This past weekend was the 2nd annual Little League Classic. The Little League Classic takes place in Williamsport, PA during the Little League World Series and allows the major leaguers from 2 teams to interact with the little leaguers at the event. This year's teams, the Mets and Phillies, spent time in the stands at the little league games and got to spend the day remembering it's a kids game before playing a game of their own at the minor league stadium in Williamsport. This event has already been placed on the calendar for next year featuring the Pirates and the Cubs.
I believe that Commissioner Rob Manfred is planning to implement more events like this one. We saw this year the Puerto Rico series where Cleveland and Minnesota played a two game series in San Juan that really rejuvenated the island's spirits after dealing with Hurricane Maria. It also gave the opportunity for many of the Puerto Rican born players to play in front of their friends and family. Francisco Lindor was the star of game one, the Puerto Rican native homered to give the Indians a 2-0 lead in the 5th and they would go on to win 6-1.
The Commissioner has also already green lighted a game for next year in Omaha that will take place between the Royals and the Tigers two days before the College World Series is set to start. This is a game that will be played at TD Ameritrade, which is the same location the CWS is played. There is also talk about moving the MLB Draft to Omaha and have it take place before to During the CWS. This would make it quite the weekend to bring a MLB game and the draft to one of the best baseball events in the country already. The CWS is a fantastic event that features high level baseball talent and the joys of college tailgating. And the event always runs through the father's day weekend.
There is also going to be a series next year where the Yankees and Red Sox will take their rivalry across the pond and play a two game series in London at London Stadium. This is part of a 2 year deal that will bring another pair of teams to London in 2020. This is the first time the MLB has crossed the Atlantic for a regular season contest, as teams have previously played in Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Australia. The Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners will also open their season in Japan next year, marking the 5th time MLB has opened the season in Japan (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012).
All of these games are part of the goal for MLB to expand their fan base and grow the game both at home and internationally. I think that these are good for the game, so the questions is what's next and what else makes sense?
Cooperstown during induction weekend: Having experienced induction weekend for the 1st time this year, I got a sense for the schedule and roughly what the town is like during the weekend as they estimated 50,000 people there for the ceremony. If they were to play the Sunday night game at Doubleday field I think it would draw a huge crowd. You're going to have tons of baseball fans there already, many legends that are already in attendance for the induction, and you have the Cooperstown Dreams Park tournament that features several hundred young players there every week in the summer. The logistics of making Doubleday field accommodating for the teams and fans would be the most difficult part, but I think everyone in upstate New York would love a Yankees vs Mets game in Cooperstown.
Hawaii : Hawaii is not exactly known for being a baseball hotbed, but it has produced 43 major leaguers and has sent 3 little league teams to the LLWS, winning it all in 2008 and runner up in 2010 and are currently there this year. I'm sure all the players that get the opportunity to play in the game would love the trip, and you'd have your choice of all the west coast teams to send to the islands. The games I believe would be well attended as many islanders don't get the opportunity to see many big league games, especially in person.
Caribbean Islands/ Northern South America: There are clearly many major leaguers from the Caribbean and countries like Venezuela and Columbia. To bring the big league game to the islands of the Caribbean and northern South America would be an amazing experience for the players. The people of the Caribbean love the game of baseball and have a lot of fun watching it as we saw in the Puerto Rico Series. There would have to be some political stuff to be worked out in order to get some of these games done, especially in Venezuela and Cuba, but if they could make it happen it would be great baseball to watch.
South Africa: This one may take some time to really get a head of steam, but the first African born player did make the big leagues this year, Gift Ngoepe. It would be a very interesting game and a ton of research would need to be done if they could gain enough interest in the game to make it worth it, but to bring major league baseball to the African continent would be a sight to see. Something to think about for maybe the year 2025-2030.
It is interesting to see where the Commissioner is thinking about taking the game. Does he want to make it more of a global game. Could he make it a true World Series, with winners from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia actually play in a world series? Who knows, but I do like the expansion ideas.
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