Sports

Rob Manfred finally got his marquee World Series. Here’s how he plans to capitalize

Published

1 year ago

October 26, 2024

Rob Manfred finally got his marquee World Series. Here’s how he plans to capitalize

This World Series gives baseball a chance to reclaim its own moniker, for the national pastime to again be national. And maybe even more.

Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s commissioner, has been gifted a marketer’s dream. Two of the sport’s most iconic brands, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, are squaring off in the best-of-seven championship round. Those metropolitan areas happen to carry more television viewers than any other in the country, and their teams are wildly good.

Now in his 10th season leading the sport, Manfred believes baseball is positioned to capitalize on the moment, to propel Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees further into the sporting fan’s consciousness.

“This is trying to market to the whole nation and internationally, and it is different than what has been done in the past,” Manfred said in an interview with The Athletic.

A surreal collection of talent will be on display at Dodger Stadium when the series begins Friday. Ohtani, of Japan, enraptured at least two countries this season by becoming the first player to reach 50 home runs and steal 50 bases. Judge hit 60 home runs two years ago and he fell just two short of the mark this year. But Los Angeles’ Mookie Betts might be the game’s most complete player not named Ohtani, and the young Yankees slugger Juan Soto could command a $500 million or even $600 million contract as a free agent this winter.

“There’s a lot to capitalize on here,” said Jim Andrews, a sports sponsorship expert and founder of A-Mark Strategies. “It comes down to the very specific execution. How do you literally produce the right content on the right channels? The core fans are probably very excited for a lot of reasons. But how do you use this opportunity to bring in new fans? That, I think, is the key.”

Manfred and baseball’s teams have long been told they fall short in promoting their stars. On Wednesday, he said that some of that criticism has been fair, and some of it hasn’t.

“When you hear something enough, I think it takes a certain level of arrogance to ignore it, and it certainly was something that was being said,” Manfred said. “As a result, I paid attention to it. It’s a question of focus. The clubs locally did a lot of marketing, and we relied on that local marketing. I think what I’m talking about here is an entirely different focus.”

Manfred outlined four main pieces to the league’s plan to wrangle hearts and minds, with some crossover.

The first is leaning into the obvious: the players. One campaign features Judge and Ohtani with the tagline, “Once in a Generation. Twice.” There’s league content designed around them individually — “All Rise” for Judge, “Sho Time” for Ohtani — as well as others, distributed everywhere from social media and TV, to out-of-home billboards and signage.

The second effort isn’t surprising either, an acknowledgment of history.

“Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson played against each other in a Yankee-Dodger World Series. So did Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax,” Manfred said. “This one is a continuation.”

Both Manfred and Clayton Kershaw stand to benefit from the Dodgers making it back to the World Series. (Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

The third goes overseas. The most-watched MLB postseason game in Japan all-time was earlier this posteason, in the Dodgers’ decisive Game 5 win over the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series. More estimated average viewers watched the game in Japan on TV, 12.9 million, than in the U.S. One of the two starting pitchers from that game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers, is set to pitch Game 2 of the World Series.

“I think our ratings in Japan are going to be awesome,” Manfred said. “That’s an important market where you can make real money.”

Earlier in the postseason, MLB took out 113 billboard ads around Tokyo, a nod to the combined number of home runs and stolen bases Ohtani reached.

And the fourth part of the league’s plan is domestic, built around a hope that the World Series is regarded as more than just a bicoastal, big-city party.

“We’re in a lot of non-LA, non-New York markets promoting. We got a thing going in Las Vegas at the Sphere,” Manfred said. “Why are we doing that? That’s part of, we want the World Series to be an event where people across America, not just in the two cities, are watching.”

A through-line in the effort is an attempt to focus on younger fans via social media and music, to meet fans where they are. MLB worked with El Alfa, a Dominican music artist, to create a song about Soto heading into the playoffs. Andrews said social media is an area where MLB has historically lagged behind the NBA and NFL.

Last year’s World Series, between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, did not present the same opportunity. But once any match-up is set, there’s a limit to how much MLB can newly devise to power a series, Andrews said. Success is largely a test of plans already in place.

In that vein, Jon Einalhori, vice president of marketing for the player agency Apex, believes the Series can go so far as to revitalize the game.

“No, it’s not hyperbolic, because there really is an opportunity here,” said Einalhori, who represents several of the series’ participants. “You look at all the data on how many fans came through, the TV ratings, the eyeballs, the social-media impressions, there’s trends going upwards. Everything’s been building up for years.”

