Latest / Foul Territory / Evan Drellich reacts to Rob Manfred’s World Series Press Conference

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Evan Drellich reacts to Rob Manfred’s World Series Press Conference · Foul Territory

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're back with Evan Drelich, who writes for The Athletic.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: A lot of business, some CBA talk, what the commissioner says.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Et cetera.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Right, lots to get to here with Evan. Evan, good
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to see you, and we want to start with Rob
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Manfred speaking to the media. There's a number of topics
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to cover. The one that I think stood out the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: most for this series was how he gave a little
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: shout out to Vancouver as he was asked about expansion.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: You know, we have the Montreal Expost big doc that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: came out this week too. That was interesting, but he said, hey,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: don't don't count out the number three market in Vancouver.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to get your thoughts on how realistic
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: that is or if that's just leverage to push the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: West Coast team's potential ones up to pay more.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Look, if I had, if I had to guess right now,
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: I think it's probably a kind of a nice thing
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: to say when you're standing in Canada where a World
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Series is being hosted for the first time in what
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: thirty two years, we haven't had previously a lot to
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: talk about a Canadian city being one of those two sites.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: For an expansion team. I guess it's not impossible, But
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: if you're Rob Manver, there's no downside to that comment.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: You can, you know, get a little bit more leverage,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: maybe with the Nashville or Portland or Salt Lake City.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I think if if it were realistic, Vancouver having a
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: minor league team already probably makes the most sense. But
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: I gotta admit something here. I'm a New Yorker, didn't
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: grow up that far from Canada. I haven't spent that
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: much time in Canada to runt of the lovely city.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I don't know enough about the different cities up there.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: And even it was actually funny when Rob was doing
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: the press conference on the field. When he was answering
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I think a follow up question about what cities he
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: was interested in. He turned to shy David, who's you know,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: it covers his blue jats for a very long time,
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: does a great job. It's like, you're from Canada, you
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: would know better than me, and I think that's the reality.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I can't tell you which market would be better, but
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I don't see it as the likeliest outcome that Major
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: League Baseball ends up with a second team in Canada.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Again, I mean in Montreal, cant aver.
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: I've been to Vancouver.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: It's pretty, but that they think Seattle has travel problems,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: go to Vancouver, that's even farther away from everything else.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: So I just I don't see it. I think it
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: was a cute little piece that Rob said, Oh where
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: are we? What's that's why he's like, hey, shy, what
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: what country are we in right here? Let's oh, we're
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: in Canada. Let's throw another Canadian out there, because Montreal
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: obviously would be the next one because it's close on
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: the East coast.
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: But I don't think it's happened.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: I just thought it was him, you know, trying to
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: add fuel to the fire here of oh, let's throw
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: another name out there, so Salt Lake and Portland have
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: to up the annie. But it's not going to happen.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Portland's a wonderful place. I played there in Triple A,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: I played there on the road. It was a wonderful
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: place to visit for a couple of days. But I
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: can't see it being a next viable So I agree
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: with you having.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, every World Series, whatever city we're in, he gives
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: a compliment to the area, to the owners, and oftentimes
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: it's not that it's not true, but it's just it's
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: hard to lean too much into that idea right now.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, next up on the docket. In your article, twelve
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: team postseason, sounds like Manfred likes that. I personally like
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that and hope that they don't add Now, did you
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: get the inclination that he liked twelve even when they
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: add two and it's thirty two teams in the league.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: That's a good question that was not asked. My guess
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: is at that point you would probably do something. But
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: that is again so many years away. I mean, he
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: keeps talking, he being man for it about knowing which
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: two teams he wants to add before he leaves, which
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: as of now would be in twenty twenty nine. That
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: doesn't mean the two teams will started playing, right, So
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: you're so far away from that. It's probably a future CBA,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: not the one they're going to negotiate next year. That said,
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: while you're still at thirty teams, like what you want
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: to let in basically half the league, I mean, you could,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: but twelve is already a lot of teams, and I
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: think it's I took it as a good sign that
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: they weren't thinking about adding more at the moment, or
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: at least they're not publicly saying that there's always more
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: money and more playoffs games. But at a certain point
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: you kind of dilute your own postseason product. And I
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: think they know that, and you can't go from you know,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: it was only a few years ago you went to ten, right,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: I think it got a stay put. And then if
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: you want to go to talk about it during expansion.
