The Future Blast is a brief segment that provides a speculative future version of baseball in the year that corresponds to the episode title. The name is patterned after that of its predecessor segment, the Past Blast. The Future Blast is provided by science fiction writer Rick Wilber, who was introduced in Episode 2023. The Future Blast ran as a segment on every episode from Episode 2024 through Episode 2060. After a hiatus, it returned in Episode 2074 as an occasional radio play co-authored with Alan Smale.
Segments[]
| Ep | Topics |
|---|---|
| 2024 | MLB adopts automatic ball/strike system with challenges; stolen bases skyrocket; Minor leagues expand use of designated pinch runner. |
| 2025 | Smart Glasses and a VR Future: Dodgers beat Rays in World Series; David Hamilton leads league w/ 122 stolen bases; Giants introduce smart glasses at Oracle Park. |
| 2026 | Designated Pinch Runner introduced in MLB; Ohtani wins MVP & Cy Young with Dodgers; Women play Division 1 & minor-league baseball. |
| 2027 | Las Vegas A's investigated for gambling scheme involving robo-umps; Sprinter Twanisha "Tee Tee" Terry wins inaugural Golden Spike award for base stealing. |
| 2028 | Elly De La Cruz puts up first 65/65 season; Apple's "Be There" System used in Atlantic League. |
| 2029 | Paul Skenes wins 29 for Nats, throws perfect game; Angels win World Series; Skenes signs deal 7-figure deal with Be There for 2030 season. |
| 2030 | Upgraded smart glasses in all MLB ballparks; Apple introduces Be There ProVision 12 goggles; 8,242 home runs hit in record "Home Run Season"; Elly De La Cruz hits 74 homers and steals 102 bases, leads Be There follower count; Ohtani & Dodgers win WS, beating Yankees. |
| 2031 | Luis Arraez hits .412 for Cardinals, wins NL MVP; Cardinals win WS, beating Red Sox; AI "Skip" managers introduced in Atlantic League, outperforming "meat" managers. |
| 2032 | Royals promote Kelsey Whitmore to interim manager, opens door further for women coaches; AI Skip managers introduced to MLB dugouts in advisory role; Jordan Lawlar hits .325/.399/.420 for Diamondbacks, steals 114 bases, leading American League in hitting; Designated Runner Kristen Diaz medals three times for Cuba in summer olympics. |
| 2033 | Jackson Holliday hits .365 with .550 OBP, wins AL MVP with White Sox; MLB investigates Be There reverse-signal cheating after suspicious incidents during pennant race. |
| 2034 | Ronald Acuña Jr. hits .395 with 39 HR, repeats as NL MVP for Atlanta Freedom, becomes first MLB billionaire through Be There revenue; Freedom win World Series, beating Nashville Rays; Yomiuri Giants beat Freedom in first Divisional World Playoffs; AI-managed clubs outperform Meat Managers; Continued concern about technology hacking and cheating, including deep-faked replays. |
| 2035 | MLB introduces one-umpire system, umpires and players in US, Asian, Carribean, and European divisions strike through mid-July after technical issues with system arise in Spring Training; strike ends after MLB agrees to have three human (Meat) umpires on field; Cardinals win World Series, beating Yankees; Dublin Rovers (IRE) and Estrellas Orientales (DOMR) reach Championship Series. |
| 2036 | Oldsters and Youngsters: Ronald Acuña Jr. signs 10-year contract with Dodgers at age 37; Shohei Ohtani wins NL MVP at age 41, 23-5 record, hit .325 with 53 HR; Giants draft 16-year-old DeMarcus Olivier in first round from Palo Alto High School, hits combined .387 and 43 HR in minors; White Sox win World Series, beating Mets in Jackson Holliday Game 7 walk-off (from Ep. 2033). |
| 2037 | DeMarcus Olivier made Giants roster as DH/utility player at age 17, hitting .387 with 38 HR by All-Star Break; Ronald Acuña Jr. and Roberto Osuna lead Dodgers past Giants to win NLCS. |
| 2038 | Hokkaido-Nippon Ham Fighters, led by 43-year-old Shohei Ohtani, becomes first international team to win World Series in expanded international format; Giants phenom DeMarcus Olivier tragically dies in car crash in November, after leading league in batting average and RBIs. |
| 2039 | Twanisha "Tee Tee" Terry retires after 12 seasons with Nashville Rays, stealing 1,952 bases in groundbreaking hall-of-fame career; London Monarchs defeat Rays in six games to win World Series; DeMarcus Olivier fans ("Olivias") continue to speculate on social media that Olivier is still alive and living in Palo Alto. |
| 2040 | MLB teams sign popular members of Oregon State's 4x100 women's relay team (the "Oregon State Four"), all reaching MLB by season's end, accumulating 624 stolen bases and 60 million BeThere followers; Austin Riley becomes oldest MVP ever at age 42, slashing .310/.401/.598 with 64 home runs for Rockies. |
| 2041 | Teams sign players from defunct women's USL Super League (soccer), which folded in competition with NWSL; Charlotte, Louisville, Portland, and San Antonio add expansion teams; Kenton McCloud leads Cleveland Guardians past Yomiuri Giants in four games to win World Series. |
| 2042 | Players turn off their BeThere in protest, San Francisco Giants defeat Yomiuri Giants in World Series. |
| 2043 | BeThere protests expand, knuckleballer Jordan Jantz becomes first woman to win Cy Young, White Sox win World Series over Yomiuri Giants. |
| 2044 | Baseball diplomacy tries to defuse military tensions between China and Taiwan, Angels reach ALCS, falling to the Yankees who win their 32nd World Series. |
