This sounds like really good news!
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wants to get more people playing some form of baseball, @TylerKepner explains. http://t.co/uxcFukwSfF
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) June 18, 2015
Thursday, Major League Baseball issued a press release but, and I'm gonna be real frank here, there wasn't much to it. There's a new website, PlayBall.org, that makes it easier to find local youth leagues. But didn't Google already make that pretty easy?
There are some coaching tutorials, and apparently on-line classes are coming. You can find MLB's Pitch Smart guidelines, and there's some really great advice about sunscreen (at least SPF 40, kids!). And there are some suggestions for other, baseball-like games. Kickball, even!
Hey, neat-o. But I'm fairly confident that this website will increase the number of kids playing baseball and baseball-like games, whether in organized leagues or not, by roughly 0 percent.
I mean, these days you can't do anything without a website. But that's the easy part. The hard part is actually doing work, and doing work actually costs money.
One thing that's notably missing, so far, is even the slightest mention of money. Commissioner Manfred says he wants more kids playing baseball. I believe him! I want that and I'll bet you do, too.
Joe Biden's got a favorite saying: "Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."
Well, you can't really hold anything against the Commissioner, because he controls only so much of the money. But Major League Baseball's revenues reportedly topped $9 billion last year, and they're reportedly shooting for $15 billion in just the next few years.
In this environment, $100 million is practically chump change. But I'll bet you a dollar that MLB's not willing to invest more than a small fraction of $100 million on Commissioner Rob's wants.
Which is why I have a tough time taking any of this seriously.
