Twistity Sports Exclusive: MEET THE NEW BOSS

 
Major League Baseball managed, in one day, to name a successor to Commissioner Bud Selig. It wasn’t a first-ballot smash for Rob Manfred, MLB’s chief operating officer, but in the end he got unanimous support and the battle did not drag out.

An unnamed source told the Associated Press it took about six ballots on Thursday to sway a minority of team owners who backed one of their own, Tom Werner, who owns the Boston Red Sox, against the anointed Manfred, a baseball insider since the mid-1990s. This group included some labor hard-liners and there were enough of them to force several votes. Manfred needed 23 of 30 votes and got 20 in the first go-round to Werner’s 10. Eventually Manfred prevailed and the owners then voted to make it unanimous.

Oddly, baseball hadn’t contested an election for commissioner in 46 years. Selig, 80, will retire in January and Manfred, 55, will step in. Selig spent 22 years on the job after originally being named acting commissioner.

Manfred will face some tough issues. One is rebuilding baseball’s appeal to the younger generation. That’s critical in regaining national TV ratings, which have suffered badly.

Last year, even with the Red Sox winning the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, ratings were the fourth-worst ever and those paltry numbers were still improved by 17 percent over 2012’s.

The lengthy 162-game season and expanded playoffs drag the season out until the brink of November, when most minds and eyeballs have long since turned to college and pro football. Late starts for the World Series games also eliminate youngsters from the TV audience, at least on the East Coast.

Today’s question: What should baseball do to make itself more palatable to a younger audience? Answers in the comment box, please.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .