customer. it is every visitation of an older case, illinois brick and he was ultimately the customer. that is what the supreme court is looking at. our interest is we think would be devastating to the small business and innovators at the result her for the court to incorrectly determined that we are merely employees or vendors of apple inc. were google inc. ..

as your name is announced and i will ask our audience to please hold your applause until everyone is introduced and i will bet that's not going to happen. [laughing] >> from your right, mark, director publications at mitchell institute for aerospace studies. heather weaver, freelance journalist and npc headliners team member. tyler, deputy production director at politico. mark lerner, , principal owner f the washington nationals baseball club. mark and his family -- [applause] mark and his family will be hosting the 2018 major league baseball all-star game at

nationals park tomorrow evening. mark, we are very pleased to have you. courtney northcom national affairs producer at pbs "newshour." marvin kalb, , the last corresponded personally hired by edward r. murrow at cbs news. [applause] >> senior advisor to the pulitzer center on crisis reporting and monitoring of "the kalb report" public broadcasting series. kevin duensing, retired united states navy captain, executive director of first global and npc headliners member who organized today's function. thank you, kevin. [applause] jonathan, washington correspondent at nj advanced media and former national press club president. joe torre, major league baseballs chief -- [applause] >> he's going to get another one when i'm done. [laughing] major league baseballs cheap

baseball officer, a nighttime all-star as a player, national league most valuable player in 1971, two-time american league manager of the year, and winner of her back world championships as one of the greatest managers in new york yankee a small history. [applause] >> and inducted into the hall of fame 2014. amy, assistant news editor at mcclatchy tribune information services. joe, freelance writer, npc headliners team member and an organizer of today's events. cofounder of the baseball foundation and a consultant for the world help organization. clay kaufman, head of the siena school in silver spring, maryland, and coach of the national press club softball team. [laughing] [applause] >> i would also like to acknowledge additional members

at the headliners team responsible for organizing today's event, lisa matthews, laurie russo, tamara, danny, bill as well as the national press club staff led by lindsay underwood, laura coker and executive director bill mcveigh. may we have one round of applause for everyone. [applause] >> the late comedian george carlin had a a wonderful routie in which he compared the intimacy of baseball with the combativeness of football. according to him, baseball begins in the spring, season of new life. football begins in the fall when everything is dying. [laughing] football is concerned with downs. what down, down is a? baseball accidents or with up. who is up? football has heating, click the compiling on, personal files, late hits and unvisited roughing. baseball has sacrifice.

[laughing] football is played in kinds of weather, rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog. baseball if it rains we do not go out and play. baseball has the seventh-inning stretch. football has the two-minute warning. football, , the quarterback is also not as the field general with long pomc marches his troops into enemy territory balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack the punches holes into enemies defensive line. in baseball the object is to go home and to be safe. i hope i will be safe at home. at the helm of that homefront today is rob manfred, grew up as a fan of the new york yankees to kansas dad was a yankees. his favorably was mickey mantle, and the first game ever saw at yankee stadium, mickey mantle hit two home runs. in august of 2014 rob manfred was elected as the tenth commission of major league

baseball. he took office january of 2015. previously he served as baseballs chief operating officer, executive vice president for economics and public affairs and as an executive vice president for labor relations and human resources. he is a graduate of the school of industrial labor relations at cornell university and holds a law degree from harvard law school. please join in formally welcoming back to the national press club, the commission of major league baseball rob manfred. [applause] >> thank you. >> your dad to see you become commission. that must have been a source of great pride to him. >> i think it was. my dad was a great sportsmen. he liked all sports. it was brought up in sports. i don't think there's a sport or game i didn't have to play. i was visiting my mom the other day and i noticed she still has his cribbage board hung up in

the living room. who knows how to play cribbage? my father. i think he was proud. it was actually nice on his 80th birthday i was able to give him the first taste all that was produced with my name on it, and to think of something that was special for him. >> did he give you any advice come into the commissioners role? >> my dad only gave me one piece of advice early in my career, and it really has served me well. he told me that i i should alws think about doing the job i had as well as i could, and that the next job would take care of itself. that actually turned out to be true for me in my career. it is i think i thought that every once want to do what you should we focus on. >> according to report informs magazine, major league baseball set a record for industry revenues for the 15th consecutive year in 2017. revenues exceeding $10 million.

