T
round of golf, “I don’t want to take
an Instagram of myself on the third
hole. I want to get away. In contrast,
[younger fans] like to think, ‘This is
my big event.’ And we need to take
each of our 81 home games and
make each one a big event for fans
to continue to get them to come to
the ballpark.”
Before working on the game’s
aesthetics, though, Manfred has
some more pressing concerns and
targets, which he shared with Sports
Illustrated in a January interview.
CRACK DOWN ON THE MISUSE
OF TECHNOLOGY
With investigations into sign-stealing
scandals involving two of the past
three world champions (the 2017
Astros and ’18 Red Sox) Manfred put
the onus squarely on GMs, managers
and coaches, not players.
“I’m not interested in ‘other people
were doing it’ as a defense,” he said.
“If other people were doing it, give me
the information and I’ll investigate it.
If we buy into the idea that you can
justify your own conduct [because]
THROUGH THE mammoth windows
of his new seventh-floor corner
office in midtown Manhattan, MLB
commissioner Rob Manfred has a
box seat to the world. The Radio City
Music Hall marquee glows across the
street, headlines crawl in formation
on the electronic ticker at Fox News
headquarters two blocks away and the
Freedom Tower stands sentry over the
world’s commercial center a few miles
south. Yet Manfred can be forgiven
for not looking up from the issues
upon his desk, such are their weight
and number.
He succeeded Bud Selig in January
- On the fifth anniversary of his
tenure—the beginning of a second
five-year term owners gave him in
2018—the Harvard-trained lawyer,
61, was dealing with two sign-stealing
scandals, public skepticism about a
juiced baseball, declining attendance,
a slowing pace of play, pushback to his
proposed culling of the minor leagues
and a looming CBA negotiation with a
restive union.
In his first five years on the job,
Manfred changed the oil at regular
intervals and kept the machine
running. Revenues last year rose for
a 17th straight year, to $10.7 billion.
As technology changed how the
game was played, Manfred showed
a penchant for spitballing—Ban the
shift? Implement a pitch clock? Bonus
baserunners in extra innings?—but
he did more thinking than tinkering.
(Two notable Manfred changes will
slightly affect the game in 2020:
Relief pitchers must either finish the
inning in which they enter or face a
minimum of three batters, up from
the previous requirement of one, and
regular roster sizes have grown from
25 players to 26. But in September,
when rosters usually expand to 40,
they will now go to 28.)
Those days are over. It is time for
Manfred to act, and he knows it. He
must decide on the kind of game
he wants to shepherd. Baseball will
change far more in the next five years
than it did in the previous five.
Advanced media, international
growth, higher ticket prices and
streaming have kept revenues
growing, but the game’s aesthetics
are losing appeal in a faster world.
Time of game under Manfred has
increased by 10 minutes, to a record
3:10. The added length derived
entirely from more dawdling between
pitches—24.9 seconds, up from an
average of 22.7 in 2015. As the number
of strikeouts, pitches and pitching
changes rose each of the past five
years, so did the amount of time
between balls in play. The formula of
less action over a longer period turned
off fans. From 2015 to ’19, attendance
dropped by 5.2 million, or 2,151 fans
per game.
One of the game’s greatest appeals
has been the natural time and space
it provides for rumination and
anticipation, but those who have
grown up with readily available
technological distractions abhor such
voids. As Manfred said of enjoying a
20 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
SCORECARD
PREVIO
US SPREAD: JIM
MCISA
AC/GETTY IM
AGES (M
AN
FRED); SIM
ON BRU
TY (STADIU
M AN
D M
OU
ND VISIT); AL TIELEM
AN
S (U
MPIRE)
