Once upon a time in baseball, it wouldnt have ended like this. And that, of course, is because, for close to 25 years, labor negotiations in baseball never ended like this.With peace. With stability. With a sport that has now gone so long without a work stoppage that the three other major professional sports in this land have combined for six of them since the last time a labor war erupted in baseball. How surreal is that?So even though the labor agreement of 2016 went down almost a week after Thanksgiving, this, my friends, was something to be thankful for. Peace is good. But more than that, peace is essential.As someone who has covered a few of those messy baseball work stoppages of yesteryear, Id be happy to hop up on the stand and testify. Whatever was gained on the inside from those strikes or those lockouts, it wasnt enough to undo the damage it caused on the outside.Baseball will never, ever be the same after the strike that wiped out the 1994 World Series. It will never regain the place it held in the American soul because of that strike. So no matter how vehemently people inside the game might want to defend the stands that they took back then, the truth is that in the big picture, only one good thing ever came of that strike.The people who run this sport got the memo: Peace is good. And they learned that they should never go down that ugly, self-destructive road again. And they havent.Theyve now made it through 21 consecutive years of labor peace since the strike of 1994-95. And thanks to the deal they made Wednesday night, we know theyre about to make it through five more. Hallelujah.As you look over the details of that deal today, could it possibly be more obvious that there was never an issue in the 2016 labor talks that was worth blowing up a $10 billion industry over? Never.Over the qualifying offer for a select group of free agents? Over containing spending on 18-year-old amateur players who happened to be born outside the United States? Over luxury-tax thresholds or tax rates? How did this sport ever drive itself to the brink of a lockout over issues like that? Incredible.We still have a lot to learn about the specifics of this new labor deal. So we cant fully judge the complete scope of everything that was agreed to yet. But the highlights that did leak out were fascinating, all right. Here are some quick reactions:? Wed been led to believe that owners were willing to shred the entire system that required teams to forfeit a draft pick if they signed an elite free agent (i.e., one who received and rejected a qualifying offer). Turned out we were dead wrong. Those teams no longer have to lose their first-round pick. And thats a significant achievement for the players union. But teams will still forfeit at least one pick for signing one of those players. And if theyre a team with a payroll that rises above the luxury-tax threshold, it will cost two picks -- second- and fifth-round picks. And thats still a big deal.Are a second- and fifth-round pick more valuable than a No. 1 pick? Of course not, one agent said Wednesday evening. But are they comparable? Certainly.? We also knew that as the two sides headed toward the wire, the luxury tax -- or competitive balance tax, if youre a fan of legalese -- was a major issue. Well, now we know why. Under previous versions of the luxury tax, the highest tax rate a team could pay was 50 percent, no matter how many times its payroll went beyond the tax threshold. But not anymore.If the Dodgers dont get their 2017 payroll under $235 million, it appears as if their tax rate would rise to an astounding 92 (yes, ninety-two) percent as a third-time offender subject to a 50 percent tax plus a 42 percent surtax for being $40 million over the threshold. Wow. Two different agents used the term soft cap on Wednesday night to describe the effect of a rate that high. But no matter what you call it, its the strongest deterrent to spending to ever appear in a baseball labor agreement. Theres no debate about that.? The union fought for months against the owners push to institute an international draft -- and ultimately won that fight. Instead, the two sides agreed to a hard cap on total annual spending for foreign-born amateur players, of about $5 million for every team. With no exceptions. And no flexibility to go above that amount.So the days of a Yoan Moncada raking in $31.5 million are over. As are the days of teams like the Dodgers blowing through their international bonus pool and then spending whatever they chose because they didnt mind the penalties. So it will take a while before we completely grasp the effect of this change on teams and players alike. But one thing to file away is this: Its the first time the union has ever agreed to any sort of hard cap in any area. Interesting.? The players did come away with a couple of scheduling concessions that theyd made a major priority in these negotiations. Starting in 2018, the season will start four days earlier, so that four extra off days can be included in the schedule. And there are new provisions requiring more teams to play day games when one or both teams face long flights after the game.In a sport that is now paying more than a half-billion dollars a year to players on the disabled list, these are more important elements of this agreement than you might think. If the primary cause of injury is fatigue, it makes sense for everyone to do what they can to combat as much fatigue as possible.There is so much more to sift through when the