so while baseball is everything george carlin said it is -- 10 billion. nostalgia, it's also about business and a big one. how would you assess the health of the game at the midpoint of 2018 and how would you compare it with the national football league, the national basketball association and the national hockey league? >> i'm happy to talk about our business. i'm always reluctant to talk or anybody else's, but i think baseball is in a great spot. i was just in sun valley at the conference, and i think the dance card from the entrance of was indicative of how interested both traditional media and new media is in our content. one great thing about baseball, 2430 times we go out there, rick have lots of content added to think that it provides an opportunity for baseball to be a leader in terms of making our

content available in a variety of platforms, our big experiment this year is are generally wednesday afternoon games with facebook. then i really positive expert for the game in the sense we are attracting an audience that has a very different demographic that are traditional broadcast audience. on the field we think we have a generation of young players that may be as talented as any in decades. they have made their mark on the game early and often, , and it seemed like every year there's just a new player who comes along and you say while wow, we seen anybody this good and a long time. so we are really positive about our product. third, i make the point that baseball has been a leader in the technology space. we have a nice little technology business known as baseball

advanced media. we sold a part of that business to disney last year. we think it was a great transaction, transaction that's part of a larger relationship that we have with espn and disney. but more important, i think it gives the great technology group that stayed with baseball an opportunity to refocus on the next big thing. >> the other part of technology would be the use of analytics, both off and on the field. talk about that a bit. >> you know, in general, i am an analytics-based decision-maker. i've never believed that i had the sort of intuition that would allow me to reliably make good business decisions based on how my get felt. i like data. i like information as a basis for decision-making. i think that same sort of

thinking has permeated the individual clubs. it is driven the way that they decided to put teams together. i think, analytics are here to stay, nomadic and you can't change the keyboard to think about their businesses. now, and this had resulted in the field. it has changed the way the game is played on the field. i mean, i just think that's beyond debate. anybody is any sort of a baseball fan knows that. i think the issue for the industry with analytics is you can't change what people want to think so there's only one half available to you. that is, do you want to alter the rules of the game in a way that managers that change and present it from making the products something different than what it has been traditionally? >> so we have sitting at the head table today joe torre. nobody would argue with his record as a player or as a

manager, and he works for you. does he argue your calls? >> i think of it as he works with me, to tell you the truth. it's sort of a big undertaking to say that joe works for you. joe is an invaluable resource in the commissioners office. i think broader than baseball, certainly brought to my my job, it's always important to know what you don't know. i never played in the big leagues. played as an amateur but ineptly in the big leagues that i never had the opportunity to manage like you did in the big leagues. and i think particularly when you get involved in issues that revolve around changing or trying to manage the way that the game is changing on the field, unique insight from someone like joe because you are predicting that if i change, you know, let me pick one. i don't like defensive shifts. you decide you're going to adopt

a rule about defensive shifts. really, the toughest part, that's so easy. you can decide that shifts are bad, want to adopt a rule. the hard part is what's going to happen in response to that rule. and one of the things that we've learned over the years is joe when i come of the rest of the group in new york has navigated these changes, predicting the outcome of the rule change can be difficult, difficult. >> so you are in your fourth year as commissioner now. >> that's right. >> what would you say are some of the best lessons you've learned on the job so far? >> well, let me start with the public part of the job. i think that probably at the beginning i was too inclined to talk about changes that could be made to the game.