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: Okay, oh but they want they want the salary cap.
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: Other leagues have nineteen teams that make it and ever
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: so maybe they do want to go that way. But
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: what you talked about was expanding. Let's take care of
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: Sacramento first. Rob had some comments about how players that
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: he talked to were like, Hey, it wasn't so.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Bad, right, Yeah, we had the early season. I mean
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: it might have been opening day when Severino was popping
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: off about Sacramento not being up to park. Anybody who
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: walks in that ballpark is Manford himself acknowledged, realizes this
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: is a minor league ballparks. It is not what you want.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: A pull. Writers will sometimes often cite to each other
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: quoting Joe Gilardi used to say, that a lot. I
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: think it's not what you want, but they what are
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: they gonna do? They got nowhere else to go, right,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: you know, without rehashing everything that happened in Oakland. This
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Sacramento situation, I think, frankly sucks. I think people acknowledge
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: that it's nice for the city of Sacramento, but it
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: is not what anybody would have wanted. And you just
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: got to deal with it until the Vegas project gets done,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: hopefully as they expect it will. But that is the
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: thing that Manford had said for years was, you know,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: we got to deal with the A's situation, gotta deal
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: with the Ray situation, their stadium deals before we talk
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: about expansion. With the Ray's ownership change, it looks like
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: it looks like they'll they'll have the money and we'll
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: put together a stadium project in that Tampa area. So
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: whether that's Tampa, it South Saint Pete, somewhere, they are
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: as opposed to going elsewhere in Florida. And then if
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: John Fisher's project in Vegas works on time, yeah, you
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: could have your two stadiums dealt with by the time
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: you would you would try to move for expansion. You know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: whether that's twenty eight, twenty nine, whatever. But yeah, it's
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: and it's it's also silly in the context of like
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: the Marlins. The Marlins, you have teams that are doing
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: so poorly and struggling in this environment to just, you know,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: kind of talk about the cash grab of expanding without
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: looking at the broader contact. There's a lot that goes
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: into it, Right, you'd rather have all your current franchises
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: in good, comfortable situations before you go and throw two
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: more in the mix.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: Evan, For first of all, you know, I love this.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Oh everyone said it wasn't that bad. Every player I
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: talked to, every coach I talked to. Now I didn't
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: talk to a lot of the A's players. They said
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: it sucked. Okay, every every opposing team that went there
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: said it absolutely sucks. So who is he talking to?
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: I want to know what players he is he talking
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: to the A's guys? Of course, the A's are going
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: to say that because they're happy to be there, they're
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: they're in the big leagues, or a bunch of young guys.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: Sev Reno was never happy with Sacramento, right, I mean,
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: how many players came out like So, who is Rob
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: talking to is this again, Is this just Rob saying
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: things so like it makes the guy who owns the
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: team in Sacramento happy. So hey, maybe down the road
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: we can talk to him about if Vegas doesn't work,
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: we can try to go there again.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, he is a politician. He does have to
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: think about all those types of things. I don't know
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: who he's talking to. I mean, look, could somebody have
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: said something along the lines of, hey, you know they try.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: That could tell they tried, and you know some things
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: are good and other things. A bet somebody, not everybody
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: would have to necessarily throw their arms up and say, God,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: this is awful. But it is. And I actually give
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Manford credit. He in the comment that he made to
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: the to the little gaggle of reporters on the field,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: said it is a minor league stadium, which I actually
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: I can't remember if he'd made it as direct and
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: acknowledgment of that in the past. But that's what it is,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: and it's not where Major league Baseball should be played.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: You had two teams in minor league stadums just hear
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: the Rays. Obviously we're a different situation, but both of
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: them ended up with attendance around seven hundred and fifty thousand.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: It's just it is a strange contrast to have those
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: teams and the situations they're in and also be talking about, Yeah,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: we're gonna we're gonna build a major league put a
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: major league team in Vancouver. You know, it's it's all
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: ways off. But they need the Sacramento chapter behind them
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: as quick as possible.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: The old card experience was a slow burned, long grind. Right,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: find the box, find the pack you want, open the pack.
