Is it harsh to suggest that Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, is a well-paid liar?
You tell me.
In March of 2017, Manfred said this: “Major League Baseball’s greatest responsibility is to ensure that today’s youth become active participants in our game as players and fans.”
He added that MLB is committed to “building a stronger connection between young people and the National Pastime.”
Wow. Very strong stuff.
After all, as “MLB’s greatest responsibility,” Manfred’s declaration represented a major shift in policy that, since 1988 when the World Series was completely removed from daytime view to become late primetime programming, told kids to get lost until they were old enough to spend a fortune on MLB products.
But since Manfred’s “greatest responsibility” declaration, MLB has only provided additional proof to the contrary, including a steady decrease in Saturday afternoon games to best serve the wants and revenues of MLB’s TV deals with Fox.
Last week, with the Mets having grown hot, MLB and ESPN announced that Sunday, Sept. 15’s Dodgers at Mets has been “slightly” changed — by six hours. Instead of a 1 p.m. start, it will begin at 7 p.m. in order to meet ESPN’s purchased authority over MLB.
The game, similar to what we’ve previously encountered, had been scheduled as a “Mets Family Day” come-on, but now, on a school/work night, those kids and their families could go to bait-and-switch hell.
There were other, more logical time-zone games for ESPN to choose from, but none featuring teams from the two largest TV money markets. So what Manfred declared as MLB’s “greatest responsibility” again was flicked to the gutter like a spent butt.
And the sports media, once relied upon by the public to represent its best interests and to shame those who’d mistreat them, remains largely compliant, with a shrug, a ho and a hum.
Not that MLB isn’t doing a few things on behalf of kids. In an ad campaign certified by Manfred, it’s selling moving images of MLB players performing acts of rank immodesty, including stand-and-pose cum bat-flipping — the kind that often ignites brawls — as the “fun” way for kids to play.
Not that current big leaguers approach the game in acts beyond hitting home runs or striking out trying, but, inspired by ESPN and MLB, this year’s Little League World Series will actually and shamelessly include a HR Derby for 12-year-olds. Seriously.
Anyway, what family of fans leaves big-league games displeased by three-hour rain delays followed four-hour games that allow plenty of time for the home team to vacuum their customers’ pockets to purchase hideously marked-up food and drinks?
Little League, municipal organizations, church groups and Boy Scouts troops no longer schedule bus trips to Mets or Yankees games having learned the hard way that Manfred’s MLB will pull the Sunday afternoon pre-paid rug from beneath them, leaving kids suckered after months of excited anticipation.
Heck, the Mets, under “greatest responsibility” Manfred, rarely play 1 p.m. Saturday home games — once a preposterous impossibility but now a standard form of bowing to TV revenue, to short-term, take-them-for-granted greed.
If kids are MLB’s “greatest responsibility,” as per Manfred’s soulful proclamation, why does all the hard evidence appear to the contrary?
As commissioners go — or used to go — Manfred seems more like a funeral director.
Keep it simple, Ruocco: Don’t need to sell viewers
Saving Ryan Ruocco: Is there no one at YES capable of sparing Ruocco from himself? If only he’d relax, stop reaching for dubious stats and trite descriptions of the evident — “flashing the leather,” “motors into third,” “takes him yard” — and cease trying to force interest among those already watching.
Monday, after Aaron Judge took a ball low on a 2-2 pitch, Ruocco, during a close-up on Judge, reported “a little smile from Aaron Judge.”
So little only Ruocco saw it. No such thing occurred.
New Normal Games of the Week: Wednesday, Jays 4-3 over the Rays. Two Jays — Derek Fisher and Teoscar Hernandez — each struck out three times. The Rays’ Ji-Man Choi four times. Totals: 15 hits, 25 strikeouts against nine pitchers.
Astros 3-1 over Mariners last Sunday: Against eight pitchers, a total of nine hits, 23 K’s. Six M’s struck out at least twice. DH Domingo Santana — the designated hitter! — three times.
Jets tickets no longer in high demand
Roger, Over and Out: To think that in 2009, the waiting list to buy Jets season tickets was years long. Then came Roger Goodell’s “good investments” PSLs, and the Jets, as of last week, are still soliciting the disenfranchised, trying to sell them season tickets by dangling expensive discounts.
Looking at Fox’s roster of filibustering NFL in-game analysts — Ronde Barber, Moose Johnston, Chris Spielman, Troy Aikman — think anyone at Fox has suggested they speak a bit less, this season? Same here.
Reader Greg Gillen: “Please tell me the 49-61 White Sox at the 32-76 Tigers, Tuesday, wasn’t a two-admissions doubleheader.” Oh, but it was.
Yet again, SNY needs a kick in the fanny to remind it that Mets “Encore” telecasts, later that night or the next morning, wreck it for those who avoided knowing the final score by placing it within SNY’s scrolls and inserts.
Boise State, school colors blue and orange, this football season will wear Nike black uniforms. Gee, that’s different.
In defense of ESPN, reader Timothy F. Caslin makes a good point: “Any network that thinks that Booger McFarland’s ‘Monday Night Football’ sideline buggy was a good idea is delusional, incapable of sane, rational thought.”
Hot as they’ve been, the Yanks remain in the habit of winding up a base short of where they should be. Aaron Boone, before it costs the Yanks plenty, could easily fix this — all managers could — but never has.
We continue to hear and read that MLB umpiring stinks. But reader Michael Kavanagh asks a practical question: How many would feel that way if the replay review umps had to make the second-opinion calls only in real time, as do the on-field umps, instead of acting on freeze-frame, multiple-angles slow-motion?
CNBC stock tout Jim Cramer is now fronting an NFL Fantasy gambling subscription service. Cramer’s past sports winner was Lenny Dykstra, who, with Mike Francesa and Chris Russo, he anointed an investment genius — before Dykstra was arrested, convicted and incarcerated for fraud.
Reader Malcolm MacKinnon was watching an NFL preview show when hit with the phrase “arm talent.” What does that mean? Well, Malcolm, it means nothing unless the QB exercises “eye discipline.”
Are you ready for some football? The Chargers, Thursday, were called for four penalties on one play, a punt. A replay challenge followed.
Reader Joe Miegoc: “Only on ESPN can you watch a repeat of NFL Live!”