i think that if learned you need to be very, very careful about articulating what sort the changes you would be open to, and that's because our fans are so passionate about the game. they care so deeply about the game, that, you knew, even if you're not 100% committed to the change, you can invoke a very, very strong reaction. allergy and example. the first that i did after i became commissioner -- i'll give you an example. the reporter kept coming after me what would you change, what would you change? one of the things i might think about changing was defensive shifts. i didn't really like them, and i got phone calls, voice mails,, e-mails. i actually received two papers on what a stupid idea that was that at footnotes. i swear to you in that footnote in the paper. i'm thinking oh, my god, what have i done? you have to be careful about

that. >> is a good thing. it's a passion people fear for the game. that's a great thing. secondly, the one thing i've learned from our internal activities in terms of working with the owners, i think transparency gets you a long way in life. i have tried to over two medicaid, if there is such a thing, with owners about what we're thinking about, what we are planning on doing. i tried to rework our internal governance in a way that gives particularly the 30 stakeholders, there really are 30 stakeholders in a game, an opportunity not only to get direct communication with me but to get direct communication with each other. it is the trick in terms of building a consensus among a very competitive and high-powered group. so those are a couple of things

that i would mitchard. >> do you feel when the right thing comes along when you could be bold in making some change? >> that's a loaded question. sounds like there's some doubt as to whether you could or not. look, i think we are at a point in the evolution of the game where the owners, and is more important because it's very game at the end of the day, where the owners feel that the game has changed in a way that we do need to be more aggressive with respect to mentioned that change. we are not out there or up there in new york sitting around thinking, baseball, it's been for a long time, how are they going it? that's not the question. the question is we when watchia change organically in response to decisions that are made by 30 general managers in 30 different markets and effort to win two more games in a year. i think that we've come to the

realization that that change is going to affect the product on the field, and we have to be a a little more aggressive about managing that organic change. >> so looking at, just back to that word bold, it brings to mind say 947 and jackie robinson ricky baseballs color barrier. for people here at the press club, 1970, a reporter for sports illustrated when a a supreme court decision allowing women into baseball locker rooms. do you feel that with the progress that's been made that changes are going to come and continue to come in this organic way, rather than some earthmoving decision? >> no. i think it is going to be a more proactive decision-making process. that's what i made the comment i made about consensus among the ownership group. this is a very, jenna, historically, and i was around

for some of this history. it's been kind of a fractious group of owners. i think some people still have that perception. it couldn't be further from the truth. i think our owners are very united. i think that they share a common view of what was going on with respect to the game, and i think that puts the institution, it really isn't about me, it puts the visitation in a position to be bold about managing what is a treasure as part of our culture. >> so in terms of people, that may be in the pipeline, could you see a woman major-league umpire, manager, general manager, player or press the next commissioner? >> well, i'll tell you, i do think that we've made tremendous progress in terms of inclusion, diversity in the industry.

i think it's 100% possible that we could have woman umpire. i think it's 100% possible that we could have a woman commissioner. there are a lot of talented, young women working again, have every chance of ascending to that role. i think that the issue is a really interesting one, although i'll tell you a great story about it that happen just saturday. i went over to the nationals academy, for those of you who have, don't know about or have heard about it, you ought to read a little bit about or go visit it, because when you go there and you see what's going on, and hats off to the learner family on this, you will realize great work is going on for young people what they turn out to be professional baseball players or not. but it went over there. we have academies around the country. there is 9-5. all of them sent the best baseball and softball teams to

compete in the tournament here in with all-star game. i have been resurrecting some softball teams in baseball and him walking can give you a to leave and the team from philadelphia gets off the bus, and i'm walking along and i noticed the last person off the bus has a boot on, , a player hs a boot and i realize it's monet davis the was the young woman who pitched in the little league world series. actually was there which he pitched one day and with a very funny exchange where she said to me at the league world series, i said what you want to do when you grow up? she said i play basketball for yukon. you're killing me, what you doing? so it's funny. so she still playing and this is a high school boys tournament, right? still playing. she is a phenomenal athlete so she saw me, i saw her. we walked over. we had a quick exchange i said what is going on with that boot? she looked at me like this, basketball.

