Baseball commissioner's thoughts on PEDs, slide rule and social media
Major-league baseball commissioner Rob Manfred picked a good time to be visit Chicago.
Manfred was at U.S. Cellular Field Thursday afternoon before the first-place Chicago White Sox played the first-place Boston Red Sox.
At Wrigley Field, two more first-place teams, the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals, also squared off.
According to STATS, it was the first time in history four first-place teams played in the same city on the same day.
It was also Manfred's first visit to the Cell since taking over as commissioner on Jan. 25, 2015.
"Lots of good baseball teams here in Chicago this week," Manfred said. "I'm just glad to be here and have a chance to see a game."
Manfred met with the media for almost 30 minutes, and here are the highlights:
Q: What are your thoughts on Miami's Dee Gordon and Toronto's Chris Colabello, who were both suspended 80 games after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in April?
A: I think most importantly, the suspensions that we've had are evidence of the fact that we have a first-rate enforcement program. Our testing protocols are as good as anywhere in sport, and I'm leaving the word professional out on purpose. We take great pride in our investigative capacity, and both of those enforcement mechanisms have been in play this year. We are always disappointed when a player makes a bad decision. Having said that, we think we are doing the right thing in terms of protecting the integrity of the sport.
Q: How do you react to Gordon and Colabello both saying they had no idea they were taking anything illegal?
A: Without commenting on any particular individual, I think it's very difficult in a situation like this to, or it's a high standard to expect a player to address the media with complete candor. I think it's really hard to do that. It's hard to expect that. Usually, when you've had a problem like this, there's a period of time involved in which the individual would take full responsibility for what's happened. I think baseball players are no different than other people in that regard.
Q: Why are PEDs such a big deal in baseball compared to other professional sports?
A: I do think that fans care more about performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Quite frankly, I embrace that higher standard. It drives me. It drives us to try to be the best we can possibly be in terms of the program that we run to prevent the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Q: What is your reaction to the White Sox and Cubs having the best records in their respective leagues?
A: We are proud of all 30 of our markets. They're all important to us. There is no doubt that our largest markets, when they are successful, they're good for our overall business. I think the idea of having two really good teams in a major market like Chicago is particularly exciting. It creates the prospect of postseason play that could be compelling and it's a great thing, a great thing for Chicago.
Q: How about a Sox-Cubs World Series?
A: If I told you that hadn't crossed my mind, you'd say they need to get somebody else to do this job.
Q: The new slide rule at second base seems to be confusing to a lot of teams. Your thoughts?
A: Whenever you change a rule with respect to the play of the game on the field, there's going to be a period of adjustment. There has certainly been one in respect to the slide rule, but I focus on the positive. No. 1, I do think the rule serves a really important purpose and that is protecting players. I think even in the last couple of weeks, you see us getting more to the kind of equilibrium that we reached with respect to the home-plate rule and quite frankly, we got there a little faster at second base than we did at home plate."
Q: Does MLB need to improve its social media presence to attract younger fans?
A: I think we understand that baseball, to move forward with the next generation, needs to make our game available and to give our fans the opportunity to engage with our game on a variety of platforms. You can criticize us for having been a little slow in that regard. Even this season, you've seen us undertake a number of initiatives, new partnerships. I point specifically to the Snapchat day we did during spring training and I think that is indicative of the desire of major-league baseball to increase the fan engagement along those variety of platforms.
Q: Are baseball games still running too long?
A: We're watching the pace of game really carefully right now. Unfortunately, in a lot of parts of this country, we have not had very good weather. Those of you who spend a lot of times in ballparks realize cold weather, wet weather slows things down a little bit. We are going to be really focused on it in the next few weeks and we'd like to see the pace a little better than it is right now.
Scouting report
White Sox vs. Minnesota Twins at U.S. Cellular Field
TV: Comcast SportsNet today and Sunday; WGN Saturday
Radio: WLS 890-AM
Pitching matchups: The Sox's Mat Latos (4-0) vs. Ricky Nolasco (1-0) today at 7:10 p.m.; Chris Sale (6-0) vs. Ervin Santana (0-1) Saturday at 6:10 p.m.; Jose Quintana (4-1) vs. Tyler Duff (0-1) Sunday at 1:10 p.m.
At a glance: The American League's most surprising team last season with an 83-79 record, the Twins are the league's worst team this year at 8-20. Minnesota is 2-12 on the road. The White Sox swept a three-game series at Target Field in mid-April, outscoring the Twins 10-2. Latos beat Minnesota on April 14, allowing 1 run on 3 hits in 6 innings.
Next: Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park, Monday-Wednesday
- Scot Gregor