Good morning, all! If you are a baseball fan, today is your day!
MLB’s wild card playoff round starts today and for fans it is baseball nirvana. The first game between the Tigers and Guardians starts at 1:08 p.m. EDT and the last game between the Reds and Dodgers begins at 9:08 p.m. EDT. Sprinkled in between are the Padres and Cubs and those ardent rivals, the Yankees and Red Sox. In the above video I run down the favorites for the series and for Game 1.
Here are some other thoughts, as baseball managers begin to lose their jobs:
Bob Melvin and Rocco Baldelli are no longer the hot managerial commodities they used to be. Managing clubs, who lose plenty of games, has a way of changing one’s resume. On Monday, the Giants fired Melvin and the Twins gave Baldelli the pink slip. My hunch is both could end up managing other clubs, but they will not be front-of-the-line-candidates.
How long is the baseball season? Remember the Twins were the talk of baseball earlier in the year with a 13-game winning streak.
Carlos Mendoza gets a reprieve. The Mets will bring their manager back for a third year, despite a disappointing season. Coming within two games of making the World Series last year, the Mets were expected to make a big playoff push in 2025, what with the mega signing of free agent Juan Soto and baseball’s second highest payroll. But from mid-June the Mets went from baseball’s best record to playing 17 games under .500 (baseball’s fifth worst record) to drop out of the playoff hunt. So disappointing was the Mets season it led owner Steve Cohen to issue a statement of apology. It might not have had the pizzazz of a George Steinbrenner, but it indicated changes will be coming:
Turns out the Pittsburgh Pirates are staying the course, keeping GM Ben Cherington and removing the interim tag from Manager Don Kelly’s title. The Pirates played much better, after Kelly assumed the helm, following Derek Shelton’s firing. They were 71-91 overall and 59-65 under Kelly. I believe the Bucs will have to play at least .500 baseball next season, for both to keep their jobs.
Pray for New York Giants owner John Mara, 70, who revealed through a statement released by the team that he has cancer. The statement did not reveal what type of cancer Mara had but did quote the owner as stating he was undergoing treatment and “strong and optimistic” about a positive outcome.
Speaking of the Giants, WR Malik Nabers will be out for the season with a torn ACL.
I love Monday night NFL games starting at 7:15, let me tell ya.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has announced 10 finalists for the Ford C. Frick award:
Skip Caray, Harry’s son and Chip’s dad, had so many great one liners, there are too many to mention here. But one of my favorites was when the Atlanta Braves would be getting blown out in a game he would say: “You have my permission to go and walk the dog.”
ESPN announced an overall 21 percent increase in viewership for 30 MLB regular season telecasts in 2025 and a 14 percent hike in the coveted 18-49 demo. Their games averaged 1.8M viewers. For baseball, those are numbers to crow about but they are not even in the same ballpark as an average Saturday afternoon college football game. As for the NFL? Well their numbers are from another planet.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. As always thank you for subscribing and enjoy your Tuesday.
DAN