The league said the median age of ticket purchasers had dropped to from 51 to 46. FOX, which broadcasts the World Series, has seen a 39 percent increase in the 18 to 34 demographic for this postseason compared to last year, their best since 2017.

SponsorUnited, a platform that tracks sponsorships across sports, published a report Thursday that said the number of Japanese brands in MLB stadiums has risen 218 percent in two seasons, a development tied at least in part to Ohtani’s stardom.

The Dodgers and the Yankees combined for an estimated $300 million in sponsorship revenue this year, which makes for a big-money match-up in ways other than payroll. SponsorUnited’s founder, Bob Lynch, described their meeting as the “equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys competing against the Golden State Warriors: two entities that generate more sponsorship revenues combined than any other two that have ever played each other, in the U.S.”

“The way I look at this World Series is that we’ve had two really good years in a row,” Manfred said. “Attendance is up, our ratings are good, our demographics — both ticket purchasing and broadcast audience — are really improving. … And I think that this World Series provides an opportunity to appeal to a national audience because of the matchup and the players involved.”

The start of the 2023 season is a line of demarcation. Manfred bucked traditionalists and introduced a pitch clock, forcing faster game action and making games snappier.

Lynch said too that he’s noticed the league has boosted its own internal business operations, which advise the clubs. MLB teams saw a collective 20 percent increase in sponsorship revenue this season.

“They had an amazingly successful season off the field,” Lynch said. “This is a lucky culmination of a great year in business.”

Not everything will be in MLB’s control for the next eight days, the maximum amount of time the series can run. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Einalhori said he understands MLB is being flooded with requests from celebrities to attend the games.

“You’re going to have hundreds of millions, if not — I kid you not — billions of social-media impressions from outside the baseball sphere,” Einalhori said. “That’s the most immeasurable thing I think as far as capitalizing, but it’s probably going to bring the most value.”

FOX also will have a large say in how the game is received. From the presidential election, college football and NFL and now NBA seasons, it’s a crowded news cycle baseball has to break through, Andrews said.

“Clearly, your broadcast partner needs to be helping you out,” he said.

MLB and FOX did give consideration to one special accommodation that didn’t wind up being necessary.

For the first time this year, the World Series had two possible start dates: Oct. 25, or Oct. 22. The earlier date would have helped avoid a long layoff if both series of the prior round, the National League and American League Championship Series, finished in five games or fewer.

But when both the Dodgers and the Yankees were both entering their fifth game with a chance to close out that round, MLB and FOX considered keeping the World Series on the later schedule anyway, so it could marinate.

“That was really, in large measure, driven by the desire of our broadcast partners to have a little more time to sell,” Manfred said of the discussion.

In the end, because the Dodgers needed six games to advance, the conversation was moot. But an L.A.-New York meeting is a boon for FOX, which is tapping into fan bases from the two most populous cities in the country.

Naturally, some fans in smaller markets will in turn complain that those teams, and their large payrolls, are the last two standing. But Manfred defended the state of competition and parity across the sport.

“Our record on competitive balance is darn good,” Manfred said. “I just don’t think you can scream about the Yankees and the Dodgers given the matchups that we’ve had in recent years.”

In this hallmark World Series, Manfred said “long term efforts are starting to bear a lot of fruit.” Quickly, the question will be how long it can stay ripe. MLB in coming years may try to launch a national streaming package with a major digital company. How much money it can make from those media rights will depend on how well it commands attention across the country.

“The NFL has just done such an amazing job of really creating year-round content and things to talk about, whereas baseball tends to fade away in the depths of winter until spring training starts,” Andrews said. “Lean into your socials and say, we’ve got these stories of, ‘Hey, if you missed it, here’s a reminder of all of the exciting stuff that happened last fall, and make sure you don’t miss out in 2025.’”

(Illustration by Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Heather Barry, Todd Kirkland, Rob Tringali, Kevork Djansezian /Getty Images)

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Sports

Eileen Gu reflects on decision to leave Team USA for China: ‘A lot of people just don’t understand’

Published

6 hours ago

March 3, 2026

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Eileen Gu reflects on decision to leave Team USA for China: ‘A lot of people just don’t understand’

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Eileen Gu released a statement on social media Monday, reflecting on her controversial decision to compete for Team China despite being born and raised in the U.S.

