PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - MLB stars in the olympics? How Rob Manfred and co. could finally make it happen

Starting point is 00:00:07 Hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am still your mayor of PHNX until someone finally knocks me off of this throne that I currently sit on. And to keep me here is the one and only vice mayor himself, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, I expect that you will continue to watch my back when it comes to this mayoral situation, but it feels like Espo is gutting for me. So I imagine eventually you're going to turn on me, right? That's where this eventually leads to.

Starting point is 00:00:44 It is election season, Derek. So, you know, I'll go to the highest bidder, you know, whoever pays the most for my endorsement. We'll see, we'll see where things, how things turn out. Well, I will say it's also almost time for the Olympics, which is going to be a very, fun time in sports if you're a big sports fan and major league baseball has been in discussions to possibly expand how involved they are with the olympics when they returned to the united

Starting point is 00:01:19 states in twenty twenty eight in los angeles now obviously we know a big problem here with the olympics is the fact that they take place during the middle of the baseball season and much like participation in the world baseball classic, it's not really been a thing in the past that you've really seen the superstars of Major League Baseball participate in something like this due to when it takes place and kind of how it conflicts with their regular season. However, it would appear that some Major League Baseball owners, according to this article in The Athletic.com,

Starting point is 00:02:00 are becoming increasingly supportive of sending major leaguers to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. So what are your thoughts overall on this move? And is this something feasible that Major League Baseball could even figure out? It'd be really cool. I would love to see, you know, the star players of Major League Baseball participating in the Olympics. Baseball is going to be a feature of the Olympics in 2028 no matter what. it's just a matter of whether, you know, the extent to which Major League Baseball players are able to participate. And this is, this is something that I've wanted for a while.

Starting point is 00:02:38 Like, I mean, the World Baseball Classic is great and it kind of serves a similar purpose, I think, in some ways. But participation there has also been, has also been a little bit limited. It happens at a very awkward time of year, you know, in spring training. It kind of conflicts with with guys' schedules building up and whatnot. not for the season. And yeah, the Olympics are in an especially difficult time where it is right smack dab in the middle of the season. Not only would teams be taking a risk from an injury standpoint by having players participate

Starting point is 00:03:12 there, but there's also the reality of the All-Star break that happens. That happens right around the same time. Eventually, I'll get my voice completely back there. We're not quite there yet. This week has been a lot of fun for me. We don't have a lot of time until you have to be in top form. Pitchers and catchers, you know, report on Wednesday, so get your shit together. This is, that's, that's fair.

Starting point is 00:03:35 So, yeah, I think, you know, the, the all-star break is a big, is a big variable here. You know, is Major League Baseball willing to, you know, take a larger break so that they can have the usual all-star festivities along with, you know, five or six days, it sounds like, is what would be needed for participating in these Olympic games, you know, do, it does, Does this Olympic games, do these Olympic games take the place of the usual all-star festivities the Major League Baseball would have? That's another option. I kind of have my doubts about, you know, owners and players wanting to do that.

Starting point is 00:04:14 But I guess that's another thing that could be considered. There's a bigger thing here, much like the World Baseball Classic in growing the sport of baseball and trying to get, you know, the popularity back, right? Or trying to increase the popularity of the sport. You saw a big increase in people watching the WBC, but a big part of that this particular year was the involvement of major players, major superstars from Major League Baseball. And that was what really defined it.

Starting point is 00:04:50 I think people have found the World Baseball Classic to be cool in the past. past. And a lot of times the participants were some older legends and things like that. That's what kind of made it a little exciting. You would every once in a while have a guy that was very, very good participating, but just not the amount of star players that we saw this particular year, the Shohei Otanis, the Mike Trout. I promise there's other guys that I could name that just weren't all just on the angels. But I mean, for the most part, you get it. We had our very own Merrill Kelly, which he got poked fun at a little bit for. being, you know, one of the starters and one of the guys that was not a really well-known name on,

