Open letter to Commissioner Rob Manfred
Welcome to the party buddy.
You have the pleasure of being the 10th commissioner for the greatest league in all of professional sports.
Your predecessor, Bud Selig, served as commish for 22 years. He saw a lot of baseball. He looks like he saw a lot too. DUDE! Do NOT let yourself go like that too, please.
During the Selig tenure he:
Sep 26, 2014; Milwaukee, WI, USA; MLB Commissioner Bud Selig waves during a press conference at Miller Park before game between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are retiring uniform No. 1 next season to honor Selig, their founder. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
- added 4 franchises to our sport in the Rockies, Marlins, Diamondbacks and Devil Rays. (3 of the 4 made it to the World Series under his term).
- implemented inter-league play
- realigned divisions
- moved a team from Canada to Washington DC
- orchestrated the World Baseball Classic
- introduced our sport to Instant Replay
- moved a team from the AL to the NL
- moved another team from the NL to the AL (I know, just follow along)
- dedicated Jackie Robinson Day (April 15)
- helped to build 20 new stadiums throughout the league.
He did do a lot of good.
But it wasn’t always roses and rainbows with candy-coated sprinkles though. During his term there were a few “hiccups” along the way as well:
- There was a short work stoppage in the early 90s.
- A terrorist attack
- Made sure that Oakland could neither move nor replace their stadium ever
- There was this little experiment of implementing the results of home field advantage for the World Series to the winners of the All-Star Game (I know right… I had the same reaction)
- Increased the average game time to something longer than your average Senate filibuster (only later to add a pitch clock to speed up the game, go figure)
- And somewhere during his term there was this little ordeal called the Steroid Era, you may have heard of it. If you haven’t, then you are about to lift the toilet bowl on a little surprise that he left behind.
Overall though, he did a great job for the sport.
We grew in popularity on American soil, diversity through inclusion and competition with other nations, ratings and TV deals are at an all-time high which all led to the and important part in conducting business = revenue.
It is good to be a baseball team owner and an even better time to be a fan.
Our league is the oldest of the 4 major professional sports in America and is still considered America’s Pastime Sport.
Don’t let that become overwhelming though because your work is really simple during your term.
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So Manni (that’s my pet name for Manford, he calls me Fletch) let me make a few recommendations:
Step 1: Although Selig did great things for the sport and we have made leaps and bounds since the days of the super-stations controlling the ratings; this inter-league thing is somewhat miffing a few of the purest.
As a suggestion, I would recommend swapping the rules for interleague games. As it stands today, when an AL team visits an NL park, the games are played with the HOME TEAM’s rules. I say, flip the rules. Now, we get to see something “different” and the advantage is no longer in the Home Teams favor. In fact, as a fan, it would be entertaining to see MY pitcher hit in my ballpark when an NL team comes to visit. It will be something that I wouldn’t be able to see normally on my home field. If you are determined to keep this inter-league thing going, spice it up even further.
Step 2: I am only going to touch this subject briefly in 2 parts so pay attention (there will be a quiz on this later….
There is no way that a game used to celebrate and be a grand display of talent, should influence the World Series in ANY way. Please remove that and bring back the fun part of that game. The second part, be more flexible with the voting. Allow the fans to have more of an input using social media and other interactive tools. BUT as you permit these fans to be more vocal, take away the bias in it.
An example: remove the home team players from the ballot at EVERY stadium, now you get pure votes of players to be included without the normal home team pandering and ballot box stuffing that goes on at the games. I’d personally remove the paper ballot all together and go all digital but still lock out regional/local votes to protect the integrity of the game. You will be surprised at how many people know just as much about the other teams players as they do their home team.
Step 3: Steroids happened. Get over it. YOU need to admit and take the blame for the sake of the sport so we can get closure and move on. Yes I said YOU need to. We all know you did not directly inject, rub oils and ointments or supply the illegal substances to the players or other relevant people but this society is extremely fickle and we need to be able to point and say “he did it” in order for us to move on. So chief, we need you to “take one for the team” and commit a sincere apology for the sport.
Oct 22, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; MLB current commissioner Bud Selig (right) stands with newly elected commissioner Rob Manfred before game two of the 2014 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Step 4: There are many of us that absolutely live and breathe baseball. As a fan, we should not be penalized if we have to work on a day that the ticket buying public did not sell as many tickets as recommended. I may be pulling extra hours at work TO buy more tickets later (this is a lead in, work with me). The buying public already had to upgrade our cable to watch the home team but now since we decided to pull a double and not a lot of people purchased tickets, the game is blacked out? (yes I sneak and watch the game at work, don’t judge me). Get rid of blacking out games PLEASE!
In addition to that, after the last day of baseball some of us go into serious withdrawals until signs of Spring Training begin to sprout and then after Pitchers and Catchers report; all is well with the universe.
If you could, and this is a doable IF, could you please add the Winter League, Dominican League, Australian League, Japanese League, Stickball League, Overweight-but-still-think-we-can-play League and/or WHATEVER league you can to the MLB Network. Maybe even start an MLB2 just for streaming international and “off season” baseball? It would be good for the sport and help expose some otherwise off the radar talent to all of us in the states.
These steps are all I can think of for now but since I know where your office is, if I have any future concerns I will be sure to just pop in and we can go out for fish and fries to discuss other matters.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck on your new job.
It won’t be easy.
The guys before you all contributed to the sport in some sort of positive growth (no pressure). You can and should do the same.
One last piece of advice, ignore the haters. At least you know you are doing something because you have their attention. What I like to do to my haters is, when I see them coming, I let go a nice “silent but deadly” and step to the side and let them walk right through it (mouth open and everything). As they embrace the aroma and it begins to cling to their skin and burn out nose hairs, try not to laugh in their face; just smile and walk in the other direction.
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Life is too short to be stressed over things you can’t control and what someone else feels, sees, or perceives you as is not something YOU should be worried about. You have a multi-BILLION dollar company to run.
Small steps my friend…
Be encouraged daily.
Your friend for life and brother at heart
~ Unbiased Brave
p.s. We need to talk about this “cheating” thing and Hall of Famers. I need clarity…call me