), as the best 22 teams compete together at Disney World.

Source: 29-1 vote https://t.co/NT87g6EENp

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 4, 2020

Sources: Additional dates NBA informed on Board of Governors call:
– June 15, players located internationally return to market
– June 21, all players report
– June 22, coronavirus testing begins https://t.co/kFZajb3Ioz

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 4, 2020

Who needs the Timberwolves to be jacked up about the NBA returning? That echoes the sentiment around the country, for all bad teams, I’d guess. Hell, I’m watching Korean baseball every morning from 5-7 AM.

As much as I’d prefer the Wolves returning over any other team, it doesn’t make sense in the long-term. Who knows what will happen during a historic NBA return like the one we’re about to see. The bottom of the NBA Draft Lottery was so tightly packed before play was halted, that picking up a few wins to end the season, could be detrimental to the future of this team.

KAT and D-Lo will have to pull up Twitter with the rest of us, as these first games start to tip-off. I’ll bet they still smile too. Sure, they would rather be playing.. but just the idea of life getting (somewhat) back to normal, will put an extra pep in everyone’s step.

Draft Dates Also Leaked

There will be plenty of souls who are kept busy throughout the Minnesota front office, though. The NBA Draft and the Lottery that precedes it, are on the verge of being announced. It’s clear, owners and GM’s don’t want to deal with holding workouts and interviews in the virtual world.

Setting everything out until August/October is about as far out as they could push it. Training Camp for the 2020-21 season is rumored to start in November, according to Shams’ tweet above.

NBA has set an August 25 Draft Lottery and October 15 Draft, sources say.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 4, 2020

This is a NBA Draft that Rosas and Co. cannot miss. This will hopefully be the last season they are picking out of the lottery… so a mistake isn’t an option. That’s why trading their top-3 pick might be the best bet.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan