When Major League Baseball revealed its new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA, for those late to the party) a couple of weeks ago, the announcement was dominated by so many minor issues you wonder what took so long.
There were expected adjustments to free-agent compensation, the minimum stay on the disabled list (for non-concussion-related injuries) was dropped from 15 to 10 days, players got four more off days, no changes were made to the option rule and the 25-man roster continues to expand to 40 for the last month of the season. Ho-hum. No biggie.
It seemed like the only change anyone cared about is the one that eliminated home-field advantage in the World Series being tied to the winner of the annual All-Star game between the American and National Leagues. That rule had been in effect for the last 14 years, the result of the 2002 game being called after 11 innings with the score tied, because both teams had used all available pitchers.