Starting point is 00:05:31 you know, in the starting pitching rotation. But to be honest, this was the most exciting mix of MLB players we've ever seen in a tournament like this. You're right. There is a risk of these guys getting injured, but there's a risk of guys getting injured in spring training. There's a risk of guys getting injured, just doing their personal, you know, offseason workouts. And, of course, during the rigorous 162 game season, there is a risk of injury every single day. It's just that added risk of doing something that is outside of your team in any way that that then could potentially keep you from returning or keep you maybe from playing the rest of the season, something like that. that's that's kind of where I can see you know the the intrepidation the desire to not necessarily let your big stars you know go participate sports are like that man every day that you go out there and play a sport you are taking a risk that you could be injured but I think there are a lot of players that are willing to forgo that it's not like they have to be we're not going to force them to go beyond the United States Olympic team it's going to be a voluntary thing so it's up to the players to

Starting point is 00:06:48 decide. I think you're right, though. There is something to be said about like the All-Star Break or how they fit this into the season. I honestly think that there's an awesome opportunity there for them to partner with the Olympics and just hold the All-Star festivities in Los Angeles and still have a home run derby at Dodger Stadium and still have all of that stuff while those guys are there. This tournament wouldn't be a very long tournament, according to this article the proposition here by it's Casey Wasserman from the Wasserman agency, the chairperson of a group that spearheaded bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles in 2020, in fact,

Starting point is 00:07:30 discussed a tournament with owners that could include six or eight countries, three meeting attendees told the athletic disinformation. So, I mean, there is definitely the ability for them to have a tournament like this in the Olympics, have it include big names, but not have it take a tremendous amount of time and not interrupt the season a great deal. Yeah, yeah, I mean, five or six days is sort of the proposal that was made here. It sounds like Casey Wasserman is kind of, as you said, spearheading, you know, trying to kind of pitch all the owners on this. I believe this was a presentation made at the owners meetings a few days ago out in Florida.

Starting point is 00:08:13 and yeah, I mean, the Olympic Games are scheduled to run from July 14th to July 30th of 2028. So it does kind of overlap with generally, you know, the time frame that we usually see the All-Star Break played in. But yeah, is there a way to kind of combine forces there? Evangrelic who wrote this story at The Athletic also mentions the idea of shortening the regular season. You know, maybe you're adding a few games here, but maybe you subtract a few games from the regular their season schedule. Obviously, in doing that, you're, you're probably leaving revenue on the table. So maybe, you know, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think it be 162 games. Come on. We can reduce it by a few. At least the one, like, it's, this isn't every year. This is going to happen once every four years.

Starting point is 00:09:01 So it's like that year, you can make some adjustments or, or maybe, you know, especially like I've said in the past, especially now that the 162 game season doesn't actually impact, you know, the play as much, right? You're not playing your own division so much of that 162 game season. You're not only playing your league. You're not, you know, with all of this, with this way the scheduling is now and the way that you play every team in baseball, I just feel like there's no need, you know, for the 162 game season like there used to be. There actually was a purpose to that baseball season being so long, but you can shorten it just like you were able to make some changes to the rules and still have people be fine with it and still not have this massive loss of income due to it. Yeah, it wouldn't be a massive loss.

Starting point is 00:10:03 I mean, I think it. But it's any loss, right? It's any loss is going to require, you know, they're going to have to be pitched on why that is a loss worth taking on. I don't know if there's money to be made for Major League Baseball in the Olympics. Maybe they can recoup some of that. I have a theory. I have an idea. Take those games when you take them out.

Starting point is 00:10:29 And I mean, maybe, because the weird part is, is then you're going to have to deal with, like, records and stuff from, season to season and why are these seasons less games than the other reasons. I'm so out on 158 game season. I'm going to be infuriated when a team goes like 84 and 74 and the season is over. It's right. It would just drive me absolutely insane. Right. Right. I was going to say for the loss of revenue, you could move those to exhibition games like spring training style games just make spring training a little longer, you know, three, four games. Like we're talking about taking four games out of the regular season, put them in the

Starting point is 00:11:05 beginning. People are very excited about baseball at the beginning of the year, but it's at Cactus league or Grapefruit League ballparks, you know, and then they usually move back to the home stadium for just like maybe one or two games before the regular season starts. Have those games. You know, put some more games there at the home stadium prior to the season starting when people are still very excited. Do people really care about those games, though? Like I was at, I was at those games to the devax, like the annual DVACs games, games. Does anyone really care about the exhibition game at Chase Field before the season starts? I'm not sure how much revenue you're really recouping by doing it.

