MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Rob Manfred deserves this World Series moment

By Zach Wadley | Last updated Oct 22, 2024 9:34 PM ET

Love him or hate him, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred elicits a reaction. Since assuming the commissioner role in 2015, Manfred has moved — and sometimes dragged — baseball into a new era. Pitch clocks, larger bases, shift bans and extra-inning base runners are just some of the changes he's enacted.

It's led his critics to say he's ruining baseball, but the numbers say otherwise. According to MLB, 71,348,366 fans attended games in 2024, a one percent increase from last year. It marks the first time since 2011-12 that the league recorded back-to-back seasons of increased attendance.

Yankees. Dodgers. Two historic franchises playing for a World Series title.

We can't wait for this one. pic.twitter.com/C9EAzvtFhj
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 21, 2024

The good news doesn't stop there. Television viewership for the league's TV partners all saw increased viewership and MLB.tv recorded a record-high 14.5 billion minutes watched. MLB social media platforms all registered double-digit growth of at least 17 percent.

More telling is the fact that younger audiences are engaging with the game in a variety of ways, from buying tickets to watching games to playing the game. Manfred's plan is working. The rule changes, like them or not, have done what they were supposed to do. Game times are down, steals are up and people are engaging more frequently.

And what is Manfred's reward for his toil? A World Series for the ages. For all of the New York Yankees' and Los Angeles Dodgers' success over the years, the two clubs haven't faced each other in the World Series since 1981. Finally, they will meet again.

Seven former MVPs and the game's two biggest stars in Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge will take the field beginning Friday. The ratings should be massive as the series features the two largest markets, the biggest stars and two of MLB's most historic franchises.

The critics can quiet down for a week. Manfred's moves may have been controversial, but they've been successful. He deserves to bask in this moment.

Zach Wadley

Zach Wadley's sportswriting career began at the age of 12 when he started covering Little League games for his local newspaper. Since then, he's worked in the sports information field where he merged his love of writing, social media, and broadcasting. He is a graduate of Anderson University (IN).

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