Cue the Benny Hill theme music.

The MLBPA is countering Major League Baseball’s latest proposal, coming back with this, via Jeff Passan at ESPN:

The Major League Baseball Players Association has made a proposal to MLB for a season of 89 games, with a full prorated share of salary and expanded playoffs, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN on Tuesday.

It would bring the sides closer to a potential deal because it is 25 games fewer than the union’s most recent proposal of 114 games at full pro rata, sources told ESPN.

But an MLB source familiar with the negotiations told ESPN’s Karl Ravech that the proposal is a nonstarter.

“Out of concern for the players’ health, extending the regular season past Sept. 27 won’t happen,” the source told Ravech. “There is a window of playing between 60 [and] 70 regular-season games, but pay still remains an issue.”

Monday, the league proposed a season of 76 games, which players basically laughed off.

This union proposal would see the season begin July 10th and end in October, with an expanded postseason for this year and next year.

I guess the good news here is that we got a proposal early in the week from the league, then the union countered within 48 hours, so it would suggest that both sides are trying to move this thing forward, regardless of how far apart they might be. There does seem to be diminishing returns on each of these bits of news, however, as fans continue to roll their eyes and lose cumulatively more interest with each new proposal coming from either side.

“Just figure it out” seems to be the mindset among baseball fans right now.