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Iron Manfred

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred expounds on the pitch-clock, the multiplatform problem, and the challenge of getting Gen Z to love the game.

rob manfred
Rule changes in MLB’s 2023 season have resulted in improvements in the metrics that executives care about the most: Games are shorter now. Photo: Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos/Getty Images
John Ourand
July 19, 2024

The rich, 120-plus-year history of Major League Baseball has always been a double-edged sword for the league office. Sure, it’s nominally easy to sell that tradition—it spans generations, and allows parents and their children to share a common bond. Only in baseball can you compare Shohei Ohtani’s modern-day stats with Babe Ruth’s from a century ago. And yet, while baseball isn’t shy about celebrating its legacy, that long history has made it challenging for MLB to adapt its game without endless cantankerous arguments about, you know, everything: the 162-game season, the new norms of starting pitching, the DH, etcetera.