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NCAA MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 21, 2018

Indianapolis, Indiana

KARL RAVECH: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Karl Ravech with ESPN. This is an historic and exciting day certainly for the city of Omaha, Major League Baseball, ESPN, and really baseball fans across this country, and those of us that love baseball at any level that it has played. This is a great opportunity for me to share the dais with such a distinguished group of people, including the Commissioner of Major League Baseball who has made the trip here, Rob Manfred.

I've been chasing Rob since about 1994. During the strike, he became a terrific source and resource for me, and he has been a good friend ever since. It has occurred to me though when we were preparing for this that the shoe is now on the other foot. That Rob is actually chasing me all over the place. He's brought Major League Baseball to Williamsport, and now he's brought it here to Omaha.

I want to say that Rob's commitment when he took the Office of Commissioner back in January of 2015 were sort of multi-faceted. He had to get involved with youth, which I think we have certainly seen at the Little League level. He also wanted to make the game a little bit more global, which we have succeeded in doing. Rob and I spent time in Havana, Cuba, we spent time in Puerto Rico, and we also look forward to spending time in London next season.

He understood that in order to grow the game, which is what is a significant part of the commissioner, we need to start at the grassroots level, meaning the kids, and he has succeeded there. Now the next logical step would be to dive into this area, the college player. When you consider of the 869 players on opening day rosters this season, 641 of them -- 641 of them were drafted, and 61% of those were from four-year colleges.

The Royals who are here today chose 34 college players in this year's draft, 34, nine of them high schoolers. And of those college players, we've seen a few of them look like they could pitch in the majors tomorrow. We've seen Jackson Kowar pitch a terrific game, Brady Singer, Eric Cole of Arkansas part of their draft class.

Tigers took Casey Mize, No. 1 pick in the overall draft from Auburn, they went out and grabbed Kody Clemens in round three from Texas. 15 of their first 18 picks were college players. Those of us who are lucky enough to call Omaha home for even a couple of weeks, we know that Omaha is not just about college baseball. It is truly about baseball at every level.

When you consider back in the late 1800s, there was a guy named Charles "Kid" Nichols who won 39 games. The next year he pitched for the Boston Beaneaters and began what was a Hall of Fame career. Bob Gibson, from here, pitched here. Jack McKeon, managed the Royals when they became the Minor League affiliate during the expansion era of 1969. George Brett has his roots here, David Cohen has his roots here, Dan Quisenberry, of course, Frank White, so there are a lot of them.

Omaha in June, everybody, and you know this, has thousands of youth baseball kids. It has the College World Series and professional baseball. So all that was missing is Major League Baseball. The good news is we are here today to take care of that as well. With that, we'll open it up to questions.

I want to introduce the good people on the dais with me. Roger Dixon, sitting next to me, the President and COE of MECA. Mayor Jean Stothert, City of Omaha, who I just saw her barrel into the room we were sitting in with a huge smile on her face. She's very excited about this. Dayton Moore, the general manager of the Kansas City Royals, delighted to watch Kowar pitch, may call him up soon. Rob Manfred in the middle there. Al Avila, the GM of the Detroit Tigers.

And I asked Al before this, I said, your last name, Avila, Avila, Avila, how would you like it pronounced? And between he and his son we said we don't really care. It doesn't really matter. They all work. You can go with any one of them. And Gary Green, principal owner and CEO of the Omaha Storm Chasers, which of course is the long-time Royals affiliate.

We, at ESPN, are so delighted to be a part of what will be a fantastic event next year. We cannot wait for it. We've seen the success that the Little League Classic has had. It's one of those you go into it and assume it's going to be great, and then it exceeds expectations a hundredfold. We assume the same is going to happen next year.

I want to introduce the guy who is primarily responsible for this, with a lot of other people, but it doesn't happen without Major League Baseball's interest in growing the game, my Buddy, Rob Manfred.

ROB MANFRED: Thank you, Karl. I guess I'm here this afternoon to make official what everybody in this room, and based on the social media coverage, half of America already knows. On June 13 next year, 2019, the Kansas City Royals and the Detroit Tigers are going to play a game here at TD Ameritrade Park. It is not a surprise, but this announcement is something that we are genuinely excited about.