Starting point is 00:11:44 I don't know how much revenue you're losing from shaving off a few games in the middle of freaking July either. That's fair. I'm just saying there's a little bit more excitement for most franchises at that point than there is in the middle of July. So you can just kind of counterbalance it there by having some exhibition games that aren't going to extend the season and you can have, I don't know, you know, you're going to be missing some guys, but then that way missing those guys doesn't actually impact, you know, the season

Starting point is 00:12:13 in any way. You're just missing them for, you know, you know, you're not missing any guys. In fact, I mean, that's still just spring training games. So those guys will be available to you. You're just extending out the All-Star break or whatever. I just think this is so good for baseball. The WBC was so good for baseball. That's the bigger thing here that I think Rob Manfred, is it has to contemplate here in regards to making changes here to adapt to this. Baseball, MLB needs to adapt to this. And again, I think the players are all in on it. I think there's a lot of players that would want to participate in this.

Starting point is 00:12:50 They will want to wear their country's name across their chest, and they want to do it for the pride of being in the Olympics. That's still something that a lot of people very much would like an opportunity to participate in. And I'm sure there's a lot of very, very good baseball players that would like to represent their countries in the Olympics. Yeah. Yeah, the Olympics would just be like for as great as the world baseball classic is. I think it's always going to be inherently limited by the fact that it's in March. It's at an awkward time of the year.

Starting point is 00:13:20 Yeah. Pitchers in particular at that point in the year are not stretched out. You're not getting, you know, you're not getting six or seven innings from a starting pitcher. You're getting like two or three. they're only throwing like 40 pitches at that point. It's a little bit of an awkward fit. Whereas if you did this at the Olympics, then, you know, guys are truly in mid-season form at that point. It is literally in the middle of the season.

Starting point is 00:13:46 And I think there would be, you know, it would just be that much more spectacle to see the, you know, the biggest stars of the sport participating in something like that. I am curious your perspective on if you would be. willing to cancel the All-Star break altogether. Because my inclination is that on the owner's side, they're not going to want to reduce the number of games played because that's going to be less money in their pockets. On the player's side, they're probably not going to want to just add something additional to the calendar without removing something else because it's just a longer season for them. So it might be that the compromises, we just have to bypass the regular All-Star break for a

Starting point is 00:14:28 year. Maybe there's still a way to have a home run derby or something at some point. Maybe you can still do part of it, but you wouldn't maybe have traditional All-Star games set up or you'd have to abbreviate the events, at least in some way. Is that a sacrifice that you would be willing to make in order to make this happen? Yeah, I think for the most part, the All-Star game, I still can't believe that home field advantage at one point in baseball was actually determined by the All-Star game. That's still just insane to think about. But It's just an exhibition game. I mean, you are turning it back around on the fans and saying,

Starting point is 00:15:03 okay, if you want the players to participate in the Olympics, then you as a fan have to sacrifice something here. And that sacrifice would be that we don't hold the All-Star game. That's a tough ask. That's a tough ask for some of the players that would possibly make the All-Star game that year. Right? Like those guys, you never know when you're going to have an All-Star season. Some guys have them all the time.

Starting point is 00:15:26 Some guys just get one. And that all-star season could be the year that they bypassed, you know, the game, that would suck. You know, you're hit 323 with like 25 home runs in the first half and they're like, sorry, this is the Olympics year, you know. Oh, and you're also not invited by your country to be on the other than on top of that. Like, you know, there's something to be said there about that. I think it's, it does, it is complicated. And I think essentially the big sacrifice would have to be made by those players who would want to essentially volunteer and do that. And I mean, maybe that would be the sacrifices.

