Yankees President Randy Levine on MLB Lockout: 'It’s Embarrassing to Be Where We Are'

New York Yankees president Randy Levine broke the silence from the league's side of things amid the ongoing MLB lockout.

Levine, the first MLB club official to speak on the record about the negotiations, said Monday on ESPN New York’s The Michael Kay Show (via Ryan Morik of SNY) that he was fed up with how things have gone so far and it's going to take some effort from both sides to get a deal done.

"We need to understand what is doable, what is possible and compromise," Levine said. "Everyone needs to compromise because this is a really bad thing to show our fans, to show people. It’s embarrassing to be where we are."

Perhaps giving some insight into how other owners are thinking, Levine explained that he feels the players are trying to overcompensate in these negotiations because they felt they were shorted in the previous collective bargaining agreement.

"Players are competitors, they’re about winning and losing, and I think some of the talk I’ve heard is about winning and losing," he said. "... Collective bargaining goes up and down. It’s incremental. You win some years, you lose some years, and when I say win or lose, that means you get that you want, you don’t get what you want, you compromise. It’s not a question of wins and losses on the scoreboard."

As the lockout continues, the regular season's opening series has already been canceled and more games are in danger of facing the same fate. Levine said he believes that owners are just as upset about the lost games as the players are.

"We're all sick to lose any games," Levine said. “We love this game. Losing any games is bad. Each game we lose, we lose a lot of money. Each game the players lose, they lose salary, that’s horrible. ... There is nobody I have spoken to in this game who is not sick to their stomach every time any game is canceled."

Levine expressed optimism that a deal will eventually get done, but he also addressed the possibility of the entire season getting canceled, a notion that he doesn't want to fathom.

"I don’t even want to think about that," Levine said. "I couldn’t think about that. That’s a mind-boggling, horrid, horrid thought. Shame on all of us if that ever gets to that. Shame on all of us."