LOS ANGELES — For baseball fans, excitement about the World Series is tempered by the increasing likelihood of a work stoppage in the sport soon after.
asserted
excitement → temper → sport
President Donald Trump says he can prevent it.
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he → say → it
Trump said Sept. 26 at a college football game he would like to stave off a Major League Baseball lockout before the Dec. 1 expiration of the owners’ current collective bargaining agreement with players.
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he → say → players
The sides are miles apart on owners’ insistence that a salary cap be imposed to prevent runaway player salaries.
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cap → impose → salaries
It’s a demand players adamantly oppose.
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players → ’ → ?
“I would do it if it was appropriate,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Clay Travis at the Texas-Tennessee game.
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Trump → do → game
“I would certainly do it if I could.
uncertain
I → do → it
Baseball looks like it could have a strike.
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it → look → strike
If it does, it would be too bad.
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it → do → ?
It is tremendous — if you look at sports, it seems the baseball players and owners do the least well.
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players → look → least
They’re going to work it out the same way
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They → go → it
But if I could help, I’d love to help.”
uncertain
I → help → ?
For many, Trump’s comments are fanciful at best, in the category of his claims to have ended multiple foreign wars and conflicts.
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comments → end → wars
Trump, in these boasts, portrays his administration’s foreign policy as uniquely effective at stopping global bloodshed.
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Trump → portray → bloodshed
In reality, he can fully or even realistically take credit for ending the long-running feud between Armenia and Azerbaijan, longtime rivals in a mountainous geographic region that acts as a natural bridge between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
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that → take → Europe
Trump hosted a historic peace summit on Aug. 8, 2025, at the White House, where Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint declaration to end decades of conflict.
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Aliyev → host → conflict
Still, Trump could throw the prestige of the White House into averting a baseball work stoppage.
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Trump → throw → stoppage
He could muster public pressure, political sway, or the use of executive agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board to, in theory, impose a settlement.
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He → muster → settlement
And if the Nov. 3 midterm elections go poorly for Republicans, as polls suggest is the case, Trump could be looking for a conversation-changing win that would make him the political savior of America’s national pastime.
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him → go → pastime
A seemingly intractable dispute
MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire a bit over a month after the end of the late October conclusion of the World Series.
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agreement → set → Series
A potential owner-imposed lockout looms with the two sides so far apart on a range of issues.
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sides → impose → issues
Most prominently, owners want to introduce a hard salary cap and floor system, similar to the NFL, NBA, and NHL, citing payroll disparities and a need for competitive balance.
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owners → want → balance
Smaller-market owners contend they don’t have the revenue to keep up with some teams’ large spending on player salaries, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.
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they → contend → Dodgers
While the Mets haven’t won a World Series since 1986, the Dodgers currently dominate baseball.
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Dodgers → win → baseball
The Dodgers have won two straight World Series titles and three over the last six.
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Dodgers → win → six
On a recent sunny day at Dodger Stadium, as the team awaited its National League Division Series opponent, the Atlanta Braves, fans taking tours of the ballpark were confident of their team prevailing for a third straight title.
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team → await → title
Los Angeles is led by players earning deep into the eight figures annually, including outfielder Kyle Tucker and two-way player Shohei Ohtani.
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Angeles → lead → Tucker
The MLB Players Association strongly opposes any cap.
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Association → oppose → cap
The union argues that a spending floor for low-spending teams is the real solution rather than restricting player salaries.
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floor → argue → salaries
The idea is to compel teams to spend on fielding a quality team, capable of competing for a World Series championship.
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idea → compel → championship
That places the team well under a proposed $171.2 million minimum.
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That → place → minimum
If such a salary floor were adopted, the Wisconsin-based team would be forced to increase team spending by roughly $20 million to $40 million to meet the new threshold.
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team → adopt → threshold
If Trump entered the fray in a bid to fend off a baseball work stoppage, he wouldn’t exactly come to the table as an objective party.
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he → enter → party
He has publicly sided with MLB owners in their push to establish a hard salary cap.
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He → side → cap
“If you don’t have a salary cap, you don’t have a sport,” Trump said June 5 while speaking to reporters on Air Force One.
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Trump → have → One
“They should have done it a long time ago.”
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They → do → it
The president added it was “shocking, frankly, that they didn’t put a cap on many years ago.”
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they → add → cap
Trump, in his second, nonconsecutive term, has frequently tried to exert influence on sporting matters.
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Trump → try → matters
“I know so much about sports,” Trump said at one point during his June 5 exchange with reporters, in which he also addressed the college sports landscape and the NBA Finals.
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he → know → landscape
In baseball, Trump previously claimed credit for improving the chances that the late Pete Rose would be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
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Rose → claim → Fame
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