| 2045 | Tensions between China and Taiwan escalate; Guardian face Mariners in World Series. |
| 2046 | Geopolitical tensions ramp up in China and cool off in Eastern Europe, Louisville Colonels win 115 games and defeat Brewers in World Series. |
| 2047 | Rookie pitcher Danny Skenes (nephew of Paul Skenes) takes Rangers into postseason; Kenton McLeod leads the Guardians to the World Series, where they lost to the Yomiuri Giants; players and coaches embroiled in Be There morals clause scandal. |
| 2048 | In the All-Star Game, three McCloud brothers start for the AL, designated runner Lauren Fields steals two bases, and first Finn and Thai players appear. Most players close Be There accounts when MLB investigates systems for privacy and deep fake hacking intrusions. |
| 2049 | Louisville Colonels reach World Series for the third season in a row, falling to the San Antonio Missions, the first World Series between 2042 expansion teams. Missions Designated Runner Olivia Garcia plays for Arsenal WFC in the off-season where she is also excellent. |
| 2050 | Controversial introduction of "The Clock", which imposes a time limit on games at 2 hours 15 minutes. |
| 2051 | Recreation of "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" on its 100th anniversary. |
| 2052 | Massive earthquake strikes St. Louis area, Cardinals reach NLCS. |
| 2053 | Cardinals refurbish new spring training location after previous season's earthquake, London Monarchs win World Series for second franchise championship. |
| 2054 | MLB expansion to Australia/New Zealand, and growth of baseball in South Africa. |
| 2055 | Players electing surgery to get better-than-natural tendons and ligaments. |
| 2056 | Neither offense nor defense gaining an edge from performance-enhancing surgeries. |
| 2057 | Concerns over tissue engineering for amateurs, Cardinals pitcher Elvis Marley wins 21 games. |
| 2058 | Real Madrid defeats AC Milan in European Division, goes on to defeat Dodgers to win the World Series. |
| 2059 | Yankees sign sluggers away from Real Madrid, for 5 years/$1.5 billion each, advance to ALCS but fall to Twins. |
| 2060 | Player returns to the game after spinal cord injury thanks to spinal implant technology, conspiracy theories surrounding object discovered entering the Solar System. |
| 2074 | Alien Baseball: During the 2074 World Series, a spacecraft dispatched to investigate the ʻOumuamua interstellar object receives a transmission from the space rock and lands at what appears to be a space port. |
| 2093 | After a prolonged absence, the alien being Felix returns to visit humanity and puts on a baseball exhibition on the Island Two Space Station, taking advantage of space station physics. |
Encyclopedia[]
A list of themes and topics discussed in Future Blast Segments:
Be There - "Be There" is a a product created by Apple and first introduced in the Atlantic League in 2028. Players wear motion sensors and sunglasses that hold smart glass cameras and mics and have their sight, sounds, and motion transmitted to fans at home wearing the Apple Vision Pro glasses and haptic sleeves and gloves. Fans can follow individual players and chat with other Be There users in real time. Despite the steep initial cost of $700 in 2028, the system was immediately popular with fans and players in the Atlantic League. Players signed individual contracts with Apple, and endorsement deals followed quickly, as advertisers saw the opportunity in marketing directly to a players followers.
The system reached the major leagues by 2030. Nationals pitcher Paul Skenes was an early adopter, signing a seven-figure contract with Apple ahead of 2030 spring training after a breakout 2029 season. He accumulated 115,000 followers by the start of spring training, and fans clamored for the opportunity to follow other stars, such as Ronald Acuña Jr. By midseason 2030, Acuña and other players had signed contracts as well, including Shohei Ohtani (3.4 million followers), Elly De La Cruz (2.6 million), and Aaron Judge (1.2 million). In 2032, followers gravitated to trailblazing female manager Kelsey Whitmore, who enjoyed watching her communicate with her assistant AI skip manager.
Designated Runners - In 2024, the minor leagues adopted the designated runner and limited pitchers to a single pitcher disengagement, rules introduced in the Atlantic League in 2023. By 2026, designated runners (and the single-disengagement rule) reached the major leagues. (Under the rule, a team can designate a bench player at the start of the game as the "designated runner," who can substitute in for any baserunner without removing the original runner from the game.) In 2027, MLB introduced the "Golden Spike" award for the player who stole the most bases.
The rule changes caused an explosion in the number of stolen bases, with top runners regularly stealing more than 100 bases a year, and was one factor that led to record-level scoring in the late 2020's and early 2030's. Some players, like Esteury Ruiz, successfully transitioned to a full-time designated runner role, but teams also began signing and promoting athletes from outside baseball. The new designated runner position was also a boon for gender equity in Major League baseball, as many of the most successful designated runners, such as 2027 Golden Spike winner Twanisha "Tee Tee" Terry and Cuban Olympian Kristen Diaz, were women. Sensing these changes, Scott Boras signed six top women sprinters as clients in 2026.