More people than ever tuned into this year’s World Baseball Classic championship game. Tuesday’s final between Team USA and Venezuela drew 10,784,000 viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes, making it the most-watched game in the tournament’s history, Fox Sports PR posted said on Thursday. This is up a whopping 128 percent jump from 2023’s championship … Read more
Why continue to treat baseball fans — or try to attract new ones — with images of rank public immodesty rather than with genuinely skillful baseball? Source link #MLB #served #showcasing #fundamentals #worthless #selfaggrandizement
MLB is about to toss a changeup with its media partnerships. Apple TV+ potentially could soon end its union with MLB and Netflix is set to acquire the Home Run Derby, among a myriad of changes, according to Yahoo. Netflix acquiring the summer extravaganza and MLB TV being sold to ESPN for a large payment … Read more
Look away, Rob Manfred. Former NFL quarterback-turned-media personality Cam Newton has read the room and forecasts that, two decades from now, the WNBA will be more popular than Major League Baseball. “Who’s really paying attention to baseball — especially paying attention to baseball in the regular season?” Newton asked during a recent episode of his … Read more
You see it all game, every game. It’s like the thanks-for-nothing, “They move the chains,” replacing the useful “first down” and the yardage gained. It’s tired, repetitive and poorly designed to sound hip. Source link #Athletes #stop #immodestly #foolish #ways
Rob Manfred’s initial reaction to the “Golden At-Bat” rule was similar to most people’s when they first heard the idea. While a guest on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” in 2015, Manfred completely dismissed the idea of any batter coming up in a given situation during a baseball game, a notion that has … Read more
The Yankees and Mets are engaged in their fiercest battle since 2000 as they duke it out for Juan Soto, but there’s an entirely different off-field issue that the teams’ broadcasters are sparring over. After YES Network’s Michael Kay hit out at Mets radio voice Howie Rose over his opposing stance on MLB’s “Golden at-bat” … Read more
Michael Kay stood up for Rob Manfred’s “golden” idea that has risen to prominence over the last week. Comments by the MLB commish about the “buzz” around the “Golden At-Bat Rule” on “The Varsity” podcast released last month have garnered plenty of headlines in recent days. The potential idea, which is still in the “conversation-only … Read more
It’s not too early for MLB and its partner TV networks to start working on next season. First step: Change the in-game disclaimer from “Any rebroadcast, retransmission or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited” to be more realistic, as if anyone would steal what MLB, ESPN, … Read more
Tuesday from ESPN’s on-site Stanley Cup Final, studio host Steve Levy delivered the news that Willie Mays had died: “The Say Hey Kid, is gone. Too soon. Willie Mays has passed away tonight at the age of 93.” Too soon? Perhaps Levy had the over 94 in a BetESPN parlay. Not that I’ve ever been … Read more
Good things come to those who wait. At least to those who wait it out. MLB on Friday night was forced to show the Dodgers-Yankees to the nation’s two largest TV markets on both YES and L.A.’s cable network, as well as on a previously exclusive paywalled streaming service, because Rob Manfred and Associates bit … Read more
The kids in our neighborhood, this time of year, would envy the kids in Cincinnati. No foolin’. There was a wonderful tradition back then, before MLB placed a price tag on everything and marked up its soul for sale to TV, then pay-more cable, and now whatever it can get via streaming — even if … Read more
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred joins Andrew Marchand and John Ourand on this week’s show for a half-hour interview. During the sit-down interview, Manfred goes deep into the future of local media, blackouts, Apple, Peacock, ESPN, fragmentation, Yankees TV, what the future of sports gambling will look like, how a different pitch clock was considered for … Read more