[laughing] i said, i told you. so look, there are few athletes out there that are phenomenal. i'll tell you another interesting thing that we've learned about women and baseball, okay? i say that come with great softball programs that we have supported for years, but last year, and a wish i were smart enough to have these ideas, one of my guys came and said look, we want to have the first major league baseball sponsored women's baseball tournament. and i said that's a great idea. they had this tournament in california, and i'll tell you two things that we learned about it. number one, there does seem to be something very attractive about identity of the games what do i mean? i mean women and men playing exactly the same game as opposed to softball which is viewed as a different version of the game

number two, we had a lot of scouts go. think was sort of interesting, novel thing. the quality of play was really, really high. so who knows on that front? 80 something will continue to invest and i can tell you that for sure. >> you've negotiated labor contracts talked about working with the owners. you work for a long time now with the players association. how do you balance today these roles in protecting the interests of the players, the fans in the owners when clearly their desires are not always in sync? >> you know, i have a little different view i think than some of my predecessors, that probably is based on how i came up in the business. i know as a matter of law that it's tony clark's job to protect the interest of the players in the bargaining process.

i think it's my job to represent the interests of the owners in the bargaining process, and to make sure that that process goes forward in a way that is positive and results in a working relationship with our players that allows us to continue to grow the game. >> tony clark has recently been talking about what he considers the intrusions of the front office into the dugout and the calling of place. you care to comment on that? >> i i mean, it's interesting. let's talk about why we have common ground. i think if you read all of tony's comments, he agrees and his players agree that the game is being played differently on the field, and that is not necessarily a positive thing. tony ascribes that phenomenon to intrusion of analytics and off

field personnel into how the game is played. that may in fact, be correct but that is a product of business decisions that are made by people who want to make more money, win more games and run their businesses that way. i think what will ultimately find common ground with tony is that those changes that are being driven by these management decisions they have to be regulated, and you can't regulate it by telling people don't think about your business that way. that is not a strategy that's likely to be successful. instead what you to do is look at the outcomes of those decision-making processes, decide which of the outcomes need to be managed, and adopt the rules that are going to take effect and only i think that's what we wind up. >> intersperse some questions we

received from our national press club members here in the audience today along with some of the other questions we have let's talk about expansion, the prospects for expansion at this point. you were here three years ago. you discuss the possibility of mexico and canada perhaps being excellent expansion team candidates. where is baseball on that? >> well, i think, we had two situations, stating situations, oakland and tampa. we will not expand until those situations are resulted it's just not realistic, the appropriate sequencing of misery business decisions are to get those situations resolved. hopefully in the markets where they currently exist, and then move on to consideration of expansion. so it's not a front burner issue for us right now. we need to get those situations

resolved. on the good news front, we have a number of viable expansion candidates out there. we have candidates that are in canada. candidates that are in mexico and some that are here in the united states. i think over the longer haul, post these two issues that i've alluded to, 32 would be be a good number for us. it helps us in terms of scheduling flexibility because it's an even, you know, four works better than five. it's not just even numbers. four works much better. space would also give you an opportunity to look at how we are aligned of what our postseason format might look like, and the some positives in that as well. i think we will someday be 32. >> there's a lot of interest in montréal and getting a team again. do you see them as a viable

candidate? >> montréal is interesting. montréal had a great baseball tradition both before the expos as a minor league city and during the time the expos were there. they were actually successful. it's an interesting kind of historical phenomenon. the strike in 1984 hurt the canadian teams more and in a more lasting way that it did here. it could damage everywhere and it's important to remember that, candidate for some reason it was really worse. montréal got hurt by the strike and the confluence of the facility situation that was not positive. but i think with the right facility it's a big city with a baseball tradition. it could be just fine for us. >> so you mention the right facility. what you see as what you would consider the requirements for potential expansion team bids? >> i think that you need a well

