One of New York City's iconic watering holes says it is shutting down for good due to the coronavirus crisis. Foley's NY, the famous baseball-themed bar across from the Empire State Building on 33rd Street, will not reopen even when the pandemic is over, owner Shaun Clancy said in a video posted on social media. "Foley's won't reopen, just with everything that's going on. There's just no way I see how we can do it. I really don't know what to say, except to thank you all for all you've done. Foley's was always about people. .. I appreciate everything you guys have done for me. Too many to people to thank, but I want to thank my staff. .. Anybody who's ever worked for me, thank you all." A message from @ShaunFromFoleys. Sad news regarding Foley’s. #WeHadBeer pic.twitter.com/i1uimhZQL2— Foley's NY (@FoleysNY) May 29, 2020The Irish pub, which first shut down in March, was best known for its impressive collection of memorabilia -- including walls covered in autographed baseballs, displayed conspicuously in protective plastic cubes. More proper sports bar than glitzy hot spot, Foley's nonetheless was a must-visit for New Yorkers and interlopers alike, and was often frequented by both diehard sports fans, athletes, sports journalists, and the occasional sports-loving celebrity. "Thank you for one last time. All I'll say is, this is the end of the inning, but not the end of the game," Foley said. Foley bought the bar, then known as P.G. Kings, in 2004, The Athletic reported last month.

Trevor Bauer has paused his verbal assault of the Houston Astros to set his sights on one of baseball's most esteemed player agents. The Cincinnati Reds ace called out longtime agent Scott Boras in a pair of cryptic tweets on Wednesday, apparently taking issue to what he characterized as Boras' interference in the affairs of the players' union. Hearing a LOT of rumors about a certain player agent meddling in MLBPA affairs. If true — and at this point, these are only rumors — I have one thing to say... Scott Boras, rep your clients however you want to, but keep your damn personal agenda out of union business.— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 27, 2020Didn’t know he had a twitter account. Now that I know, @borascorp ...— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 27, 2020How exactly Boras was meddling, Bauer didn't say, but it was later reported on Thursday that Boras had advised his clients to turn down the MLB owners' most recent offer of an additional pay cut for players. Bauer's vague allegation comes at a fraught time for MLB and the MLBPA, amid very public negotiations over a potential return of play this summer. Most of the sniping has pitted players against owners, naturally, but Bauer's tweet suggests there is at least some debate within the ranks of the players. The owners recently proposed steep pay cuts, which was widely panned by players. Some dismissed it as bad faith bargaining and perhaps merely an underhanded attempt to divide the union. Bauer has been a fierce critic of the Astros, both before and after their cheating scandal was revealed. The right-hander recently ripped the team in a workout video in which he said their World Series was "illegitimate." Boras' status as the premier player agent behind some of the most lucrative contracts in baseball history has made him a polarizing figure in the milieu of a billion-dollar business. Boras has his own agency and is not an MLBPA official, but presumably he has some degree of influence given his standing in the industry. Boras' firm represented 71 players as of last September, the most in MLB, according to the Associated Press. Some of his top-dollar clients include Gerrit Cole, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, among others. Bauer reportedly changed agents after last season and is now represented by Luba Sports, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

The Major League Baseball owners and the players are in contract dispute, as the league, hopefully, prepares to begin a shortened 2020 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  USA Today's Bob Nightengale is extremely confident that a deal will get done.  "I'd be shocked if we're not playing baseball in July," Nightengale told 94WIP's Jon Marks and Ike Reese on Wednesday. "There is no hard deadline here. You could probably go up to June 6th and still get baseball in by the July 4th weekend. Worst comes to worst and they are still negotiating and the season is delayed a week. I think they will get this done for sure." The owners offered a "sliding-scale" salary structure, where the biggest stars take the largest pay-cut while lower-salaried players make a larger percentage of their expected wages. The owners offered a cut of playoff revenue as well, if postseason games are played. "The other few sports, those guys have already 75 to 80 percent of their pay checks," Nightengale said. "Everybody realizes the (MLB) teams are losing money. No one is gonna make money this year and so baseball owners are telling the players you have to do the same thing." The players met this proposal with outrage and it is easy to see why. The highest earners like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper would take nearly a 75% pay-cut. "I think they are saying here, we are trying to help out minimum salary guys and divide it up this way," Nightengale explained. "They are telling they union hey, if you want to do it differently, that's up to you. If you want to squeeze the younger guys and give more money to the most expensive players, go ahead and do it. I think it's just an idea thrown out that says if you don't like revenue sharing, how about doing a revenue-sharing thing this way. "There is flexibility on both sides," Nightengale explained. "The players don't want to take a pay-cut but realize it's better than sitting at home and not getting paid at all. The owners same thing. Let's face it, if there is no season this year, there will be no money in the offseason so the free agent class will get crushed. With no season, the owners won't get money from season ticket holders because the people will be so disgusted. They are highly motivated on both sides to get something done here. "They (owners) would (lose more money) because even with the short season like it is, the local TVs and sponsorship, they will get that money. But if there is no season at all, those guys would ask for their money back." LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