Starting point is 00:16:05 It happens at the same time as the All-Star game. So then you just have to deal with the fact that if you're an All-Star, you're giving up your opportunity to participate in that game and you're going to go represent your country in the Olympics. So then we're going to have a lot of guys that will then be replaced by other guys that will get an opportunity to be in the All-Star game. That's not the worst thing either. It's kind of like you guys get a world stage over here representing the United States or representing Japan. Meanwhile, you guys over here might get an opportunity to participate in an All-Star game that you wouldn't have had otherwise just based on the fact that so many players are missing during this time. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:16:42 It's definitely going to be a sacrifice one way or another no matter what in order for it to work. I think, though, that it is important. I think it's important to figure out a way. And that's something that, you know, again, we're going to talk about Rob Manfred here and some other comments he made, taking his own victory lap on some of the accomplishments. You know, MLB's made in the last few years. But, you know, that that would be a huge accomplishment. I think that that would be something to really hang your hat on as a commissioner as well as, you know, some other things that he could possibly have in the works before he exits out in his time with MLB. I just, I think this is big for, for baseball. Like, it's not even just big for major league baseball. It's big for baseball. But like, again, the World Baseball Classic was so much fun because of who participated.

Starting point is 00:17:35 And this does need the best players in the world in order for it to work. Yeah. Yeah, I think another idea floated in here was the, you know, the World Baseball Classic, which will happen in 2026. that serving is like a qualifying tournament for the Olympics a couple of years later. That would be kind of a fun way to add even more meaning to the WBC. Now we're talking. You know, the one thing is that baseball doesn't have a lot of like big events that you get excited for, right?

Starting point is 00:18:13 I make the comparison. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I love the. winter classic. And sometimes when you can have some marquee events to look forward to, it's a big part of being a fan. People look forward to the All-Star game. People look forward to the home run derby. That's something that a lot of like casual fans that don't maybe watch the entire season really, really do look forward to. So that's something that you don't really want to take away from people because baseball doesn't have a lot of those, right? But outside of actual regular season games and playoff games and such, the WBC is one of those events that brought

Starting point is 00:18:47 the world together, brought a lot of people together. I mean, made new fans of all sorts of different players that got an opportunity to be seen. You know, Alec Thomas is, you know, a hero in Mexico. I don't think the man's ever spent one minute in the country. I don't know. You know, it's incredible, right? So, no, I joke about that. But, like, yeah, there's definitely some big things to be said about, you know, these tournaments

Starting point is 00:19:10 and how they could impact people, you know, again, enjoying baseball and getting on board, becoming a fan, right? Yeah. But we hope very much that you are on board with us. We appreciate you guys listening to this audio-only podcast. Of course, if you have not subscribed, I have no idea how you found this podcast, but thank you for being here.

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Starting point is 00:19:46 diehards. If you are not a diehard, make sure to join us over here. I hosted my first, my first, the first. It's my first. It's the first edition of any pH and X game show. Squeeze play. We had a lot of fun. Shout out to Justin on his victory. Again, really enjoyed that. Of course, if you are not a die hard, you're missing out on all this extra stuff we have for you in the Discord. You're missing out on Jesse's written content. You are missing out on a lot of things, including discounts with our partners and discounts on our like our upcoming takeover at Chase Field at the pool. We got to get a name for that, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:20:21 We got to start calling that event something. I know they're going to call it something like, you know, takeover at Chase Field. It's going to be something just generic like that. We got to call it something specifically like the school at the pool or something. I don't know. We've got a workshop. We got a lot of workshopping to do with that.

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Starting point is 00:21:02 Jesse, we talked a little bit there about obviously Rob Manfred and his part in the major league baseball coming to the Olympics. But again, he did take a little bit of a victory lap talking a bit of. about the accomplishments of Major League Baseball in regards to their demographic and kind of in just getting a little bit younger with some of their fans and just improving especially attendance at games this year. And it feels like the moves that they made, especially with the rule changes, have been a success. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:37 He pointed out a few pieces of propaganda on the part of the major league days. Of you selected bright spots, right? I mean, I think, I mean, that the rule changes, you know, by and large were, were an extreme success for the sport. So I don't think this is completely outrageous. But, yeah, a few things that he mentioned. MLB had 26 teams increase their attendance in 2023. The Diamondback is certainly one of them.

Starting point is 00:22:10 That's a pretty impressive figure. Between 2018 and 2022, that's a five-year. year span. MLB had five weekends where the league drew 1.5 million in attendance. The league had 11 of those just last year. So five of those in a five year span. I remember they patted themselves on the back on social media about those every time they happened. And it seemed like it was frequent, right? Like there was a lot of weekends where they were talking about how many sellouts there were across baseball or just how many total fans they had. Like it was, it definitely, felt like baseball was back this year.