financed ownership group. i think that you need a plan for a facility that would be what we regard to be a major-league quality facility. it's pretty can what that means. look around the lake. league. why to say a plan i honestly think it's a mistake if, for example, i municipally decide i'm going to build a stadium to get a team. and why that? because stadium decisions are uniquely driven by the ownerships view of their business. the owner needs to involved in everything from location. how many thousand decisions geared to make after you took over, right? everything from the layout of the swedes, are your bathroom in the suite or outside the suites? all these decisions need to be made and the need be made based on that individual owners local this interest or it's important

remember, people think about new york, we generate revenue. the fact of the matter is we rent a really local business. each one of those local businesses has 81 dates that they have to sell and those 81 dates are salable largely based on what the facility looks like. so that's a long answer to the second criteria. and then i think that you want to be, that is a certain critical mass in terms of population size, just because the volume of games that we have to sell, and the last thing is competition in the market. some markets of a particular size are competitive if there's one other professional sport in that market. if you're going to be the third forth into that market, you may be a little different calculation. >> what would you say we are in terms of so-called steroid era in baseball? >> well, i think about, i know

that baseball has the best testing program, best drug program. let me use broader term. not only in professional sports but in all of sports. even if you talk to people from olympic groups, they will tell you that baseballs overall program is the best that out there. why? we test whether anybody else. we test urine and blood, blood being very expensive and hard to do and we're fortunate we have the resources to do that. ..

we have done everything humanly possible to limit the use of drugs in baseball but we will remain constantly vigilant on this topic we are not resting on our morals and the reason for that is the very first conversation i head with the dr. about performance-enhancing drugs. he said here is the problem with performance enhancing drugs, they work. and because they work it is a constant temptation for athletes because of the potential economic of benefits that are available if they work. i do not believe there is a widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball anymore but we will remain vigilant on that topic. are there ways that you help

players in the quest while infusing them in the integrity not to cross the line. >> we had training programs starting way before players ever see a major league club house the deal with the position of that. why is it important to play clean and i do believe those types of programs are every bit as important as the deterrence in the testing in the investigation. >> what does a major league baseball plan to do now that sports betting has been legalized. we were not advocates of the idea that sports betting should be legalized. those of you who are familiar

with the case we were actually a litigant in the case. trying to prevent them from adopting a sports betting law. once the supreme court took the case. if you look at the numbers the betting odds if you well. we realize it was likely that the case it was going to be reversed. so what is the challenge and what is the opportunity? >> the challenge for us is to make sure that whether it is a uniform federal scheme which we think would be the best certainly the easiest to operate in. were 50 state schemes. they develop in a way that will allow us to protect the integrity of the sport. we will never delegate responsibility for those

integrity issues to state regulators we have her own expertise. no one is more motivated than the commissioner's office. that is the challenge. i'm a data guy. you do the research and it's really clear. sports betting can be a great source of fan engagement. i think the trick for as us in that regard is to take advantage of the opportunity to drive fan engagement. look at some european broadcast of soccer. a lot of commentary around this.

on the uniforms. actual betting information on the broadcast. we like the engagement piece but we want to be very careful to make sure that our product maintains a set pristine quality. i'm not sure if records exist from the time. >> i think it's very important the institution that you lead. some of the most controversial things. these gambling related relating issues have to color your thinking. i think most of those are easy

or relate to the easiest part of our current situation. no matter what happens where we end up even from the legislative or business a perspective you can count on one thing. on field personnel, off field personnel from clubs anybody employed by baseball whether it's legal or illegal will not be allowed to bet on baseball. you're always can have that role. is the pete rose issue off the table at this point. >> from my perspective he exercised the right that he gave him to follow request for reinstatement. i did a thorough investigation of what happened originally and where he was today including a very long conversation with pete and his lawyers. i move on that request for reinstatement.