Gu’s statement tied the decision back to her passion for promoting women’s sports, and encouraging young girls to pursue sports.

“I gave my first speech on women in sports and title IX when I was 11 years old. I talked about being the only girl on my ski team, and, despite attending an all-girls’ school from Monday through Friday, becoming best friends with my teammates on the weekends through the common language of sport,” Gu wrote on Instagram.

Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China poses for photos after the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“At the same time, I was made painfully aware of the lack of representation – at age 9, I felt that I was somehow representing all women every time I stepped in the terrain park. Landing tricks was about more than progression … it was about disproving the derisive implication of what it meant to ‘ski like a girl.’”

Gu went on to express gratitude for the one season in which she did compete for the U.S.

“When I was 15, I announced my decision to compete for China. At the time, I had spent one season on the US team, and had been lucky enough to meet my heroes in person. I am forever grateful for that season, and continue to maintain a close relationship with the team. I had spent every summer in China since I was 8 setting up summer camps on trampoline and dry slope for kids and adults, ranging from 7 to 47 years old, so I knew the industry was tiny. I felt like I knew everyone,” she added.

“Skiing for Team China meant the opportunity to uplift others through the universal culture of sport, and to introduce freeskiing to hundreds of millions of people who had never heard of it, especially with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics around the corner.”

Gu’s statement concluded by acknowledging that certain people “don’t understand” her decision to compete for China over the U.S., while insisting the choice maximized the impact she would have.

“I can look back now, at 22, and tell 12 year old Eileen that there are now terrain parks full of little girls, who will never doubt their place in the sport. I can tell 15 year old me that there are now millions of girls who have started skiing since then, in China and worldwide,” Gu wrote.

“A lot of people won’t understand or believe that I made a decision to create the greatest amount of positive impact on the world stage that I could, at this age, given my interests and passions. Three golds and six medals later, I can confidently say was once a dream is now a reality.”

Gu has become a target for global criticism this Olympics for her decision to represent China while remaining silent on the country’s alleged human rights abuses.

In an interview with Time magazine, Gu was asked her thoughts on China’s alleged persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

“I haven’t done the research. I don’t think it’s my business. I’m not going to make big claims on my social media,” Gu answered.

“I’m just more of a skeptic when it comes to data in general. … So, it’s not like I can read an article and be like, ‘Oh, well, this must be the truth.’ I need to have a ton of evidence. I need to maybe go to the place, maybe talk to 10 primary source people who are in a location and have experienced life there.

“Then I need to go see images. I need to listen to recordings. I need to think about how history affects it. Then I need to read books on how politics affects it. This is a lifelong search. It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the mouthpiece for any agenda.”

More controversy surrounding Gu erupted after The Wall Street Journal reported that Gu and another American-born athlete who now competes for China, were paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025.

Gu is the highest-paid Winter Olympics athlete in the world, making an estimated $23 million in 2025 alone due to partnerships with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China and western companies.

Her alignment with China prompted criticism from many Americans this Olympics, including Vice President J.D. Vance.

“I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that makes this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”

Later, when Gu was asked if she feels “like a bit of a punching bag for a certain strand of American politics at the moment,” she said she does.

“I do,” she said. “So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So, it’s not really about what they think it’s about.

“And, also, because I win. Like, if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”

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Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China attends the awarding ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Gu has claimed she was “physically assaulted” for the decision.

“The police were called. I’ve had death threats. I’ve had my dorm robbed,” Gu told The Athletic.

“I’ve gone through some things as a 22-year-old that I really think no one should ever have to endure, ever.”

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Sports

Arnold, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Evans, Carl Lewis new members of California’s Hall of Fame

Published

7 hours ago

March 3, 2026

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Arnold, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Evans, Carl Lewis new members of California’s Hall of Fame

From Hollywood actors to Olympic athletes and politicians, California’s newest Hall of Fame class runs the gamut in talent and achievements.

Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and former governor/action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Olympic champions Janet Evans and Carl Lewis, authors Riane Eisler and Terry McMillan, chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, groundbreaking ensemble Mariachi Reyne de Los Ángeles and former state Democratic leader John L. Burton all earned a spot into the assembly of distinct Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.

This class, the 19th in state history, will be formally enshrined during a ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento on March 19 as a “celebration of their contributions to civic life, creativity, and social progress,” according to Newsom’s office.

The inductees “have reshaped our culture and our communities. Resilient and innovative, these leaders and luminaries represent the best of the California spirit,” Newsom said in a statement.

