SEATTLE — If you’re scoring at home, the number is 33 — as in years since Wrigley Field played host to an All-Star Game.
“That’s a long time,” Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday before the Midsummer Classic.
Next year’s game will be at the Rangers’ Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, and the 2026 game will be at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
So could 2025 be Wrigley’s chance? Not so fast because MLB is still trying to direct a game to Atlanta, which was supposed to play host to the 2021 game. Coors Field in Denver got that game after objections to Georgia’s sweeping changes to voting laws.
Suddenly, Atlanta is A-OK by MLB standards.
“Atlanta is in the mix of clubs for the ’25 All-Star Game,” Manfred said.
That means 2027 could be Wrigley’s shot. Fans at Wrigley are used to being patient, even if it means 37 years between All-Star Games. The White Sox hosted the 2003 All-Star Game.
“As time goes by, I’ve been more focused on keeping track of when a game was last there and trying to get back to places where we haven’t been in a really long time,” Manfred said.
Don’t bet on it
Manfred has no intention of altering Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball and said the sport’s commercial deals with gambling companies have no impact on the status of the career hits leader.
Rose agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation for MLB by lawyer John Dowd found that he placed numerous bets on the Reds to win from 1985 to 1987 while playing for and managing the team.
The Hall of Fame’s board decided in 1991 that players on the permanently ineligible list also may not appear on the Hall ballot. Rose asked the Hall in 2016 to change the rule.
Rose applied for reinstatement in 1997 and met with then-commissioner Bud Selig in 2002, but Selig never ruled on Rose’s application. Manfred succeeded Selig in 2015 and rejected Rose’s application.
“We’ve always approached the issue of gambling from the proposition that players and other people who are in a position to influence the outcome of the game are going to be subject to a different set of rules than everyone else in the world,” Manfred said.
“Pete Rose violated what is sort of Rule 1 in baseball, and the consequences of that are clear in the rule, and we’ve continued to abide by our own rules. It’s just the rules are different for players. It’s part of the responsibility that comes with the privilege of being a major-league player.”
Manfred minimized MLB’s revenue from gaming companies.
“I think people believe we make more money off gambling than we actually do,” he said.
Vegas, maybe
The Oakland Athletics have started the process of applying to MLB to move to Las Vegas.
MLB last month established a relocation committee to evaluate the move.
“They have begun to submit information related to their relocation application,” Manfred said. “It’s not complete at this point.”
Nevada’s Legislature approved providing $380 million in public financing for a proposed $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof on the Tropicana Hotel site of the Las Vegas Strip. The new venue would be close to Allegiant Stadium, where the NFL’s Oakland Raiders moved to in 2020, and T-Mobile Arena, where the newly crowned Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights started play in 2017 as an expansion team.
A move would have to be approved by at least 75% of the 30 major-league teams.
On the clock
Manfred will consider increasing time on the pitch clock for the postseason but is reluctant to adjust an innovation the sport considers a great success.
In the first season of the clock, the average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 38 minutes, on track to be the fastest since 1984. It’s down from 3:04 last year and 3:09 in 2021, the last season before PitchCom was introduced.
“We’re going to continue to talk to the players,” Manfred said. “I think you ought to play the postseason the way you play the regular season. There’s exceptions. I’m open-minded on that topic.”