baseball records and career stats. those are such key elements. is it possible to construct a history of stats that better recognize different eras or is it best for baseball just to continue with one set of stats. i think it's really best to leave the interpretation of those statistics the fans, the writers and historians. you think about the task. they elect members of the hall of fame each year. when they played a different in different eras on different circumstances. their awareness of that history the back drop against

individual players develop the statistical record. the best way to get to commonality. i don't think there is a quantitative answer to that question. >> can you envision a time. do you think washington might get its records back. his records reside with the minnesota twins. do they belong in the city where he achieved his greatness. i think they belong to the franchise. i think the important part of the history of the minnesota twins was where they came from. and i think that was actually quite important. everyone seems to want to speed up the games. yet the ability to challenge play appears to be slowing things down. how do you hit the happy medium. over the course of a season. let's start with the facts. over the course of the season

the replay system adds one minute too each game. because basically it takes a minute plus for most replay reviews. not every game even has a replay in it. from my perspective adding a minute to our game time in order to ensure that we get important calls correct and i do think we have a system that is designed it's not perfect to get at important calls. when i look forward what i think is the best way to make it even tighter is the answer to all problems technology. just keep getting our technology in the replay system better and better and it's getting it faster and faster. we used to play a game we

would get a recap of all of the reviews. the morning after. even actually go in and it tells you what was challenged and what the outcome was. i started going to the video clip. i'm telling you like out in safe at first base. in real-time there so tough. but not today since we've got to super slow slow-motion cameras at first base and almost everywhere. my 11 week old grandson could do it. you keep using that technology to keep the benefit of getting at the most important calls right. and minimizing the fan disruption associated with that.

what is the reaction you're getting to the pitch less intentional walk. both my phone number in my e-mail are probably two available i'm telling you when we went to the no pitch intentional walk. we analyzed all the data. it was like one out of every 1,000 intentional walks something happened other than the guy going to first base. there be some crazy thing. it was a very rare event. it was not a huge timesaver in a lot of ways it was more symbolic. let's do whatever we can to get people thinking about the way to move things along. we announced the change.

based on what people were saying. it's a great thing. people care so much that they try to figure out what your phone number is and they call you up to tell you what they think. i don't think we will take a vote in the room about that. fans were asked to suggest ways of improving the game. there indict ideas included limiting the number of foul balls. restoring the general admission ticket. what he think about those ideas. and what are some of the more interesting suggestions that you have received in addition to the information. there are lots of ideas out there about how you might change the game let me correct

myself. how might you respond to the changes that are taking place in the game. in general, i like ideas that are directed at additional action in the game getting away from the focus on what people refer to as the i think there is a variety of ways you might get at the issue. i think it takes a lot of analysis to decide which of these changes produce the desired outcome. we started seeing a lot of defensive shipping. there is pry 2500 pitches during the season that there was a shift.

when it started to happen and it's hard to escalate we know it's good happen. others learn to hit the other way. they will adjust and they are great athletes. two parts of that were unfortunately the way they adjusted was they unfortunately the way they adjusted was they decided to try to hit it over the shift as opposed to hit it the other way. analytics tell you that the home run even discounting how often it's going to occur is worth so much more than that hit to the opposite field. whatever those changes are. even things like moving the mount back. there's not a consensus on what that's can be. i had had to hall of fame we

asked them about a particular change in the strike zone they will not all give you the same answer as to what's can happen if you change the strike zone. how important is the overall field experience versus going to see the game. is there happy medium broader inclusiveness. we think about our product as to products. we think the in park experience is a very different product than the broadcast product that you watch. it's the same as far as i'm concerned. i do think the tension you referred to in terms of

entertainment in the ballpark, that captivates younger people. it's interesting to them. some people might see as a distraction or annoyance on the other. as part of a really fundamental tension that we wrestle with every day in terms of the business of baseball and we never want to alienate the core fan base that we have and always had on the other hand we want to do everything we can to attract the people who are not part of that fan base. when you see things happening in stadium. experience. it's really important to the future of our sport. as it with the game on the field. there are certain things that haven't changed.