details get announced. So there will be more surprises and more changes, many of them subtle, some of them not so subtle. And only then will we know how all the pieces of this puzzle fit together.But Ive covered enough labor talks in my day to know that most of you dont care about any of that. You only care about one thing:Did they get this frigging deal done or not?Well, ladies and gentlemen, the deal got done. Woo-hoo. The hot stove can keep on burning. The trade rumors can keep on flowing. The game can keep on growing. And that, in the end, is what had to happen. Any other outcome would have been an embarrassment. Not to mention a disaster.Once upon a time in baseball, it wouldnt have ended this way. So thank heaven we dont live in that time anymore. Thank heaven we live in this time -- because no matter who emerges from this agreement unhappy about how this deal affects them -- peace always beats the alternative. And never more than right now. Vapormax Nere . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Air Max 2019 . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. http://www.airmax270italia.it/air-max-270-nike-scarpe-italia/air-max-270-nere.html . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Vapormax Off White 2018 . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Nike Air Max Plus Tn Ultra . Fred Couples, captain of the U.S. side, put it all into perspective. "We know whos in charge," he said. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers is dealing with an injured hamstring and that leaves Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing feeling more optimistic about his defenses chances of stopping the Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field.Theres no question it will definitely help out if he can sit in the pocket and doesnt really feel like running, Cushing said, because theres nothing more defeating than on third down covering everybody, having everyone doing your job and everythings set and then the quarterback runs right by everyone for the first down, because hes the guy you dont account for as far as numbers and matchups.If it limits him, obviously, thatll be a big plus for us. Theres no question about that.Theres also no question both teams need a victory. After back-to-back losses at Oakland and home against San Diego, the Texans are 6-5. A heavy favorite to win the AFC South entering the season, they are clinging to a half-game lead over Tennessee (6-6) and a one-game lead over Indianapolis (5-6).The Packers were favored to win the NFC North but are clinging to faint playoff hopes. Green Bay (5-6) snapped a four-game losing streak at Philadelphia on Monday but is two games behind Detroit and a half game behind Minnesota in the division standings.Were the Green Bay Packers, so we take that with a lot of pride, said Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, who has guided the team to seven consecutive playoff berths. We know our fans were upset with whats going on, but theres no one more upset than those men in the locker room. Thats the reality of it.We all want to win. Were doing everything we can to win, I can promise you that. This group is committed, but, hell, were 5-6.Both teams are dealing with injuries.Packers linebacker Clay Matthews is nursing an injured shoulder sustained on a devastating blind-side block by lineman Allen Barbre during the opening series. Matthews, who has missed four games this season with an injured hamstring, got through the game with a pain-killing injection.Im in some pain, no doubtt about it, Matthews said.dddddddddddd Some swelling, bruising. But we got an X-ray and nothing is broken, (so) thats good. Well see moving forward as far as progress Im make going into this game. Its ultimately the goal, but we have some work to do.Both teams have work to do if theyre going to get into the postseason and make a run.The Packers have work to do on defense, though their streak of four consecutive games with 30-plus points allowed -- the teams worst stretch in six decades -- ended with an impressive performance at Philadelphia.With starting inside linebackers Blake Martinez and Jake Ryan inactive, Matthews moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker for that game. He spent the past season-and-a-half inside and made an immediate impact.Were just paper thin at the position, Matthews said. Its just natural after a year-and-a-half of having inside linebacker experience to just go back there. It was very natural to switch.The Texans have a lot of work to do on offense. They rank 29th in the league in scoring at 17.6 points per game.Houston signed quarterback Brock Osweiler away from the Broncos with a four-year, $72 million free-agent contract but has gotten little bang for its buck. Osweiler ranks 31st in passer rating and 32nd in yards per attempt and is tied for last with 13 interceptions.Obviously, the quarterback and the head coach take the most blame, Texans head coach Bill OBrien said. We understand that. Thats part of the deal. But it takes a lot more than that to execute a play properly.I didnt think we had our best game at any position on offense against San Diego. So its not one guys fault. I think hes getting more and more comfortable in our offense.He played well against Oakland. We just have to make sure that we play better around him. Look, hes got to do his part -- theres a lot of things he can improve upon -- but I think we all need to improve. 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