Over the last four years we pursued two initiatives that are probably most important to us. The first was to unite the various institutions that are involved in baseball, broadly defined under the umbrellas of Play Ball and One Baseball; and the second was to bring Major League Baseball to places where we don't play every day. This game continues to advance both of these initiatives.

The College World Series in and of itself is a great event with a great tradition, but we hope, we hope by playing here we'll be bringing even more attention to this game and help strengthen our relationship with the NCAA and college baseball as a whole.

As Karl said, over the last four years we've played in Cuba, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Fort Bragg, Mexico, Puerto Rico, each of these events has helped focus the attention of the United States and major parts of the world on what we think of as the greatest game in the world. The game here in Omaha will be the next step in this important initiative.

I do have a bunch of thank yous, because it took a lot of work and a lot of people to make this event a reality. The NCAA, first on the list, our host and partners in this event. Mayor Stothert, thank you for being a host and welcoming us here to Omaha, Gary Green the Omaha Storm Chasers, and Pat O'Connor from Minor League Baseball, without you guys this could not have happened, and we understand that and appreciate your broad partnership with Major League Baseball.

Roger Dixon, I lost Roger. There he is. Down here. The head of the Metro Entertainment and Convention Bureau. We appreciate the help and look forward to working with you as the event unfolds.

I should also say thank you to the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals to the Ilitch family and the Glass family. These events are great for baseball, but they also come in the middle of a very long season. They're disruptive to routines, and we need really cooperative teams like the Tigers and the Royals to make it happen.

Karl, it's always a pleasure to be with you, wherever I follow you.

Last and most important, the Major League Baseball Players Association and our players. We get more and more players from colleges, they're an important part of the great professionals that drive our game, and I know there are a number of them that are really excited to be back here in Omaha. Maybe at the top of the list is Alex Gordon, a Nebraska native and a University of Nebraska alum. But his teammates Justin Grimm and Whit Merrifield both played here, and I think you had six College World Series participants on your roster, Al.

So we're excited to be back here June 13th, and we're going to bring you a great ballgame. So thank you very much.

KARL RAVECH: We've certainly seen with Little League the teams that have come there and the teams that will be there this summer, it's one of those deals to Rob's point, when you talk to the players and those involved in making sure that the trip goes smoothly, that there are challenges that are presented in it. But when you have the organizations buy into it, you end up having members of the Pirates buy 200 snow cones for kids at Little League, you get a chance to see the joy on their faces when they experience something different.

As routine as 162-game schedule is, the monotony of it, it's refreshing to hear players, and I assume we'll hear that from some of the Tigers and Royals, tell you we weren't really sure, but having something be a little different during the regular season is a real treat.

To that end, I want to get the perspective of the general manager of the Kansas City Royals. Dayton Moore, of course, took over in 2006. The Royals have been home here since 1969 when the Triple-A affiliate came here and now the Storm Chasers. But Dayton knows all about this city, and who knows, at some point you may see some of these kids that are pitching here now here as early as next year.

DAYTON MOORE: Thanks, Karl. Let me say on behalf of the Glass family, the Kansas City Royals, this unbelievable community of Omaha which we've been really blessed to be a part of, we're really humbled to be able to play this game. We're all about growing the game, Commissioner Manfred and his One Baseball initiative has really brought unity, we feel, not only with ownership, but baseball executives, college coaches.

I was talking to Coach Tanner back there, who we go way back. He's always been somebody that I've looked up to. I began my baseball career as a college coach. But we talk about the importance of doing everything in our power to continue to grow this great game, because we believe in it, we're passionate about it, we love the opportunities that it creates for young people.

And so as a young player wanting to make my living at this game, you've thought about Williamsport and the innocence of that, and then you began to set your sights on wouldn't it be great to play in the College World Series in Omaha one day? And then your vision goes towards professional baseball and being a Major Leaguer. So, again, we're at a point in time in the history of baseball where I think we all understand the importance of being united and doing everything we can to grow the game.

So, again, it's a special honor for the Royals to be able to take part in this historic game. So thanks, Karl.

KARL RAVECH: Thank you. It's not lost on the people who cover these events to recognize how fortunate we are. My colleagues Laura Rutledge and Kyle Peterson are out there. Kyle calls Omaha home. So the idea that those two names that Dayton just brought up, Williamsport and Omaha, are synonymous with events that we do cover. We recognize how sacred that is, and we hopefully treat it with the respect it deserves.

I've been doing this here for Omaha probably the last ten to 12 years and I would certainly argue even in front of Rob, that the Little League and College World Series provide unique experiences that Major League Baseball and its World Series doesn't, partly because we actually do the championships, and it really is a neat thing to do.

I know I speak for Laura and Kyle and all of us at ESPN, to be involved with those two events and looking forward to this one, is outstanding.

Al Avila, of course, is going to be involved with his team, the Tigers. Would you like to say a few words?

AL AVILA: Sure. First of all, Commissioner, I'd like to thank you, because my PR guy who wrote my speech here, I think he gave it to you, so everything works out good. I'm glad I don't have to say it (laughter).

But, no, like Dayton, I started my baseball career as a college coach also. Obviously, I feel that's one of the most important areas for a young player's development. I did it for ten years, and I worked under Paul Mainieri who is the head baseball coach at LSU right now. That's where I started. I got to see the benefits of a young man coming out of high school and going through his college career.

They come out of there from being boys to actually ready to be men and take on greater and bigger tasks. So for me, it's a great process for the guys to go through.

For the Detroit Tigers, obviously we're very excited. Like the commissioner said, it's already out there in social media, and we have players like James McCann, Matt Boyd already making comments about how excited and how thrilled they are to come here. I talked about it with our manager Ron Gardenhire who also participated in this tournament many, many years ago, so he was very excited about coming.

As you know last year Alex Faedo, our No. 1 pick, took the University of Florida and won the College World Series last year. He was just promoted yesterday to our Double-A club where I saw him pitch. He pitched very well. That's a good example also of a guy going from high school to college and becoming a No. 1 pick, and so far having great success.

Like you mentioned, this year we had Kody Clemens, which we're very excited about. For us, it's an area where we see players develop and they get very close to the Big Leagues, and the next step, obviously, is just a couple years in the Minor Leagues. Hopefully we have good young men that lead us the way the rest of the way at the Major League level. So thank you very much.

KARL RAVECH: Thank you very much, Al. What Rob didn't really say is by taking baseball to these different parts of the globe and certainly parts of this country, oftentimes there are unique challenges with the ballparks that they have to play in. And Williamsport presented some unique challenges. The ballpark felt like a thousand years old, and they turned it into a Major League ready ball bark. You can imagine what happens on a military base and think about the trips to Monterey and Cuba and others.

Here it's a unique situation. You have the Storm Chasers who have their own beautiful ballpark. And you have TD Ameritrade which, when it opened in 2011, you looked at it and my first reaction was this is a big league park. It certainly plays that way especially when the wind is blowing in, but it looks like a major league ballpark. So in order for this to work, you need the cooperation of the folks at TD Ameritrade, and you also need the Storm Chasers, who own this town, with the exception of the two weeks that the World Series is here, to open up their arms and be willing to share the stage.

So let's hear from Storm Chasers owner Gary Green.

GARY GREEN: On behalf of the Omaha Storm Chasers, team president Martie Cordaro and I are honored to be in attendance today. The Storm Chasers have enjoyed a long and historic partnership with the Royals, with more than 75% of our players having gone to MLB, and we are proud to continue to develop the next generation of champions here in Omaha.

The upcoming Major League game here in the Metro not only reminds all of us how exciting it is to be a sports fan in Omaha, but also how powerful the baseball tradition is in our community. And I'm a New Yorker, and Omaha is my adopted town.

We are looking forward to welcoming both teams to Omaha, including some of our very own former Storm Chasers. Thank you Major League Baseball and Commissioner Manfred for bringing this historic event to the Omaha community.

KARL RAVECH: When you do go to a town and cover an event and you're there for two-plus weeks, you tend to learn a little bit about the town. We've certainly done that in Williamsport for a long time, and have been fortunate enough to do it here.

I really failed when I began this to mention that ultimately the people are the fabric of the community, and I can tell you, having traveled all over the country and a lot of the world, there are no people that are more embracing for the guests that come here than the folks of Omaha. It's ridiculous.