i would be remiss in being a radio person if i did not mention the endearing and enduring quality of radio. talk about the continuing impact of radio. on the game. i can tell you i only had 1:00 a.m. station program in our car. i am a radio fan myself. i think it is an important part of the history of the game. i think it's an important way that we serve our fans not everybody can be in front of a television every time they want to be consuming our product. i for one think that radio has a long life in front of it as

part of our game. one of the terrific things they do at nationals park. they broadcast the radio version of the game. you can continue to follow the game in your mind's eye no matter where you are. we are in the suite for the futures game and we are watching the game and we finally figured out why we were not exactly in sync. has mlb engaged in any studies on u.s. millenials in their interest in baseball as a participant sport and as spectators. if i answered that question i think they would be looking for a new guy. we haven't really focused on millenials and a couple of different ways i think the

clubs have done a phenomenal job based on information that we've developed. of actually altering an alternative experience in most ballparks. it is more tailored to the mature millennial pace. it begins with how you buy a ticket. the biggest change has been the ballpark pass. there is a standup stand up bar or a general admission area when you get in the ballpark we then hope you are using the ballpark which gives you an opportunity to buy up into a seat or find an area that is to your liking. that is enough to cater to millennial which usually involve west planning. a more fluid entertainment experience. with respect at participation there has been no effort that

has been as expensive as our effort to encourage young people to play the game of baseball. i guess what i would say to you about this. is for a relatively modest investment in terms of the magnitude of our overall business we had had phenomenal returns in an environment where youth participation is shrinking and the sports across the board why is that. it's a devil of technology. it's causing that shrinkage. the only major sport and bad news for you. the only major sport that has grown in terms of youth purchase patient patient is baseball. an average annual growth rate of 6%.

our casual participation number went up 12.6% last year. this is the real focus of ours. they tend to think about it in the modern youth away. casual participation we are talking about engaging the way i did as a kid. they figure out some way to play a baseball game. you find a way to engage with the sport. we think these efforts are really important in addition they have helped us and i have alluded to the academy project. the diversity of the next generation of players about 9% of our major league players our african-american right now. in the last five years. almost everyone all of those

players picked in the first round has some connection to a major program. i really would be remiss. we have not tried we had tried to be in involved in the youth market and strategic ways. we certainly not tried to occupy the field in that market instead we have tried to find good partners. you could not ask for a better partner. that's why we went to williamsport and played a major league game last year. cal ripken baseball. one of the most innovative thinkers in terms of getting

kids engaged altering what you're doing with them. and in order to keep them engaged all but the goal of developing a skill set that they can actually be a major league player at. in essence, you are making your own luck in that regard. see mac it's like investing in research and development. what is our future. it is creating a pipeline of players so that we still have the best athletes in the world. if you doubt that we are attracting the best athletes you should see these kids. some outstanding athletes. number two, it's good for business. the single business --dash make the biggest deterrent. as if there can a fan as an adult is whether or not they play as a kid. we think were building and not

only our athlete base but our fan base as well. >> reports indicate though that attendance is down as of mid june. if the number is accurate. it was accurate. as of today is five and half percent. i see that as we are making progress. the one thing we know for certain is we got in a whole because of the weather. we set a record for the number of games that were canceled. when you cancel a game you never quite get the same crowd on the rescheduled date. worse than the cancellations in 2017 we played two games

the entire season where the game time temperature was less than 40 degrees. in the month of april we played in addition to all of the games we canceled 35 games. >> i love baseball. less than 40 degrees. i was actually at one of them at city field. it's not all that pleasant sitting outside. we got in a whole. a big part of it was whether we were working our way out of it. we are cautious about a really important part of our business. we are paying real attention. other than just the weather. we do think the weather was the predominant factor.