To be inducted, candidates must have lived in California for at least five years and “have made achievements benefiting the state, nation and world,” according to the California Hall of Fame website. To date, 166 Californians have been selected by three governors since 2006.

Schwarzenegger, 78, served as the state’s 38th governor and last Republican head of state from 2003 to 2011. His renaissance man biography includes a career as a body builder, highlighted by his Mr. Universe titles, action film success, political stardom and even tabloid-fodder infidelity.

Curtis, 67, a Santa Monica native, is among Hollywood’s elite and teamed with Schwarzenegger in the action blockbuster “True Lies” in 1994. Her acting career dates to 1977, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2023 for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Evans, 54, is a four-time Olympic gold medal swimmer and Fullerton native who attended Placentia El Dorado High School, Stanford University and USC. She serves as chief athletic officer for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Lewis, 64, is considered by many one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. The track star won 10 medals, nine of them gold, in four Olympics.

Eisler, 88, and McMillan, 74, added multiple bestsellers to this Hall of Fame class.

Eisler’s critically acclaimed “The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future” examines roughly 20,000 years of partnership between men and women and male domination over the last 5,000 years. The futurist, cultural historian and Holocaust survivor who has degrees in sociology and law from UCLA said she was informed of the honor last year by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and recently was honored by the Austrian government with its Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class.

“I am very honored at this time in my life to be inducted into the California Hall of Fame,” Eisler wrote in an email. “I have worked tirelessly to help create a better world, and firmly believe that a new paradigm, a new way of looking at our world and our place in it, is crucial.”

McMillan has written a series of smash hits, including a couple that became major studio films in the ‘90s, “Waiting to Exhale” and “How Stella Got her Groove Back,” centered on Black women’s voices.

Matsuhisa, 76, know for his iconic Japanese restaurant Nobu, which has six locations in California, owns businesses across five continents.

Mariachi Reyna de Los Ángeles, founded in South El Monte, rewrote the rules of music, becoming the first all-woman mariachi ensemble that has entertained for more than three decades.

Burton, the former chair of the California Democratic Party who died last year at 92, boasted a political career that included time in the California State Assembly and Senate and the U.S. House.

“This year’s class embodies the very best of California — creativity, resilience and a spirit of community,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “These honorees remind us that innovation and courage flourish when people are lifted up by those around them.”

Sports

Former NFL Players Of Iranian Descent Speak Up For Freedom From Islamic Regime

Published

18 hours ago

March 3, 2026

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Former NFL Players Of Iranian Descent Speak Up For Freedom From Islamic Regime

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Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.

They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.

Washington Redskins kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) talks to reporters at Jack Murphy Stadium during media day prior to Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos. San Diego, California, on Jan. 26, 1988.(Darr Beiser/USA TODAY Sports)

Haji-Sheikh: Self-Determination For Iranians

Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.

Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits.

Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh’s dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.

And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he’s never visited but has a kinship to.

“It’s a world event,” Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. “I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.

Green Bay Packers kicker Al Del Greco (10) talks with New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) on Sept. 15, 1985, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers defeated the Giants 23-20.

Iranians Celebrating And Americans Protesting

Haji-Sheikh hasn’t taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn’t fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah.

“I’m so far removed from that,” Haji-Sheikh said. “My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it’s like, he hasn’t been back since I was in eighth grade, so that’s a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.

“But if things change he might want to go, you never know.”

Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.

“My favorite thing I’m seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there’s a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom,” Haji-Sheikh said. “And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?”

Pourdanesh Thanks America, Israel

Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL’s first Iranian-born player.

Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.

“This is a great day for all Iranians across the world,” Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. “Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.

“The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country.”

This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government’s thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.

Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh (68) of the Pittsburgh Steelers blocks against defensive lineman Jevon Kearse (90) of the Tennessee Titans during a game at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2000, in Pittsburgh. The Titans defeated the Steelers 23-20. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)

‘Islam Does Not Represent The Iranian People’

“[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” Pourdanesh said in another post. “Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it’s time to take that regime down.”

Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn’t play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.

And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.

One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.

Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah’s regime “illegal” but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.

(Starmer announced a national “statutory inquiry” in June 2025).

Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh of the Washington Redskins looks on from the sideline during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers defeated the Redskins 14-13. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)

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Pourdanesh Calls Out NFL Silence

And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women’s rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.

“I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven’t we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?

“Why haven’t we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven’t we heard a single word?”

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