Just a quick story. I checked into my hotel room the other night, and Mo, who is a friend of ours now, we only know him by the name Mo. He owns one of the restaurants down here. He offered to pick me up at the airport. Then when I got into the hotel room, there was an enormous vase of flowers -- don't read into that -- and there was a platter of food. And I didn't really read the card because I assumed it was the hotel.

We went to eat at the restaurant and Mo said, "Did you get what I sent to your room?" I was like, "That's crazy. You did that?" So he represents the people of Omaha in a big way, and I'm sure that the mayor, Jean, is incredibly proud of that and really happy for today.

JEAN STOTHERT: Thank you. Welcome to Omaha, Commissioner Manfred, and all of the representatives here today from the Tigers and the Royals. We're glad that you're here. But isn't this announcement appropriate to make it on the first day of summer, in a city known for a great summer sports tradition, the College World Series. From Little League to big league, and of course to the College World Series, Omaha loves America's pastime.

Just a few days ago we celebrated the 10 millionth fan to watch the College World Series here at Omaha, 10 million. So it's easy to see that we support these events in remarkable numbers. The College World Series has served as a catalyst to spread the word about Omaha as a sports destination and bring other great sporting events to our city.

We have seen record-setting attendance, national media coverage, and of course tremendous economic impact with our city, and we are always looking for ways to grow and showcase the event.

Omaha and the College World Series are uniquely tied together and will be for many years to come. So thank you very much to the local partners who will make this event possible. MECA, the Omaha Storm Chasers, and, of course, our College World Series partner, the NCAA. The Royals and the Tigers, the coaches, the families, and the fans can expect a Major League welcome from the City of Omaha next year. Thank you.

KARL RAVECH: Well, we've heard from the commissioner, and Dayton, and Al and Gene and Gary.

You're not even on the list to speak. Do you want to add anything Roger?

ROGER DIXON: I do want to add my thanks to Major League Baseball, NCAA, the Storm Chasers, we're honored that you're going to bring this event to our facility and our city. So thanks, again.

KARL RAVECH: Thank you, I knew you had something.

ROGER DIXON: Sure.

KARL RAVECH: There are microphones out there. So we'd like to invite anybody to ask questions of anybody that's up here on the dais. I would focus away from the guy that's speaking now, and really focus on the people here. So if you raise your hand, there are wireless microphones here. Feel free to raise your hand and ask a question.

Q. Is this a one-year deal, a five-year deal, a long-range plan? What are the objectives of this program?
ROB MANFRED: We're not committed beyond this year. I will say this, some of our events, Fort Bragg probably being the best example, it was pretty clear that we went there, we built a temporary home. The temporary home was repurposed to be used by the troops there. In contrast, we see Williamsport, Omaha as events we'd do on a continual basis, more continuing basis and would like to use the event to strengthen relationships that are really important to us.

Q. Commissioner, have you ever given any thought to maybe possibly bringing the Major League draft, the amateur draft here to the city of Omaha where the College World Series is the week before in that venue?
ROB MANFRED: I'm tempted to answer that that had not occurred to me (laughter), but probably not a good answer. We have talked, thought, talked to the NCAA about it. We do see potential in the idea of bringing the draft to the site of the College World Series. It's one way, there may be others, that you could rationalize, the baseball, and I mean baseball broadly defined, calendar.

Obviously the draft is a much better property when you have players present, and there are a lot of players here. So it's something that we'll continue to discuss.

KARL RAVECH: Anyone else have any questions? It's not lost on us that the NBA draft is tonight. That's become such a huge spectacle. You have thousands of kids in this area that would be able to attend it as well. So I know there's momentum for that idea. Who else has some questions for the group up here?

Q. You just talked about the NBA draft, and of course I think a lot of college baseball fans think about the notion of the NBA draft if they had it during the Sweet Sixteen while players are on the court, how much of a disruption that would be. It would never happen in basketball. Barring moving the draft dramatically, have you given much consideration to moving it back one day where you don't have players being drafted while they're playing for a postseason regional championship?
ROB MANFRED: Look, obviously, if we were going to do something with the draft we would look for a gap in the calendar. If we're going to bring it to Omaha, for example, you'd look for a gap in the calendar where it didn't interfere with play.

Absent an agreement like that, what we really try to do with the draft is time it so that we have as few Major League games being played as possible. It frees up club personnel. It increases our viewership for the draft, which we feel is important. But I would say this, we are very interested in the idea of rationalizing the calendar during a very busy time of year for the benefit -- not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of the players, the NCAA, everybody who has a stake in this portion of a very busy calendar.

Q. Dayton and Gary, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this too. You've obviously been connected to Omaha for some time now. What can you say about the people here and more importantly them as baseball fans?
DAYTON MOORE: As I said before, it's an amazing community, and the fans here are smart and they follow the game. They've not only embraced our players as it's obviously our affiliate, they've helped raise our players. So you can't win championships, and Al will attest to this as well, unless the community comes alongside your players, your players families, helps with the environment. And Gary and Martie and his staff here at Omaha, the media, the fans, this is just a great baseball town.

As I said before, it's an honor to be a part of this community, 50 years, and to be able to play this game is special. It's going to be memorable for all of us.

GARY GREEN: We share a lot of the same fans with CWS fans, and these fans to me are some of the most knowledgeable in all the country. They really know the game and support our players. One of the things that really impressed me when I came here seven years ago is I love baseball, but I fell in love with the fans at the same time I fell in love with baseball. These fans are second to none.

Q. Rob, you've mentioned this game, the draft. What are you trying to accomplish in terms of bringing baseball closer with the NCAA, and how do you think this game does that and what other projects would you be looking at for that?
ROB MANFRED: Well, we operate in a really competitive, entertainment environment. And our view is that for baseball, again, broadly defined, to be as competitive in that environment as possible, it's really important that the major institutions cooperate as much as possible to make every event that we do as big as possible to avoid conflicting events. To make sure we're pursuing common objectives to the extent that we can agree on them.

That goes from, starts with Steve Keener at Little League, and it goes through Babe Ruth, and Cal Ripken Baseball, and Cal has been a great advisor to us on youth things. The top of that non-professional heap is obviously the NCAA, and the pinnacle being the College World Series.

We want to do everything possible to make sure that the events that are conducted from the base of the Little League all the way up through the College World Series are as successful as possible. That they attract as many people as possible to the game, because all of that, all of that is to the benefit of Major League Baseball at the end of the day.

Q. Rob, what was the time line of events to get this game to happen here, and when did the plan rally start to come into picture?
ROB MANFRED: Well, we identified the first year that I was commissioner a number of potential sites, targets, to play games that were not in our traditional ballparks. Omaha was on that list from the beginning. We ended up prioritizing those events just based on logistics more than anything else.

The focus turned completely to Omaha a little over a year ago. Really our desire to be here has been strong all along, it was just a question of finding the right opportunity.

On this one, reaching an understanding with Gary as to how it was going to operate, really important to us. We're very respectful of Minor League baseball, its rights, its territories. We don't want to be interfering with anything that's going on in that great organization, but it's over a year no matter what you do to try to get an event like this ready to go off the ground.

The one thing I will say about Omaha, and Karl referred to it earlier, the idea that this may be the best non-Major League facility in North America. It's a great, great facility, and that does make the planning and execution here a little easier than it is, for example, at Fort Bragg when you start with basically a field that's not even level.

So, you know, Omaha is a huge advantage in that regard.

KARL RAVECH: Couple more questions or have we exhausted the questions for the crew that's here today? Anybody else? One more here in the front. Go ahead.

Q. You guys talked a little bit about this, but there are obviously plans to play in more countries going forward, but are there plans to play in other cities around the country like this?
ROB MANFRED: We have a group of cities -- I shouldn't say just cities. I think it would be fair to say locations where we would like to play. We're not in a position that we're settled on any. Not ready to really talk about that list of possibilities. But I do think that we're committed to the idea that events like these, where we don't ordinarily play really dovetail nicely with our international efforts in terms of trying to let people see the product up close and personal and growing the game over the long haul.

KARL RAVECH: Before we go, I also want to recognize Kevin Uhlich and Mike Swanson of the Royals who are down here. Duane McClean and Ron Colangelo of the Detroit Tigers in the room as well. Special thanks to Rob for making the trip here and getting everybody excited about Major League Baseball next season.

Thank you all very much for coming, and I look forward to seeing you at the College World Series tonight.

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