when will they change the regional contract so that i can stream in market games. you can stream games today. every major league club has those rights. i think they all offer some in market street activity. can you talk a bit about the status. i'm talking about authenticated in market streaming. what do i mean by that. i am a subscriber to some package where i'm pain for fox sports southwest and i can use my cable credentials to authenticate stream that market. major league baseball sells a

separate over-the-top package. in that package always contains local blackouts and the reason it contains local blackouts is those rights have artie gone on to that. they are available both in and out of the market stream. it's just a question of what credentials you have to have. >> can you talk about the status of the situation. and whether we can get that fixed. i think we have made some progress on this issue. unfortunately, had to litigate extensively in order to get to this progress. i think it's now clear whatever challenges they have

decided to mount that ultimately, the revenue sharing a committee of baseball will decide the right fees of the washington nationals it's unfortunate we have to litigate that. we are back in front of the body. that was originally agreed upon. it will begin in the process about setting those fees. to delay the payment of monies that should be paid. a couple of quick last questions. can you see the world series returning today games on the weekends. speemac we play more daytime

post season games than any other sport. division series a lot of basis. with three daytime games. we do in fact play postseason baseball. when it comes to the world series what we try to do along with our broadcast partners her broadcast partners is what any good business would do. we try to put the game on at the point in time that we are can attract the largest audience. it will continue to be our guide at post. i understand that there is a romantic notion out there about the world series game played during the day and that the children will be flocking from everywhere in order to watch that game. the fact of the matter is we know who watches. we play day games during the postseason we do not in fact

attract more children to those games. we will get the biggest audience we can possibly draw. i would like to share some upcoming headlines. .. .. sean spicer will share his book the briefing about his brief tenure as white house press secretary and now commissioner, are you ready

for our final request? >> yes who's on first? >> i'm glad you didn't say i don't know because he's on thursday. >> commissioner, thank you very much. [applause] on behalf of all my colleagues, it's my honor to present you with our official national prolapse club coffee mug and also in turn about being fair play, we will present you with an autographed baseball from the playoff team of the national pressclub . >> you so much. >> i will say this is my second best gift of the week. a chinese broadcaster that we have a partnership with gave me a stuffed animal yesterday which i'm getting my grandson.

>> thanks to our audience in the ballroom of the national press club, for all of those listening on radio and television online, everyone had a good afternoon . >>.

>> 3 pm eastern on c-span2, the u.s. senate comes into session. will the nomination of scottsville, education secretary or career, and adulteducation. confirmation vote expected at 5:30 eastern. what's the line always right here on c-span2 . >> alaskaweekend is sunday . the featured program on c-span, tv in american history tv. we'll explore alaska's natural beauty, history, culture and public policy issues facing the state.

starting saturday at 7 am on c-span, washington journal will examine major issues including climate change, energy and the alaska national wildlife refuge alaska native issues and hunting regulations on communicator 6:30 p.m. eastern. counsel for alaskan cable provider gci talks about how the company makes broadband possible for small villages across the tundra, glaciers and not an colleges christopher on providing healthcare through, medicine to remote communities in alaska and on tv , saturday noon eastern the c-span seashore explore alaska's literary and historical scene with her a call, author of amazing pipeline story. the president of the sea alaska heritage institute with her book on alaska natives, celebration and sam jones, author and former daily news investigative reporter on the 1989 exxon valdez oil spill. and someday 9 pm eastern on afterwards, author mark's thoughts about his two of the

iceberg, his experience retracing in 1890 exhibition of scientists, artists, conservationists and writers off the alaskan coast. american history tv, sunday at 2 pm eastern, the c-span city store visit the alaska state capitol, the alaskan native heritage center and fort wayne army base and work on real america or documentaries on alaska, the 1936 film alaska's over millions, 1949 film eskimo hunters in northwestern alaska, the 19th 57 film alaska centennial in 1944 alaska highway. what alaska weekend saturday and sunday on the c-span network, c-span.org or listen on the free radio app. >> up next on c-span2, a