by Francis Ferry, NLN baseball beat writer

July 9, 2019: Aurora, Colorado: The baseball world is abuzz with anticipation after the news was leaked over the weekend that change was coming to the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance. The Board of Directors have not officially come out and announced what – if any, changes they are looking to implement, but one thing is seemingly clear: change is coming and it isn’t to the competitive structure of the League itself.

Luis Keystone, spokesman for the League office in Asheville, NC released the following statement at a brief press conference earlier this morning:

“Contrary to public demands and opinions, The Board is not yet in a position to fully announce their plans for potential change to how they do business for this coming season and beyond. Negotiations with the player unions are still underway,” Keystone began, “but rest assured – there will be change.”

“What they will say, in response to speculation in the media, is there will not be an expansion in the number of franchises within the PEBA, nor will we see any radical change to the League’s scheduling formula – including the ludicrous concept of reducing the length of the season and increasing the number of playoff teams, as was recently suggested by a radio show out of Jacksonville.”

Upon contacting Aurora’s broadcast team of Mark Gunter and George Crocker, Gunter spoke realistically about the league’s future. “I never viewed expansion in the immediate future as a viable plan. The League is just now beginning to see financial stability across the board and adding teams – be it two, four, or more, would be, in my opinion, financial suicide for all. I like the idea of expansion, but maybe in ten years.”

“Next thing you know,” Crocker retorted, “they will be trading players to Japan – which ain’t a bad thing. You know, I played in Japan. They were mighty friendly people and really like them their American gringos. Always wanting to take Me, George Crocker, to a party – you know, treat me like the true celebrity that I am. Such great memories. What was that team I played for, Mark? Wasn’t it Osaka? Or was it Nagasaki? I can’t remember… It was the one without the bomb, right? Nagasaki I think…” Gunter reminded Crocker that he had played in Bogota, that it was in Columbia, and that it didn’t end well.

The curious point to Keystone’s comments was the suggestion that the player unions were involved. Typically management doesn’t involve the unions unless there are contractual issues that need hammering out, so one might speculate that we may see changes in how money is distributed in the future. Perhaps caps placed on total dollar amounts in a contract, number of years, or even a traditional salary cap. We may see changes to the revenue sharing formula and thus more money may be available to players.

PEBA Union leader, Steve Rucker, formerly of Yuma and New Orleans, would not comment on the nature of the negotiations with the Board, other than to suggest that they were ‘revolutionary’ and that they would ‘change the game; alter the playing field’.

Yukio Sakai, the Union boss for the LRS players, was unavailable for comment, as spokesmen for the LRS told us that he was at his cattle ranch in his hometown of Kobe. We have yet to verify if Keystone’s commentary was directed solely at the PEBA or if their sister league would also look to piggy-back upon their changes.

Keystone concluded his commentary by saying, “We should have an announcement in a couple of days time. All parties involved are extremely close to agreement over the details of the plan.”