Menu
Leagues and Governing Bodies

Rob Manfred Proud Of MLB Accomplishments During Pandemic Year

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league "should be proud of what it accomplished this year" amid the pandemic, according to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. Manfred said, "We faced challenges unlike any other in the history of the sport. We managed to confront them by working with the players, working with the clubs. I regard that to be a great success." MLB expanded the playoff field this season from 10 to 16 teams, which Nightengale wrote "worked well with the 60-game schedule." The two teams with the best records in the American League and National League "still met in the World Series, and the team with the best record overall, won it all." Meanwhile, the NLCS and World Series for the first time all year had "real fans in the stands," and that plan "could be the model" for the '21 season. Manfred: "The fact that we were able to safely have fans in the stadium the last two rounds certainly improved the atmosphere in the ballpark. And I think it's a demonstration that it’s possible with the right rules and protocols to have fans at events." Nightengale writes MLB "still hopes for a semblance of normalcy next year, with hopes of playing postseason games in teams' own cities, but playing at neutral sites does present an opportunity for the future." Manfred: "It was a big part of us being able to get through the postseason. And I think it was the right decision for this sport" (USA TODAY, 10/29).

LOOKING BACK: In N.Y., Rowan Ricardo Phillips writes MLB's regular season "came and went like a meek note squeezed out of an accordion." The cardboard cutouts of fans in the seats behind home plate "were strange enough without all the artificial fan noise being pumped through the broadcast with a cold relentlessness that only an algorithm could love." Everything about baseball that "transcends baseball is connected to the crowd" (N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE, 11/1 issue).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2020/10/29/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/MLB.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2020/10/29/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/MLB.aspx

CLOSE