Around the Empire: Yankees news - 6/22/2020

CBS Sports: Matt Snyder: In the latest episode of Game of Thrones House of Cards West Wing MLB vs. MBLPA, the players’ union had prepared to vote Sunday on whether or not to approve the league’s proposed 60 game season or allow Manfred to unilaterally impose a shortened form, but two things stood in their way. First, and honestly more importantly, players wanted to receive more information about the league’s COVID-19 protocols after spring training facilities in Florida were closed due to a surge in outbreaks. Additionally, Rob Manfred sent a letter to the union offering to remove the 2021 concessions — namely the expanded playoffs and universal DH — if the 2020 season was not concluded due to the virus, so that the union would not have given up two major concessions in exchange for something that never occurred.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: Former Yankees shortstop and current Marlins owner Derek Jeter sat down with Harold Reynolds to discuss his experiences growing up biracial in an era that was less accepting of interracial marriage. Like DeShields’ interview last week, I’m not going to summarize it here, but I encourage you to at least read the article at the very least, and listen to the full 11-minute interview if you can get it to work, which can be found by going to the Baseball Tonight page on ESPN Radio.

CBS Sports: Matt Snyder: Should the league and union come to an agreement to get the season underway, expect to see Aaron Hicks patrolling center field in Yankee Stadium. Coming off of Tommy John surgery in the offseason, the Yankees outfielder says that his arm strength feels to be about 80% back, right on schedule for the projected mid-July return date that had been the original timetable. Coincidentally, that is right around the time a hypothetical season would be kicking off, meaning that Hicks may find himself becoming the first person to miss exactly 0 games due to Tommy John surgery.