Tag / Rob Manfred

by admin

A Changing Landscape

The national and streaming television landscape for Major League Baseball will be changing for 2026 as the league prepares to overhaul its approach starting in 2029.  This past February, ESPN opted out of the final three years of its deal with the league that would have paid MLB $550 million per year.  Those rights will be split up three ways for the next three seasons, with chunks going to ESPN, Netflix, and NBC/Peacock.  Between the three, MLB is expected to get $750 million per year in total over the next three seasons.

ESPN will receive a national 30-game package throughout the season available exclusively on ESPN’s television networks and streaming app.  They will also continue to carry the Little League Classic and will stream over 150 out-of-market games, one per day, via the ESPN app.  In addition, they will take over control of the out-of-market streaming capabilities available today through MLB.tv.  Details on how that will work were not made available at this time.

Netflix will get exclusive rights to the standalone Opening Day game in prime time, the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game.  No word yet on if they will produce these events in house and, if so, who the broadcasters may be.

NBC and its streaming app Peacock will become the new home of Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card round of the postseason.  The network will also take over the Sunday Leadoff game, a package that premiered on Peacock but has aired on Roku for the past two seasons.

The rest of the national agreements, with FOX, TBS, and Apple TV, will continue as is through 2028.  At that point, all of MLB’s television rights will be coming up together at the same time.  Commissioner Rob Manfred would like the league to control the local rights for all teams by that point, hoping a singular package will generate the most revenue.  Teams that have ownership stakes in their own local RSNs, like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, and Cubs, may not be aligned with this approach.

by admin

The Stars Will Shine At Wrigley In 2027

In a ceremony at Wrigley Field yesterday morning, Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the Cubs would host the 2027 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field on Tuesday, July 13.  Wrigley will become the third stadium to host four All-Star games, having previously hosted in 1947, 1962, and 1990.  “This is an honor for our team, our city and our state,” said Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts. “We can’t wait to showcase how we have preserved this iconic ballpark. Wrigley Field means so much to Cubs fans and millions of people who have visited what we believe is a baseball cathedral and one of Illinois’ top tourist destinations.

The very first All-Star Game was held in Chicago at Comiskey Park in 1933, as was the 50th anniversary game in 1983.  With just six years separating 2027 and 2033, it would be surprising, but not unprecedented, for Chicago to get the 100th anniversary game.

by admin

Eligible For The Hall

Last week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that anyone on the league’s permanently ineligible list that was now deceased would be removed, making them eligible for Hall of Fame consideration.  In a statement, Manfred said, “In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served.  Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game.”  Later in the statement, he said, “I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.”

The driving force behind this change was, of course, Pete Rose.  Rose, who died last September, agreed to be banned by then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 after a report by investigator John Dowd confirmed that he had bet on Reds games while he was the manager.  That agreement prohibited Dowd from further investigation which likely would have uncovered that Rose had bet on his team to lose.  Complicating matters, Giamatti died of a heart attack eight days later, making his successors hesitant to remove Rose from the ineligible list during his lifetime.

Along with Rose, this decision applies to 16 other deceased individuals, including members of the 1919 White Sox like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver, among others.  2028 would be the earliest any of the newly eligible players could be inducted into the Hall of Fame, as the Classic Baseball Era Committee will next meet and vote in December 2027.  The two most likely to get any consideration are Rose and Jackson, and neither is the shoe-in their supporters may think.

by admin

Back Up To Twelve

The Oakland A’s, formerly of Philadelphia and Kansas City, announced yesterday that they may be on the move again soon.  After a 20-year saga to find a new, publicly financed stadium in the Bay Area, the team has signed a binding agreement to purchase 49 acres in Las Vegas with the hopes of having a new stadium ready to start the 2027 season.  In a statement, commissioner Rob Manfred said: “We support the A’s turning their focus on Las Vegas and look forward to them bringing finality to this process by the end of the year.”

Removing Oakland from my active stadium count means I would now have twelve parks to get to in order to finish off the set.  I’ve made two trips to the stadium once known as Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, first in 1999 and again in 2008, seeing the Tigers and Orioles respectively.  Should this new stadium actually get built and a move actually take place, it would give me reason to visit Nevada for the first time since 2018.

by admin

Another Disastrous Outcome

A week after Commissioner Rob Manfred, with a telling smile on his face, announced he was cancelling the first two series of the regular season due to the ongoing lockout, the two sides are still without an agreement on a new CBA and MLB released a statement cancelling another two series.  In total, the first two weeks of the regular season have now been wiped out.

