THE FINAL SUNDAY WITHOUT REAL BASEBALL UNTIL NOVEMBER
Dang! That's good news
“DANG!”
Pirates ace Paul Skenes was asked by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Colin Beasley what his WBC experience was like. Skenes answered: “Not good enough.”
“Obviously, want to win,” Skenes continued. “But in terms of being around the guys, that was pretty dang cool, just being in that clubhouse. Just got to finish the job.”
BIG NUMBERS FOR THE WBC
The WBC final between the USA and Venezuela averaged 10.7M domestic viewers. The US-Japan final in 2023 averaged 5M, and the 2017 US-Puerto Rico final drew 3M. That means that final game viewership has grown 300 dang percent since 2017.
The title game audience topped the prior WBC record, set just two days earlier for the U.S. semifinal win over the Dominican Republic, by 46%. The broadcast peaked at 12.15 million as the game neared its dramatic conclusion. The ratings for the Oscar telecast were down this year after four years of growth. One reason cited was that it was up against the US vs. the Dominican Republic game.
“I thought baseball won.” - Bryce Harper on the WBC. Apparently forgeting about Venezuela.
I, AGAIN, AGREE WITH CRAIG CALCATERRA
Billy-Ball friend Ken Rosenthal, on his must-listen to podcast Fair Territory, went after the supposed critics of Team USA who claim that the players didn’t care enough. Like Craig Calcaterra of Cup of Coffee fame, I have not heard that complaint. Craig wrote Friday morning, “It wasn’t that they didn’t care. It was that they cared very much but expressed it in an aggressively militaristic and jingoistic way that was weird, joyless, and off-putting, and which was awkwardly out of step with what all the other teams in the WBC were doing.”
Dang, that’s exactly what I wanted to write.
The Team USA attitude was best exhibited when, during an at-bat, Mexico’s Randy Arozarena tried to get a fist-bump from USA’s catcher Cal Raleigh, his Seattle Mariners teammate, and was rebuffed. Seattle Times Mariners writer Ryan Divish said Team USA made it clear they were putting “country ahead of teammates and friendships,” which many read as being a bit too self-serious for a baseball tournament. I’m fine with taking the game seriously, but dang Cal, it’s your teammate who wanted a fist bump, not a ride astride your big dumper.
BASEBALL WILL MISS HOWIE ROSE
Losing a longtime play-by-play announcer is like finding out your favorite neighbor is moving away. While it’s not a “death in the family” loss, it’s something that is felt by fans who have been kept company by a familiar voice six (and if you are lucky, seven) months a year. Although, I know many Red Sox fans who still miss the television voice of Don Orsillo, I feel there is in many ways a deeper, stronger connection between fans and their radio voice.
That is why Mets fans were hit hard by the news that Howie Rose is leaving the broadcast booth after starting in 1987. He has been the voice for generations of fans and has been with this team through ownership changes and one remarkably bad experience after another as fans (and Howie) had their hopes dashed. As Andrew Marchand wrote in The Athletic, “Rose never needed to look up anything on Google or try too hard to find the right words. His brain is like an encyclopedia of Mets knowledge.
Then his voice would cut through with the right inflection, letting you know that a ball was driven deep to right, and your ears would perk up a little. While as professional as they come, he sounded like the guy next to you in the upper deck.”
Howie Rose on the Mets’ original team of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner:
“They were in my eyes and ears for seven months of every year -- counting Spring Training and maybe through a postseason, even eight on a couple of occasions. So they became very much part of a family of sorts. I look at them in an avuncular way -- my uncles. And so when people tell me that I’ve had that impact on them, as those three did on me, that’s frankly the most flattering thing anybody could say to me and the sentiment that humbles me the most.”
Howie said he will broadcast 84 games this season, plus the entire postseason, should the Mets make it in 2026. He’ll work all 81 games at Citi Field, plus the three games at Yankee Stadium, before he puts it in the books for a final time.
GOOD NEWS FOR LISTENERS IN CITI FIELD
The Mets are partnering with Audacy and SportsBug to eliminate radio delays inside Citi Field. Using the MLB Ballpark app, fans inside the stadium can listen to the Mets radio broadcast with less than one second of delay. I wonder if that is related to the next story?
