Major League Baseball

The Latest: Manfred: MLB slipped on pace of play

Published Jul. 12, 2016 2:57 p.m. ET

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SAN DIEGO (AP) The Latest on the All-Star Game (all times local):

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10:56 a.m.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred admits the sport ''slipped right at the beginning this year'' when it comes to pace of play.

The average time of a nine-inning game was 3 hours, 13 seconds prior to the All-Star Game, according to the commissioner's office. That is up from 2:53:04 at last year's break but down from 3:02:41 during the first half in 2014.

Manfred says ''pace of play for me is like dandelions on your front lawn. I just can't get rid of it.''

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10:50 a.m.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has made it clear that the Athletics' search for a new ballpark will be confined to Oakland.

Manfred says, ''I am committed to Oakland as a major league site. If we were to leave Oakland, I think 10 years from now we would more likely than not be looking backwards saying we made a mistake.''

He adds, ''Oakland is more likely than not to be a better market five years from now than it is today.''

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10:34 a.m.

Major League Baseball is keeping expansion ''on the backburner'' until Oakland and Tampa Bay get new ballparks.

Both teams have long sought new stadiums, but no proposals in their current territories have gained traction.

Commissioner Rob Manfred says ''the Tampa and Oakland situations have to be resolved. Both of those clubs need new major league quality facilities.''

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10:26 a.m.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says ''the absence of a Latino manager is glaring.''

Atlanta fired Fredi Gonzalez in May and replaced him on an interim basis with Brian Snitker.

Speaking to the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Manfred says ''there are 30 jobs and there are 30 high turnovers jobs and you're going to have an ebb and flow in terms of diversity.''

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9:35 a.m.

David Ortiz's jersey is the most popular this season, judging by sales on MLBShop.com between Jan. 1 and the All-Star Game.

Ortiz, 40, plans to retire at the end of the season and is a 10-time All-Star. He also topped the sales list during the 2013-14 offseason, after winning his third World Series title with the Boston Red Sox.

Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs is second, followed by Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs' Anthony Rizzo, the Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout, San Francisco's Buster Posey, the Cubs' Jake Arrieta, St. Louis' Yadier Molina, Washington's Bryce Harper and the New York Mets' Noah Syndergaard.

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9:27 a.m.

The concessionaire at Petco Park expects to sell 24,000 hot dogs, 16,000 orders of chicken fingers, 18,000 pounds of French fries, 98,000 peanuts and 45,000 bottles of water at the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game.

Delaware North executive chef at Petco Carlos Vargas created two new items for the game: a Hashtag Dog featuring a hot dog, tempura butter, club soda and shredded potato, and ASG Michelada drink with Estrella beer, poached shrimp, lime, habanero pepper, Clamato juice, lime juice and tajin spice.

Given the fresh fish in the area, items also include mahi mahi tacos and Ahi tuna poke stuffed avocado.

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