Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and this is the Chuck Todd cast.

Major League Baseball and the Players Association have a deal for those of us who need our evening

baseball to decompress from the world that we cover every day.

We are thankful.

So baseball is coming back opening day, scheduled for April 7th.

So how did we get here?

We saw negotiations break down again and again, deadline after deadline was blown through.

The world watched in bizarre disbelief.

You might almost think it was a congressional negotiation.

It felt frankly very familiar, dysfunctionally familiar, if you will, to those of us in Washington.

So to up understand the backstory of somebody who was very aware of the dysfunctionality

of Washington, my guest today is Chelsea James.

She's the national baseball reporter for the Washington Post.

She knows a thing or two about the political world has done that beat too, so knows I think

with what I speak when I talk about the familiarity of dysfunction.

Chelsea, welcome.

I think welcome back to the Todd cast.

So yeah, let me start there.

You've lived in both of these worlds of politics and baseball.

There was something very last minute.

Don't focus on anything.

We'll do the lockout for two months, not worry about it until people actually start to

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