MORE GAMBLING NEWS, I MEAN MORE PREDICTING
Major League Baseball will partner with Polymarket, a prediction market that is just gambling by another name. Polymarket will become the exclusive prediction-market partner of MLB and will be the only platform allowed to use team logos and marks.
As explained by Evan Drellich of The Athletic: “Prediction markets allow users to bet on sports and other events, including in politics and pop culture, through the buying and selling of contracts, similar to a stock exchange. But similarities to traditional sports gambling, which is taxed and regulated differently, have prompted legal battles in several states.”
Polymarket will reportedly pay MLB 300 million dang dollars over four years. Oh, by the way, Donald Trump Jr. is a major investor in Polymarket.
CARPINO TO RETIRE AFTER 23 YEARS WITH THE ANGELS
The Angels' longtime president, John Carpino, will retire after 22 seasons with the team. Not that any of us should care. The Angels have managed to be a team that has squandered great talent, and its sole purpose seems to be the team on the schedule that you want to gift your season tickets to others so that you appear generous and have no fear that you will miss anything momentous.
More importantly, Carpino will be replaced on April 6th by the Angels' Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, Molly Jolly, who has been with the team for 26 seasons.
I wrote this entire story just so that I could write, “Molly Jolly.”
NETFLIX HAS WEDNESDAY’S OPENING NIGHT
Just a reminder, the Yankees-Giants game that will open the 2025 season will be on Netflix and will be called by Matt Vasgersian, former Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, and Hunter Pence. I’m real good with that. Matt is smart and will lead his boothmates into solid discussion.
Netflix has chosen to include Barry Bonds as an analyst for its pre- and post-game shows, which only puts off many of us. The Balco King will be joined by Albert Pujols, former Yankee Anthony Rizzo, and host Elle Duncan. Bonds will also be part of the other two events it is broadcasting this season: the Home Run Derby on July 13 and the “MLB at Field of Dreams” game between the Twins and Phillies on Aug. 13.
Baseball now has two of the most tainted PED names in its national coverage: Bonds and Alex Rodriguez (for Fox Sports). When will they add Emmanuel Clase to cover their Polymarket events?
ON THE OTHER HAND
World Series heroes Orel Hershiser and Luis Gonzalez will join play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti in the broadcast booth for NBC’s primetime telecast of Dodgers-Diamondbacks from Los Angeles on March 26. NBC Sports also confirmed that Clayton Kershaw is joining Bob Costas for a pregame show live from Dodger Stadium on Opening Day. It will be the only game going on that evening.
Earlier in the day, Al Leiter and Neil Walker will join play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian in the broadcast booth to call the Mets-Pirates game from New York, which will air on NBC and Peacock. Ahmed Fareed and Adam Ottavino will be on-site at Citi Field as well.
Good for us.
45 DANG GAMES
From 2021 through 2025, the Dodgers have led the National League by 45 games.
MR. OPENING DAY
It sounds like a show business name, but they call Tyler O’Neill, “Mr. Opening Day.”
That’s because for the last six seasons in a row, O’Neill has homered on Opening Day. Previously, the record was held by Todd Hundley (1994-97), Gary Carter (1977-80), and Yogi Berra (1955-58), all of whom had homered on four consecutive Opening Days.
In the 2020 COVID season, O’Neill, playing for the Cardinals, started his streak with a homer off Joe Musgrove of the Pirates.
In 2021, the Cards’ outfielder homered off Cam Bedrosian of the Reds.
In 2022, the Cards’ outfielder homered off JT Brubaker of the Bucs.
In 2023, in his final season with St. Louis, O’Neill homered off Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays. It was Tyler’s only OD loss.
In 2024, now with the Red Sox, O’Neill took Seattle’s Cody Bolton deep.
In 2025, in his first season with Baltimore, O’Neill went long against José Berríos of Toronto.
O’Neill hopes to extend the record on Thursday when the Orioles open the 2026 season against Joe Ryan and the Twins. O’Neill has faced Ryan once and went 1-2 with a home run against the righty.
All told, on Opening Day, O’Neill is 9-21 (.429) with three singles, six homers, 10 runs scored, and 14 driven in. He has a 1.821 OPS.
The record for the total number of Opening Day home runs is held by Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., and Frank Robinson, who each hit eight.
FUN & GAMES
In this section, instead of reading about guys like Mr. Opening Day, subscribers get to learn about stuff by having fun. Yeah, Billy-Ball used to be a teacher.
