The Battle for a Baseball Season

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains strong language. Today, we go inside the fraught weeks that led up to the opening game of the 2020 professional baseball season — from the perspective of the commissioner of Major League Baseball. Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, who covers national security for The New York Times, spoke with Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: The schedule is short. The stadiums will be empty. This is what our baseball writer thinks the season might look like this year.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's March 11th and Major League Baseball's Commissioner Rob Manfred is sitting at his
0:12.3	home in Jupiter, Florida.
0:15.0	It's 15 days before what will likely be the most challenging season of his entire time
0:22.6	as the sports commissioner.
0:25.0	He's just been crushed in the press for how he's handled a cheating scandal by the Houston
0:32.1	Astros.
0:34.3	Interest in the sport is waning and attendance is down.
0:38.6	But that night at home in his living room, he can see that the coronavirus is starting
0:47.5	to engulf the country.
0:49.2	From the beginning of time, nations and people have faced unforeseen challenges, including
0:54.8	large-scale and very dangerous health arrests.
0:59.2	On his television, Donald Trump is addressing the country from the Oval Office.
1:06.2	And then Manfred stares down at his iPad.
1:09.4	Completely uncharted territories and we are going to get a little more information now from
1:16.4	the Adrian Worson-Alsty, which is he is with.
1:19.1	And he can see that ESPN has just moved a breaking news alert.
1:23.1	Right now, the NBA has made the decision, they have just announced that they are suspending
1:28.8	play that the NBA has suspended its season and Manfred realizes, oh shit, my sport is
1:46.1	supposed to begin its season and the entire country is shutting down around me.
1:53.4	And I have to figure out how to get my sport back on the field amid all this mess.
2:10.6	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Borrow, this is the Daily.
2:16.9	Today, my colleague Mike Schmidt on the fraud weeks that led up to last night's opening
	...

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