Having put a face to the baseball owners' worst intentions at the worst possible time, John Fisher will always regret at least in some way his decision to take the point. I mean, he'd been a convenient villain in that cartoon cheapskate sort of way, but he'd been outgrowing that, albeit slowly. Team success, even modified team success such as that of his Oakland Athletics, will do that for a fellow. But then he decided to furlough some low-level (read: vulnerable) workers. Then he decided not to pay rent on the Coliseum for the months that there's been no baseball. Then he decided to eliminate the $400/week stipend the players in the minor league system. Total cost: Maybe $3 million, or approximately 1/140th of his Forbes-guessed net worth of $2.1 billion. Well, fine and dandy then. An oligarch's gotta oligarch sometimes, especially if the other members of the oligarchy are planning to do the same thing eventually. And that may be the key here. In deciding to engage the players by offering eminently resistible proposals, the owners may be saying that they can take playing the games or not playing them, because either way they're willing to lose a cuff button on their weekend dress shirts. It's the joy of being a hardliner when it comes to other people's jobs because, hey, you got yours, largely through family money if not outright inheritance. But by being the first to say, "Hey, I have to squeeze from the bottom because times are hard, at least for people not me," Fisher has become a lightning rod for not only the players' position but also the game's designated tin ear. He is the face of, "Hey, YOU'RE in this together. Of all the blown opportunities this franchise has had in making itself a more central part of the Bay Area's portrait of sport, this is the one that may be hardest to reassemble. Makes you wonder if he wants to reassemble it at all. See, Fisher didn't have to be that guy. Other owners are always willing and able to be the pinata. Other owners like the limelight. Fisher has always avoided it as though it were high-level gamma rays from space, which has usually worked to his detriment but hey, not everyone has a tolerance for other people's prying eyes. He didn't have to furlough anyone, or stiff the landlord, or cut off the next group of players after this one leaves. And he definitely didn't have to put his name to that hamheaded "I confess to the murder" letter that will be forever stapled metaphorically to his office door like the 95 Theses. Instead, he looked after the short money once again, in the addled notion that it was money that could be saved in the longer run. It can't. Everyone is taking a beating on this, now and in the immediate future, and $3 million is a droplet of sweat in the Adriatic Sea. Fisher's play should have been to be the guy who comes out as at least a tepid benefactor both of the city where his factory is located and the game he claims he loves. He should have paid the money and not furloughed the workers; hell, he could have even said, "I'm doing this because I want people to think I'm a good guy" and gotten away with it, because people eagerly fall for even the transparent optic every time. But Fisher is also nobody's fool, and he may merely be advancing a greater yet no less disastrous  tactical plan. The hint here may well be that other teams are going to do the same thing, either to show the union how serious it is about burning down the factory to preserve it (not play games so as to lose less money than if they had played them before no fans), or in an attempt to frighten the lowest paid major leaguers into accepting an inherently punitive settlement to get back to work when the all-clear is sounded. This may be part of a grander plan for the entire sport — the one of the ownership that wants its sport to be the last to return. And even if that is a bit too tinfoil hat for your pro-management world, it still stinks of cynicism at the worst possible time even on this orbiting heap of fetid rot. It's bullying for the sake of showing people you can be a bully. It's withholding an amusement people say they could really use these days just for the little money that hasn't fallen down the sewer. It's the baseball decision of 30 years ago, when owners were meant to hate their employees and the customers who loved them. In any event, John Fisher had a choice — remain comfortably quiet and make a small but beneficial investment in his image and that of his organization, or worry about $3 million, give or take a few gift cards. He chose option (b), a disastrous decision that will mark him for years to come as the easiest caricature of the modern greedhead owner, at a time when there are plenty of others from which to choose. His only escape, really, is if one of his fellow 'garchs does the same thing, only more shabbily. I'd give it until Friday morning. Someone's bound to turn up. Someone always does.