• 8:38
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• 8:43
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• 8:46
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• 8:48
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• 8:49
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• 8:52
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• 8:55
  Speaker 6: a dime. You get on your computer, you type in
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: get the Arena Club app. Go on there, type in,
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: put some money in, and type in exactly what kind
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: of cards you want and while lah, It's a great experience,
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: and I think that's what people miss nowadays, the experience,
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: the excitement of getting a new card. You never know
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: what you're going to get, an autograph card, anything, you
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: could think of really cool stuff.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: You can get twenty percent off your first slab pack
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• 9:23
  Speaker 1: that digital slab pack, It's like butter baby Potter.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: What's going to get over the hurdle of allowing Major
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: League Baseball players to play in the Olympics? Because it
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: says he's close, but you know the whole like, well,
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: you know it's dangerous for players. Can he just flat
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: out say, well, we own the WBC, So after WBC
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: is over next year, then I'll give my answer for
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: the Olympics.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I don't even look at it.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I think they're in.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: I think they believe in the value of the Olympics
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: as something that can boost the value of the WBC.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: I don't think they look at it necessarily competitively. There
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: are what what's the hold up? Or whatever your exact
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: question was. Ninety nine percent of the time in my
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: line of work, the answer is money. It's always money.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: It's insurance. It's making sure that the very you know,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: if you're going to have this long break is every
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: other player in the majors. What are they doing, Are
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: they being paid? You know, it's you got to work
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: out all these details of what that extended All Star break,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: presuming they end up doing both the Olympics and the
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: All Star Game in a single break, which is unless
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: something's changed. That is what they're trying to do, and
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: there is a reality that you're going to stretch the
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: schedule anyway to do that. And so one of the
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: things that around the All Star Game this year I
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: reported on was their conversations with LA twenty eight, the
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: organizing body, about making sure there's basically as little time
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: as pos possible between that All Star Game and the
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: start of the Olympics. Because the schedule that came out
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: starts July fifteenth, would be the first baseball game at
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: the Olympics. The All Star Game, if it's a normal year,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: would probably be July eleventh. It's always a Tuesday, right,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: so that's four days in between. You don't need four
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: days in between, you need a day of travel. And
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: the opening ceremony for the Olympics is the fourteenth, So really,
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: if you start the thing a day or two earlier,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: that probably makes it as efficient as possible. But Eric,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: you know, it's always money. There's just money to be
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: worked out when you have a project like this, and
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: owners worried about their investments, and there's a long list
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: of issues they got to figure out.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Having back to the World Series for a moment, did
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: we Oh sorry, Aj, where you at?
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: No, It's fine.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: I was just gonna I was gonna say, first of all, Devin,
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: I guess you just don't believe in practicing as a team.
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: You're gonna end.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: That first half and then you're just gonna throws from
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: all over the world together without at least getting together.
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: That'd be tight.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: So you might need at least a couple of days
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: here to at least throwing a little bit of practice.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: I think CRAFTSLD agree with me. But my question is
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: is like we're every time you hear Manford talk, grow
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: the game. Grow the game, Grow the game, Grow the game.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Grow you know, grow the game. Okay, look at the
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: numbers for baseball where we're at. The ratings are through
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: the roof for the World Series. The ratings for the
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: DS's and the CS's and everything are for the room.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Attendance is up, viewership is up, every revenue is up.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: And then all we keep hearing is salary cap, salary cap,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: salary cap. Why can't the two sides just sit down
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: and get together and figure this out so that I
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: can stop answering questions from every person I know about
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: why there's going to be a labor stoppage in twenty seven, Like,
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: does anybody ever ask Rob like, if everything is going
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: so well, why do we have to have a salary cap?
