SPORTS
Friday, November 9, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 3B
Top agent Boras calls rebuilding
teams ‘competitive cancer’
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
CARLSBAD, Calif. —
The agent for free agent
Bryce Harper and many
of baseball’s top players
claims rebuilding teams have
become a “competitive can-
cer” that caused this season’s
4 percent attendance drop.
As the sport’s officials
start to consider possible rules
changes to spark offense and
speed up play, Scott Boras
acidly critiqued several clubs
that were among the 17 to
draw fewer fans this year
than last.
Boras pointed out Louisi-
ana State’s baseball team had
a higher average attendance
for its 37 home games than
the Miami Marlins did for
their 81 — 10,786 to 10,014.
“The fans of Florida have
certainly brought the MIA
to Miami,” he said Wednes-
day in a courtyard outside the
general managers’ meetings.
He claimed when “the
divisional clubs come to Min-
nesota, it’s gotten so bad that
only one of the Twins shows
up.”
And he criticized the
Toronto Blue Jays, who had
the biggest decrease in the
major leagues this year, fall-
ing by 878,000 fans to 2.33
million.
“They’ve lost near a
third of their fan base due
to the blue flu of not bring-
ing attractive players the fans
find interesting to their mar-
ket,” he said.
Boras has self-interest in
encouraging spending, want-
ing fewer clubs jettisoning
veterans in favor of youth
and handing out more lucra-
tive contracts — especially to
his clients.
Major League Baseball’s
average attendance dropped
to 28,830, its lowest since
2003 after 14 consecutive
seasons topping 30,000, and
six ballparks set record lows.
Boras connected the drop to
non-competitive clubs: There
were three 100-loss teams for
AP Photo/Toru Takahashi
MLB All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto of the Miami
Marlins celebrates with third base coach Fredi Gon-
zalez after hitting a solo home run off Yomiuri Giants
pitcher Ryusei Oe in the fifth inning of their exhi-
bition baseball game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on
Thursday.
AP Photo/Nick Wass, File
In this Sept. 7, 2018, file photo, Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper takes off his
batting helmet after he flied out during the first inning of the team’s baseball game
against the Chicago Cubs in Washington. The Nationals made an offer to Harper late
in the season in an attempt to reach a deal before he became a free agent. Nation-
als General Manager Mike Rizzo disclosed the talks with agent Scott Boras at the
general managers’ meetings on Tuesday.
the second time since 1985
and the first since a record
four in 2002. And there
were eight 95-loss teams for
the first time in big league
history.
“The reality of it is they’re
losing their fan base, and it
costs millions and millions
of dollars to rebuild the fan
base,” he said.
Boras is seeking a record
contract for Harper, topping
outfielder Giancarlo Stan-
ton’s $325 million, 13-year
deal through 2027 reached
with the Miami Marlins,
who traded him to the New
York Yankees last December.
Boras sounded as if he had
rehearsed his zingers like a
stand-up comedian.
“Certainly Harper’s bazaar
has begun,” he said. “It’s
fashionable. It’s historical.
It’s elite. It’s global, certainly.
And certainly it has inspi-
rations that deal with great
shoes and great hair.”
Washington made a
late-season offer before
Harper became a free agent
at the unusually young age
of 26. Nationals general man-
ager Mike Rizzo said Harper
didn’t respond.
“He’s going to go about
his business and we’re going
to go about our business,”
Rizzo said. “We drafted,
signed, developed him. He
turned into one of the best
players in the league with our
uniform on.”
While GMs meet with
each other and agents, the
formal sessions deal with the
mechanics of the sport, and
Commissioner Rob Man-
fred and his staff are con-
cerned about the drop in
offense and rise in strikeouts.
The big league batting aver-
age fell seven points to .248,
its lowest since 1972 — the
last season before the Amer-
ican League adopted the des-
ignated hitter.
Strikeouts set a record
for the 11th straight year and
topped hits for the first time
in big league history.
“I think fans like the ball
in play a little bit more,” Chi-
cago Cubs president of base-
ball operations Theo Epstein
said. “I embrace MLB’s
efforts to think about how to
steer the game towards the
most compelling product for
the fans. If that involves the
ball in play more, then you
find some subtle ways to
influence that.”
Los Angeles Angels gen-
eral manager Billy Eppler
doesn’t think alterations are
needed.
“I think we should
embrace it. I don’t think
we should fight it,” he said.
“Why are people striking
out more? Probably because
pitchers are throwing about 3
1/2 miles an hour harder than
they were seven years ago.
People are getting better with
their breaking ball. There’s
more technology in the game.
And you can really accurately
decide where you want to
throw a baseball and practice
that for particular hitters.”
MLB All-Stars beat
Japan’s Giants ahead
of exhibition tour
By JIM ARMSTRONG
AP Sports Writer
TOKYO — J.T. Real-
muto and Amed Rosa-
rio drove in two runs
each to lead the MLB All-
Stars over the Yomiuri
Giants 9-6 on Thursday
in a warm-up game ahead
of their six-game exhibi-
tion series against Japan’s
national team.
Juan Soto hit a double
off the roof of Tokyo Dome
in the third inning that
scored Yadier Molina from
second to give the MLB
team a 4-0 lead. Realmuto
then doubled in a run and
Rosario added two more on
a single as the MLB squad
scored five runs in the
inning to take a 7-0 lead.
Realmuto also hit an
opposite-field solo homer
in the fifth to make it 8-3.
After the game, Real-
muto got to experience a
Japanese baseball tradition
when he was invited on
the field to take part in the
“hero interview” in front of
the Tokyo Dome crowd.
“This is awesome, we
don’t do this in the United
States so I’m really excited
to be here with you guys,”
Realmuto said. “Hopefully,
I can keep hitting well and
be here with you again.”
The highlight for the
home fans came in the
fourth when Seiya Matsub-
ara’s sinking liner split the
gap between Ronald Acuna
Jr. and Soto in left-center
field.
By the time Acuna
retrieved the ball and got it
back into the infield, Mat-
subara had raced around
the bases for a three-run
inside-the-park home run
that cut the MLB stars’ lead
to 7-4.
The series begins Friday
with three games on con-
secutive nights in Tokyo
followed by one game in
Hiroshima on Tuesday and
two games in Nagoya on
Wednesday and Thursday.
During the series, pitch-
ers will not be allowed to
throw more than 80 pitches
per game. If a pitcher
throws more than 50
pitches, he must have four
days of rest before being
able to throw in another
game.
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