The Boring Winter Ahead: Watch the 2000 World Series Game Two HERE

Game Two of the 2000 World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.

Why no Game One? Can't find it on Youtube. Spoiler alert, Yankees won behind a Luis Vizcaino single and some strong defense from Derek Jeter and company. 

Manfred’s Hot Ticket Items for 2016

Earlier this week we praised Rob Manfred’s first season as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball and donned the season a success. You know us here at The Greedy Pinstripes by now, we take the time to celebrate what needs to be celebrated and we move on to the next one. Manfred can celebrate his successes in 2015 for now but soon he will have to begin focusing on the 2016 season. I wanted to make this a little easier for him, because I know deep in my heart he’s reading this either directly or having him read it for him indirectly, by laying out the hot ticket items that will be discussed, implemented or changed before the 2016 season.

The New CBA

The current collective bargaining agreement expires at the conclusion of the 2016 season and World Series, well like a month and a half later but who is counting, and it’s never too early to start discussing it now. The players will want this, the owners will want that and the sooner they begin to meet in the middle on the things the better in my opinion. Also this is going to be a huge factor in the decision making on a lot of the key note items below.

Minority Hiring in MLB

We touched on this once in its own post so we won’t spend much time here. MLB’s plan seems to be a long-term plan that begins at the bottom and works itself up. Major League Baseball has begun infiltrating the inner city’s youth and putting baseball academies, the RBI program etc. in trying to lure minorities to the game at a young age. That interest at a young age will turn many of those children, hopefully, into baseball players and then eventual managers, GM’s and owners. It’s a very long-term plan but it’s been in the works since the Bud Selig era so Manfred may end up getting the bulk of the credit for it.

Fan Safety

MLB will continue to talk about potentially adding nets down the first base and third base side of the fields much like they have behind home plate. This is already planning to be discussed at an owners meeting on November 18^th and 19^th. This seems to me to be a relatively small change and improvement to keep the fans safe. No fans, no revenue and no Major League Baseball.

Parity

Parity seems to be showing its ugly face in Major League Baseball and Manfred hopes it continues. The Top 9 teams in terms of payroll did not make the League Championship Series and the 13^th highest payroll, Kansas City at $128.1 million, and the 19^th highest payroll, the New York Mets at $109.6 million, made it to the 2015 World Series.

The Chase Utley Slide Rule

According to Manfred the whole “takeout the second baseman with a slide to break up the double play” or what am I referring to as the Chase Utley Rule was being talked about before the postseason. Preliminary discussions with the MLB Players Association have already taken place so this one is getting done one way or another.

Shortening or Changing the Schedule

There have been talks of going back to a 154-game schedule instead of the current 162-game schedule and there has also been talks of opening the season earlier to avoid November World Series games. Personally, being born on November 2, I like having World Series games being played on my birthday. I can remember AJ Burnett, my favorite pitcher (there is something about throwing a no-hitter with nine walks that intrigues me) pitching on my birthday with the Yankees on the cusp of clinching the 2009 World Series. That didn’t happen but it was still cool.

That’s just a few of the things Manfred will presumably talk about this winter, if I missed any please leave them in the comments section below or shoot me a tweet by following @GreedyStripes. 

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners 7/18

The New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners are back at it again this afternoon inside Yankee Stadium as the two face off head-to-head in a day game after a night game. These are the types of scenarios that MLB Players Association head Tony Clark hopes to avoid by shortening the schedule to 154 games but when you’re paying a guy $15- $30 million a season guaranteed whether they play or not I find it hard to feel sorry for them but anyway, I digress. The Yankees will send Michael Pineda to the mound this afternoon in the Bronx to face off with Hisashi Iwakuma for the Seattle Mariners. The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

• Pineda has looked decent in his last three starts allowing just four runs, three of them earned, while punching out 24 batters in 21.2 innings pitched. If the Yankees are going to go anywhere this season it is going to be on the right arm of yesterday’s starter, Masahiro Tanaka, and today’s starter, Michael Pineda.

• Iwakuma is fresh off a start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim where he threw eight shutout innings in a victory for Seattle. This was just Iwakuma’s second start since coming off the disabled list and it improved his overall record to 1-1 and his ERA to 5.22 this season. Iwakuma owns a 1-2 record with a 3.33 ERA career against New York in four starts.

The New York Yankees have one more game tomorrow in the Bronx before another off day so I expect all hands to be on deck in the bullpen not only for this contest but for tomorrow’s as well. The Yankees bullpen is definitely the strength of this team and the more that Joe Girardi can use the pen, without overusing them of course, the better off the team will be. I want to win and this team will live and die off the offense and the bullpen, let’s hope both are up to the task this afternoon in the Bronx. Go Yankees!

Reducing MLB Schedule Back to 154 Games?

We all know the story of Roger Maris’ assault on Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record when he hit 61 home runs in 1961 and we all know about the asterisk that was originally placed on the milestone. The asterisk was placed next to the historic number because up until the 1961 season the Major League Baseball schedule only contained 154 games. Before the 1961 season the schedule was lengthened to 162 games but MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the director of the MLB Players Association Tony Clark are at least discussing the possibility of moving the schedule back to 154 games.

What would it mean for the game? Would Barry Bonds single-season record for home runs, 73 home runs, become one of those records that will never be broken? Will Ichiro’s 262 hits in a single season join Bond’s record along with the Seattle Mariners epic 116 win season? In a word, probably.

I understand the players are tired, the schedule is the most demanding in all of professional sports and the grind is showing up in the lack of offense in the league and in time spent on the disabled list but I personally find it hard to feel sorry for these players. There are more big money contracts being shelled out in Major League Baseball then there are in any other sport and that’s a fact so you tend to get what you pay for. And when you and I purchase tickets, MLB Network subscriptions, YES Network subscriptions, MLB TV subscriptions, Yankees hats and memorabilia or clothing etc. we are getting what WE paid for. Sure the players may want the same salary or more for less games but what do the fans want, did they ever consider that?

The excuses are already filling in about seeing your favorite players more often and all that but generally your ticket is purchased long before the lineups for that particular day are posted. I don’t buy it and frankly I don’t like it, maybe I’m moving from progressive to the old man that doesn’t like change, who knows? One thing is for certain though, this would be the most drastic change to Major League Baseball in my lifetime in my opinion and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. I consider myself to be very progressive and I’m all for change but this seems to be a step back both from the fans perspective and the business side of Major League Baseball. I’m not sure I like it so I hope it doesn’t come down to this.