Locally, the White Sox will miss a road trip to Detroit to battle the Tigers and a home series against the Mariners at Guaranteed Rate Field.  If nothing else gets canceled, their new Opening Day would be on Friday, April 15 against the Rays.  The Cubs would lose a four-game series at Wrigley Field against the Brewers and a quick tilt against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

So where do things go from here?  Who knows?  The owners declined to counter to the MLBPA’s last, seemingly reasonable offer about an international draft.  How soon negotiations will start again is unknown at this point.  The longer this goes on, the longer I feel it will go on.

by admin

A Disastrous Outcome

For the first time since 1995, a work stoppage will wipe the scheduled Opening Day off the schedule for Major League Baseball.  Weeks after saying that missed regular season games would be “a disastrous outcome.” Commissioner Rob Manfred, with a telling smile on his face, announced he was cancelling the first two series of the regular season after the MLBPA (rightfully) turned down the so-called final offer from the owners yesterday afternoon.  With talks breaking down, the earliest the two sides will get back together is tomorrow.

Locally, both teams would lose two series against Central division foes.  The White Sox would miss out on the opening series against the Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field and a trip to Kansas City to face the Royals.  The Cubs would avoid opening the season at Great American Ballpark against the Reds and their home opening series versus the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.  Of course, there has been no mention yet of refunds for fans who bought tickets to those cancelled games.

Who knows what will happen at this point.  The owners won’t see any real financial pressure to start the season until late April, when they will have to start returning money to their television partners for missed games.  As we saw in 2020, when the pandemic shut down the sport for months on end, there are plenty of owners who would prefer to play the fewest number of games they can get away with and still make all of their money.  Of course, they could just lift the lockout and continue negotiating while the season played out, but that is only something mature adults might do.

by admin

Still Waiting

Yesterday’s deadline for a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement between the MLBPA and the owners and maintain a 162-game schedule has come and gone, with the only deal in place to push that deadline back to today at 5 PM Eastern.  After weeks of dragging their feet, the owners seemed willing to finally negotiate yesterday, and the negotiations went deep into the night (or early this morning).  Does that mean we are any closer to a deal?  Hard to tell.

Last month, Rob Manfred said it would be catastrophic for the game if the regular season was impacted.  Yesterday, the owners threatened to cancel the entire slate of April games.  That rhetoric seemed to calm down as the day wore on, but today will see if the owners truly understand the potential harm they are causing to the sport or if their only interest is in extracting as much money as they can and then dumping the husk on the next unsuspecting sucker who will reap what the current batch have sown.

by jim

Play Ball

After weeks of corona virus related delays and petty bickering back and forth with the MLB Player’s Association, MLB owners voted last night to proceed with an abbreviated 2020 season under the terms of their March 26th agreement.  The agreement gives Commissioner Rob Manfred the power to implement a schedule that will likely be between 50 – 60 games.  Because the two sides could not come to an agreement, none of the proposed changes (universal DH, expanded playoffs, uniform ads, extra innings nonsense) can be implemented.

The next step is for the MLBPA to determine if players can report for a second “spring” training starting on July 1 and to agree on the health and safety protocols.  Following that, a strange season will unfold starting in late July and grievances will be filed, followed by another winter of sanctimonious arguing leading in to a labor war that will engulf the 2021 season, the final season of the current CBA and will likely lead to the sport’s first work stoppage since the disastrous 1994 strike.  What a time to be a fan.

by admin

Trying To Come Back

Two weeks into what should have been the 2020 baseball season, MLB is looking at options to resume playing sooner rather than later.  The first proposal, to quarantine all 30 teams in the Phoenix area and play to empty ballparks, both Chase Field and the spring training complexes, leaked last week and was quickly pooh-poohed by Rob Manfred after some initial push back.

The newest proposal, which leaked out this morning, is even more radical: realignment for the 2020 season, with all teams based out of their spring training homes.  The American League and National League would be replaced by the Cactus League and Grapefruit League, with teams sorted geographically by the location of their facilities.  Like the earlier Arizona plan, games would be played in the team’s spring training stadiums, as well as the three major league facilities in the states.

Teams could play 12 games against each divisional opponent and six games against the other 10 teams in their league, creating a 108-game regular-season schedule, with the winner of each league facing off in the World Series in November.

This new plan removes some of the hurdles of the Arizona-only plan, with each team housed in familiar surroundings, but increases the risk of exposure to the corona virus by expanding the circle of quarantine necessary to keep players, staff, and other game day personnel safe.  While all of the Arizona-based teams are located in the greater-Phoenix area, the Florida teams are spread throughout the entire state.

As a fan, do I want baseball back?  Of course.  But bringing it back just to bring it back, before it is really safe to do so, not only puts players at risk, it puts the doctors and nurses in those communities at risk.  I don’t think that is worth it.

by admin

London Calling No More

The latest casualty of the corona virus pandemic is the June series in London between the Cubs and the Cardinals.  Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement yesterday in a message sent to MLB employees.  The league had previously announced the cancelation of series in Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Assuming the season starts at some point, those games will be played in St. Louis.

MLB played in Europe for the first time last June, when the Yankees swept a pair of games from the Red Sox in London.  No official word on 2021, but there is at least one report that MLB will try again next year with the Cubs and Cardinals.