When a Baseball Lockout Complicates Christmas Dinner

Things got tricky when Cardinals second baseman Tommy Edman spent holiday time with his siblings, who were also employed by M.L.B. teams.

SAN DIEGO — The baseball lockout is complicated on many levels, but perhaps nowhere was it more convoluted than in the home of the Edmans in December.

In theory, anyway, Major League Baseball protocols prevented two of John and Maureen Edman’s children, who were working in analytics for major league organizations, from talking to the third, a switch-hitting infielder.

“It definitely was a weird scenario,” John Edman said over coffee this month. “They joked about it quite a bit.”