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: Has anyone asked him that question?
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it's been put exactly in those words,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: but it certainly will be coming up. He ducked labor.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I think that was probably smart. He's indulged those questions
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: more recently. You know, if you go back to even
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: spring training, he answers when people ask about, you know,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: revenue disparity and the Dodgers, and he kind of pushed
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: it aside for the moment, which I think was a
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: good idea. I think the answer is, you have owners
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: who want this to happen, who have always wanted this
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: to happen, and he has to demonstrate a good faith
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: effort to them to try to get it. I think
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: it'd be virtually impossible for him to go to those
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: owners and say I'm not even gonna try this. I
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: think that's too bad because one of the things that's
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: not really talked about or looked at as much as
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: is kind of the opportunity cost of planning for this.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Everybody has to plan for this. Major League Baseball top
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: down has to consider, Okay, if we're in a lockout,
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: what are we gonna do?
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: And that draws away attention in any division, you know, marketing, sponsorship, whatever.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: And I think at the end of the day, there's
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: too much money involved in this sport. It is not
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: a rational decision to miss any real number of games.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, you want to miss a couple games, fine,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: but in an industry that will probably be about thirteen
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: billion combined going into twenty seven, it does not make sense.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: I don't think for the owners to hold out, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: assuming the players are steadfast, we're not gonna have a cap.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: But I think Rob.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Still knows he has to try. And I don't think
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Rob is Manfred is a lot of things. He's not dumb.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: He certainly understands. I would believe. I haven't asked him this,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: but I believe the momentum that the sport has, and
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: that a workstoppage would be damaging there's no way he
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: doesn't realize that, which is why I think when push
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: comes to shove, the owners will propose a cap. I
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: am very little confidence at this moment that anybody's gonna
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: want to really drag this out for months where you're
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: in a real workstop where people can turn away from baseball.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: This is not nineteen nineteen ninety four, ninety five. It
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: is much easier to find other entertainment options. It's a
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: bad idea to shut baseball down when things are going well,
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: and it's so obvious to us as observers, then I
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: think it must also be obvious to others in baseball
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: as well. That doesn't mean they won't try to get
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: what they want, but you can try to get what
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: you want and also end up playing baseball.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: One other wrinkle that I think is worth bringing up now. Obviously,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: we're gonna have a lot of time to talk about
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: this over the course of the next whatever it is
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: fifteen months until there is actually at least a temporary lockout.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: It'll definitely happen, just for how long does it dip
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: into games, et cetera. Right the one part that I
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: think is relevant right now, Evan is related to what
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: AJ is saying. It's not just ratings here, it's ratings
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in Canada, it's ratings in Japan, right, and those are
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: all very sellable assets. Something does happen in the US
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: after or what is it? The twenty twenty going.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: To seventy nine, it's going to twenty nine.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: It's going into twenty nine. The TV deals, I thought
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: it's sooner.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: They run through twenty eight.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: They run through twenty eight, Okay, so if we have
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: an issue, it would be going into twenty seven, so
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: a year before, and that's usually when you're having those
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: conversations about TV deals. Some people might not know. So
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the holy grail nowadays is when you can package up
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: all your rights and then work on getting a bidding
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: process going. I think that alone, being such a huge
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: part of any league's revenue would probably cause all parties
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to be like.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: We hate each other, we have a lot of differences,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: but it's not good timing, So let's just feel a
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: little bit uncomfortable and roll with the status quo for
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: another deal.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I think that's right. I mean, look in a worst
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: case scenario, because they are a year apart, you know
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: you could you could miss twenty seven. I'm not saying
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: they're going to you and you could still end up,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: you know, negotiating. All right, Baseball's back. We got you know,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: we got the CBA that we wanted and now we
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: get our national TV deals. But no, there's no way
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: it is what you the image you want to plant
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: in the heads, in the minds of the executives at
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Fox and Amazon and NBC and go down the list
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: of the potential streaming bidders that MLB wants to court,
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: and MLB a lot of the time Rob Manford a
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: lot of time I think looks to what the NBA
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: is doing, and he's been he's been open about this
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: with with specifically television. Is that MLB wants to replicate
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: what the NBA just did. The NBA got seventy seven
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: billion dollars in deals. How much would a lockout or
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: workstoppage that actually drags into the season impact that amount
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: of money is a question. I think they'll debate and consider,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: and they need to again all these factors. You know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: the owners, if you're if you're a major leaue baseball owner,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: they're looking at the NBA and going those franchise values
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: are highed look at the NFL and going those franchise
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: values are higher, and then they look at other arguments
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: around competitive balans, and that's where it gets a little
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: bit trickier as in terms of is it reality right?