Starting point is 00:22:48 Yeah, yeah. And particularly for a younger audience, that's a big point of emphasis for major league baseball for sure. There were a couple of stats brought up along those lines. Manfred said that in the age 18 to 35 group, that age group, the percentage of tickets sold is up. The percentage of tickets sold is up 10% over the last four years. He also said the league's median ticket age has gone from 51,

Starting point is 00:23:15 back in 2019 to 45. He called that a really significant change. So yeah, Major League Baseball seems to be appealing to a younger audience. That is a good thing for the sport. I mean, that is something that has been a primary concern for Major League Baseball for a number of years. And there's still certainly some room for improvement as far as attracting younger fans to the sport. But it seems like, based on these numbers, it seems like Major League Baseball has made positive strides in that direction.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Jesse, there's another event that coincides with that time frame. I think you're aware of. Well, we launched in 2021, Eric. So we're a little of a, not quite four years ago. But yes, it is true. The P.HNX Diamondbacks podcast is a primary reason for the upkick and interest from younger audiences, absolutely. Especially in the Diamondbacks community.

Starting point is 00:24:12 Come on now. We built this. This wasn't here before. us, right? That's the video Sean sends us. I don't think it would have made the World Series without us, Derek. I mean, no, absolutely. Are you kidding me? Without Jesse Jr.? You're crazy. Without the swears jar and without me taking my shirt off at some point, without the, without the beer bat? Come on, come on. The minute cogs hooked me up with that beer bet. It was over. We had all the, we had all the juice coming our way. But no, I mean, there is a couple of factors. Obviously,

Starting point is 00:24:46 baseball, you know, being, the rule changes have really impacted people's enjoyment of the game. People really do like watching baseball games more. They're shorter. There's more action going on. There's more stolen bases. You know, people were like,

Starting point is 00:25:02 the bases are the size of pizza boxes now. And then they were tuning in just to see that, which would be, that would have been an awesome improvement, by the way, if they just really made them pizza boxes, like filled with pizza, like you had to eat a slice, two slices of pizza before you could advance on the base path. That's the part of the new rules as well. That would have been awesome. He's got guys like vomiting left and right after circling the days.

Starting point is 00:25:25 He would have been a monster. He would have got so many RBI. But no, so, you know, I think I think the rule changes definitely are a big reason why. You know, people are back. People are interested in baseball again. And they, there was a feeling amongst, you know, your casual sports fan that didn't, really watch baseball games that your average game was four hours long. And I'm not joking about that. I had several people that don't really watch baseball tell me like, aren't baseball games like four hours long? So, you know, that was the perception of baseball that it was extremely long. So I do think that that had played a big factor. I think something else, though, that at least last year

Starting point is 00:26:05 felt big was the amount of young stars. Like it's, it's exciting to see young. young new stars playing for your team, playing for other teams. It felt like there was like 30, you know, superstars under 25 years old. And that was just on the Cincinnati Reds alone, you know. So it was like this was something that in baseball, it felt like the stars, you know, were younger. They're new.

Starting point is 00:26:37 People are excited about that. Like there's something to be said about that, you know, driving a younger demographic to be interested. in baseball. They also, you know, did a better job of highlighting those guys. I mean, there was a lot of talk. Every time some new guy came up and kind of became the talk of the town, they, they absolutely publicized it and made a big deal out of them and, and, you know, got, got their name out there. And, and they've done a better job of, of that as far as marketing their athletes and making them become superstars. Yeah, I think that's, I mean, that's been a

Starting point is 00:27:08 criticism of baseball for a while that the young superstars that the game does have are not being marketed as well as you see happening in other sports. And I do think Major League Baseball has taken some steps in trying to do that. I mean, we've seen a lot of a lot of footage of Corbyn Carol interviews coming out of like the main MLB. Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. TikTok accounts. They, you know, that kind of thing is becoming more common. Major League Baseball is aware. We need to be creating content centered around not just our game, not just the teams, but the players, the personalities, you know, the people behind the athlete that you see, you know, tearing it up on the field every day. So I think it has been a concerted effort by baseball. You're also seeing some of the younger up-and-coming stars in the games sign long-term deals with their teams.

