DETROIT _ The Yankees won't play on that Sunday night without a fight.
Still irate over ESPN's decision from late last week to move their originally scheduled 1 p.m. game July 8 against the Blue Jays on "Sunday Night Baseball" meaning an 8 p.m. start and the possibility of playing three games in 24 hours _ the Yankees are hoping Commissioner Rob Manfred can broker a solution.
"The Commissioner's Office is involved and communicating with the parties that are impacted," MLB said in a statement.
But if some kind of agreement can't be reached with ESPN, the Yankees, who have a doubleheader scheduled in Baltimore July 9, are prepared to take retribution against the network.
"They'll get no cooperation," one source said of Yankees players and club personnel leading up to that July 8 game and beyond. "No interviews. No features. Nothing. Zero."
ESPN, under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between management and the MLBPA, had the right to flex the game to Sunday night.
But the Yankees are angry because when players voted to make up Thursday's postponed game in Baltimore on July 9 as part of a doubleheader, they did so assuming they were playing the day before at 1 p.m., the time listed on both team's schedules from the start of the regular season.
ESPN on Friday announced it was taking the Yankees/Blue Jays game for "Sunday Night Baseball," and the Players Association soon thereafter received a call from David Robertson, the Yankees player rep.
The MLBPA, according to a source, worked throughout the weekend trying to come up with a solution. Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner also is very much involved.
Overall, this is one of the few times management and players see an issue the same way.
"It's a health issue and an integrity of the game issue, playing three games in 24 hours, and there's no reason for it," another industry source said. "It's really (ESPN switching to another game) just common sense."
As of Monday afternoon, ESPN declined to comment on the matter.
"I don't have a sense, honestly, one way or the other," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday before the first of two games against the Tigers. "I know I said a couple things about it (Sunday), I stand by that. Hopefully it is something that gets worked out. But I also know it's way out of my hands and way out of my control, so it's time for me to move on and us to move on and just focus on what's in front of us."
