2025 MLB Thread

[chasfh]

32 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Good news for fans in Windsor, Sarnia and Chatham. Unfortunately for me in Vancouver, my time shift affiliate for CBS, NBC and ABC are all Detroit's, but Fox is Rochester, NY.

From the Department of It Figures. 

[casimir]

8 hours ago, chasfh said:

We won’t have a regular season thread for almost three weeks, so I’m posting this here:

 https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2025/03/09/detroit-tigers-red-wings-to-air-15-games-on-local-tv-in-2025-full-schedule/82065628007/

Ten Tigers games running on channel 2.1, which is full circle for me, since when I first became a fan in 1969, the Tigers aired on channel 2, called by George Kell and Larry Osterman. 

It does make some business sense to move games to, or at least simulcast some games on, broadcast TV as well. If they place the local team behind a paywall such that no one can ever see them unless they pony up the bucks upfront, then how can they spur interest and create new fans for the game? Except through the gambling, of course, which has been Baseball’s growth strategy for a few years now, and the new people that brings in aren’t really fans of the game.

The White Sox will have all their games on broadcast TV here in Big Shoulders, too. Their new Chicago Sports Channel home simulcasts completely on channel 62.2, mainly because they don’t have clearance on Comcast as of yet. Make fun on the White Sox all you like—and we do like—but that won’t hurt their visibility. I wish the Cubs would follow suit with a few games back on GN, too. I would bet most teams will in the next few years.

They’ve got to bring back the growling, bat eating, winning Tiger and the sullen, ice bag wearing, beaten (but ready to get back after it tomorrow) Tiger.

[1776]

The quiet talk is getting loud.

As he considers walking away from a stadium deal in St. Petersburg, Fla., Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg is being pressured to sell his team by commissioner Rob Manfred and some other owners, people briefed on the ownership-level conversations who were not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6189456/2025/03/09/commissioner-owners-pressure-rays-sale-mlb/

[chasfh]

That’s something that an antitrust exemption allows: force a proprietor to divest himself of his property. 

[IdahoBert]

https://apnews.com/article/rays-steinbrenner-field-makeover-a843685deca2a9023e3fcb4a02c83217

The Rays get 120 hours to make the Yankees' spring stadium their own. Here's how they'll do it

[chasfh]

If you want to add Steinbrenner to your list of venues in which you’ve seen big league games, you should probably go next month.

[davidsb623]

Gage Workman makes the Cubs Opening Day roster (or five man travel squad) and is headed to Japan.  Has had an impressive spring.

Edited 19 hours ago by davidsb623