Starting point is 00:27:59 I think is another really positive thing for the game. You know, we saw that with Bobby Wood Jr. just the other day, Corbyn Carroll, of course, Julio. with the Mariners. I think those deals are all good for baseball as well. I don't have like, I haven't really looked into it. I don't have like objective data about, you know, are there more young superstars in the game today than there have been in the past? I know the sport is, I don't think it's that.

Starting point is 00:28:23 I don't think it's like more because I think that there were, I think there have been eras in baseball where there were like a group of guys that came up and all of a sudden, you know, these couple of, you know, this group of guys under 25 are all of a sudden the talk of baseball. It's just, it's so different from other sports. When you talk about that median age lowering from 51 down to what was it, 46 or 45, you know, and, and Manfred saying that's a significant change, right? That is because other sports, I feel like, have young stars that become stars faster.

Starting point is 00:29:02 You know, you have somebody get drafted in basketball. they're impacting their team winning games that season. You know, they might mature into full, full blown superstar, their first year of playing basketball in the NBA, which is their first year of getting drafted. You know, and baseball just doesn't have that. The amount of time it takes for a guy to be, from the time they're drafted,

Starting point is 00:29:26 to be a guy contributing to the major league roster so long that some fans just forget that person even exists. like, oh, you know, Drew Jones, I remember when we drafted him a decade ago, you know, like, that's what it's like when they finally get called up. I mean, you have your anomalies, you have your guys like Corbyn Carroll that get through the, you know, the system fast. And then that's kind of why he's become such a young superstar, you know, at the age he's at. But Diamondbacks have a bunch of guys right there at the same age as Corbyn, who were all kind

Starting point is 00:29:59 of blossoming into, you know, becoming stars. So I just do feel like baseball suffers from that when it comes to the guys getting drafted, the excitement around them, and then how long it takes to see them playing baseball competitively at a major league level. Yeah, it would really be nice if baseball didn't have to deal with that problem. Like if you were just drafting dudes out of high school and they were hitting dingers and, you know, doing the thing in the majors within a few months, that's something that the NBA and the NFL have. I mean, college is certainly still a factor, but the pathway from, you know, from, you know, being an amateur to being a pro in those sports is just, it's just an easier, simpler path. Whereas in baseball, you see guys, you know, trying to find their way in the minors for five, six years sometimes.

Starting point is 00:30:50 And you kind of just lose track of draft prospects that you were once really excited about. It's just kind of part of the nature of the game that is never going to be an ideal thing. for baseball. But yeah, the point is once they get to the majors and once they do blossom into the stars that, you know, you maybe always thought they could be, that's when you really have to capitalize and you really have to promote them and you really have to make sure that everyone knows their name, you know, put their face everywhere, you know, do all of the things you can do to try to get their name, their brand, their personality out there so that people can fall in love, not just with the player on the field, but the person behind that player. I think that's a, that's a

Starting point is 00:31:29 really powerful thing for baseball to do. And that's right now why the Diamondbacks fan base is growing and so exciting to be a part of, right, is we don't just have one guy. We don't have one guy. We don't have two guys. We have like 16 guys that are all young. They're all just now, you know, making their major league debuts and playing in their first, you know, meaningful major league games.

Starting point is 00:31:55 And now the next thing you know, we're in the playoffs and they are winning. playoff games and making it all the way to the World Series. It was a wild year last year. And honestly, it's a really fun time and exciting time to watch this team and to watch baseball. You know, I think there's lots of reasons to be excited about it. But I know, I know a big reason to be excited about it, this podcast. It's right. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. But, you know, again, we talked about Rob Bannfred and the fact he doesn't have a lot of time left, right? He has about five years left and he kind of made some comments, uh,

Starting point is 00:32:33 when, especially, especially when asked about some of the more negative stuff in baseball as of late, right? Uh, he basically made some comments alluding to maybe wrapping up his time with baseball. And, uh, you know,

Starting point is 00:32:45 by the time his term is over, he'd be 70 years old. So it makes all the sense in the world. But there, there are a couple of things I think he can accomplish that would really just help cement his legacy and how much he impacted baseball. I think those changes. weren't easy to make.

