Manfred over his tenure has increasingly focused on how to quicken the game for the younger generationGETTY IMAGES
MLB is fighting for market share "amid a saturated entertainment landscape," and it is doing so "with a demographic anchor tied to its ankle," according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.com. The average TV-viewing baseball fan is 57, and MLB's "social media followings pale compared to those of the NBA and NFL." There is not a "single star in the traditional sense of a player widely recognized by even casual fans," and the generation gap in the fan base "scares MLB in the same way the economic inertia does the players -- it's a problem with no easy solution." When MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred "tries to pursue changes that could fundamentally alter on-field play, like the three-batter-minimum rule for pitchers set to debut next year, he does so at his own peril -- because there are millions of people in their 50s who still watch baseball and scoff at this, the most traditional sport, daring to adapt" (ESPN.com, 3/29).
ZZZZ FROM GENERATION Z: THE ATLANTIC's Robert O'Connell wrote Manfred's tenure has "largely been defined by a growing courtship" of younger fans, as MLB's future "will be decided by an audience less willing than the one that came before it to endure five-hour Yankees-Red Sox marathons." However, trial runs in the Atlantic League of potential radical rule changes, along with the "ongoing chatter about baseball’s 50-plus fanbase, suggest that more meaningful changes could be imminent." Younger fans "like action, abhor downtime, and find the long-ball-and-whiff parade of recent years repetitive." The assumption is that the "non-AARP set doesn’t have a problem with baseball; it has a problem with this kind of baseball, the drawn-out and hyper-strategized version" of the 2010s (THEATLANTIC.com, 3/28). In Buffalo, Mike Harrington wrote there is "nothing wrong with change," and MLB "suddenly needs a lot of it." For fans that "love the game and recoil in horror when a nonbeliever says baseball is boring, it's becoming harder to argue the point." Prices "keep going up," while entertainment is "going down, and fans in plenty of cities feel their team has no hope to win, or maybe doesn't want to win." That is a "deadly combination" (BUFFALO NEWS, 3/28).
DANCE WITH WHO BROUGHT YOU: USA TODAY's Gabe Lacques notes 22 "emerging or established" MLB stars have recently signed long-term contract extensions, and while they account for a variety of players, the deals "are in many ways the legacy of two players who dominated the winter discourse" -- Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. The "limited markets" the two encountered in free agency "had a chilling effect" on the rest of the league (USATODAY.com, 3/28). ESPN’s Passan noted the $1.7B in contract extensions is nearly as much as teams "spent on free agents throughout this entire offseason." He said the fact players like Ps Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel remain unsigned is a “bad look for baseball" (“Baseball Tonight,” ESPN, 3/28). USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale notes MLB's "middle class that’s getting squeezed," as players are "either rich, or making close to the minimum salary" (USA TODAY, 3/29).
LATEST ON CBA TALKS: Manfred said that "'positive steps' have already been taken to lay a foundation for upcoming labor talks." He added that he was "optimistic about upcoming talks." Manfred: "Collective bargaining is an ongoing process. Like a lot of multi-year processes, you have a lot of ups and downs. And the trick is to manage those down periods that don't result in a big dispute" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 3/29).