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: And I think I told you guys before, made the
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: point before that you know, you go to a salary
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: cap unless the range of salaries is so close together.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: The Dodgers are still going to be the Dodgers. The
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Pirates are still going to be the Pirates. And MLB
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: keeps hanging its hat on what it's calling a perception issue.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Is percept this perception that fans have in smaller markets
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: that the team can't compete. Okay, but is the reality
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: of the fix that it is fixed or are you
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: just giving people something that they perceive to fix a
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: problem but does not actually fix the problem. And so yeah,
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: as Manford himselves said on the field at Rogers Center,
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: gonna have a lot of time to talk about labor.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: And I think largely this is what I will be
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: paid to do for the next year is sort through
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: this impending mess which will produce an off season lockout.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: And the question is, like last time, are they going
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: to miss games?
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah? And my last point here. This happened like twenty
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: something years ago, late nineties. But when they decided on
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the luxury tax, great, that's a soft cap. The fact
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: that they didn't add a soft floor, I think screwed
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: over the game and caused all of these owners on
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the one side, like the Nuttings of the world, to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: be bad actors. There's no accountability on the other side
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: in my mind, like we have we have a soft cap,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and that does and if you believe in a hard cap,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: that's fine, but we don't have a soft floor for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a long time, so we never saw what that looks like.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I know that they're not going to give in on that.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I understand that part, but just throwing that out there,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I do think we scold the game up a little
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: bit by not doing that.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: If you want a floor through the players, the owners
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: will never grant it unless they get a cap. And
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: they've always gone hand in hand. It's funny like every
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: time I write a story about a salary cap, people
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: are like, what about a floor? And I think, every
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: time I write it, I got to say, these two
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: go together.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: But we don't have a soft floor and we have
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: a soft cap. That's My only thing that I do
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: think is misbalanced right now and.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Here and here's I think the irony of this whole situation.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Let's say the owners don't get a cap, right, if
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: I were a betting man, unless unless all the players
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: have suddenly changed their minds, and aj and and Crabs
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: would know it would take a huge amount of miss
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: games to get to a cap. But the owners, if
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: they don't want to miss those games, I bet you
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: will come away with something that makes them happier in
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: a better economic position than they were in before. And
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: that's over time. It's kind of a vice that closes,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: and you know we want a cap, Well, we're not
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: going to eat a cap. We'll give you the Steve
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: Coen tax. And then it just it grows and it
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: grows and it grows, and long term, that's something the
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: players have to always tend with, is you know, you're
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: you're fighting off a cap, but what else are you
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: giving up to fight off that cap?
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Having good stuff obviously not the last time we will
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: talk about this, whether people like it or not. Thank
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: you that good to see it, man.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I'll ask about that practice. That's a good that's a
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: good question. Ajic I'll ask about that practice, all right,
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: See you guys, guys, see it.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Thanks Evan,