Starting point is 00:33:01 You know, baseball is such a time-tested traditional sport that making those changes were, it felt like they resisted them for years, just like changing the DH in the National League, and then they just did it, and then nobody cared, right? Like, it's like, it was like, there's all this debate,

Starting point is 00:33:19 there's all this discourse about it, and then they just do it, and they're like, yeah, you know what, you were right, it's better, right? And same thing with the rules. So I think Rob Manfred's legacy is, is fairly secure in some of the improvements he made. But, you know, again, there's a lot of people that don't like him.

Starting point is 00:33:34 They don't feel like it's like being an owner. It's hard to ever really, you know, if you, if you don't deliver 10 World Series Championships, you were a terrible owner and you pinch pennies and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, I think Rob Manfred did his best to kind of grow the game, do some things, right, make it, make it better, make it safer. And also, you know, there's some comments he made potentially about expansion taking a while. I know the Portland group already bought some land in Portland, which is just crazy. But again, there's potentially, you know, he could leave with having increased the number of teams in baseball and really just have had a solid career as the commissioner of this league.

Starting point is 00:34:17 Yeah, I don't know how positively Rob Manfred is viewed like in the public high overall. I wish on like 538.com they had like approval ratings for the. the MLB commissioner next to the three ratings for the president of the United States. He's just so less problematic than Bud Sealing. Like Bud Siegling was just embroiled in turmoil, you know, and there was just all this stuff about all of the PED usage and all this other stuff, right? So it was like that it's been different because Rob Manfred, I felt like for the most part has made an attempt to, you know,

Starting point is 00:34:49 kind of like what Mike Hazen has had to do from rebounding from the previous regime, right? It's like Rob Manfred has almost spent his entire time as, commissioner kind of trying to rebound baseball's, you know, reputation from the entire time that that Bud C league was the commissioner of baseball. So like, I don't know. I mean, it's, it's been an interesting thing to watch him because I've never really disliked him. I've never thought what he has done has been tremendously, you know, terrible for the game or, or anything like that. I think he's done a good job of trying to make this more popular sport and make it more fun to watch. And that most importantly grow it, like literally grow it with the participation in WBC and other things that they've done.

Starting point is 00:35:34 Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, I wouldn't say it's necessarily been perfect, but I think he has done a lot of really good things for the sport, as you said, especially the changes. I mean, baseball of all the sports, you know, fans of this sport may be more resistant to change than just about any other sports fans you'll find. And he's made a lot of changes, a lot of pretty big changes in the grand scheme of things. and pretty much universally, they have been well received. Like people love the pitch clock. People love, you know, I think the increase in stolen bases that you mentioned earlier, some of the various changes that have been made to cause that. Yeah, I think it's been a lot of positive stuff. And yeah, he mentioned not, you know, I don't know if in five years, I think it'd be 2029 is when his current term would end.

Starting point is 00:36:23 As you said, he did make some comments kind of alluding to or you could sort of infer that he was saying this would maybe be his last term. So yeah, I don't I don't think you're going to see baseball expanded to 32 teams in five years, but he did mention he would like to have, you know, the process kind of underway and the location selected and secured by that point, which that would be big in its own right. Like I think that's kind of the next big change that we expect for baseball in the next decade or so is going to 32 teams. and there will probably be some realignment of divisions that will take place.

Starting point is 00:36:58 They'll have to figure out, you know, how the format is going to change. What will divisions look like at that point? You know, are you going to four or four team divisions in the National League and the American League? What exactly does the format look like there? But, yeah, on the whole, I think Manfred gets a bit of a bad rap, even though he's had, by and large, a pretty positive impact on the sport. Well, we appreciate you guys checking out to the audio podcast.

Starting point is 00:37:24 Of course, you can make sure to join us all next week for baseball being back. Excited for that. Pictures and catchers on Wednesday. We'll be going at 2 p.m. maybe 2 p.m.ish. I don't know. Hopefully around 2 p.m. We'll see what happens. But join us Monday and Tuesday at our normal 1 p.m. time.

Starting point is 00:37:44 And then 2 p.m. after we get a chance to talk to Tori and get to watch a little bullpen action from some of the Diamondbacks pitchers. So until then, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Starting point is 00:38:07 We appreciate you guys stopping by. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. We thank you for your time and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you let the superstars of Major League Baseball represent their countries in the Olympics. C.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - MLB stars in the olympics? How Rob Manfred and co. could finally make it happen

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