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Mets GM Apologizes For Comment On Hot Mic

“Adding to the Mets blunder, team owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon released a statement of their own to explain the situation. Both statements misspelled their general manager’s name as “Brody” instead of the correct spelling of Brodie.”
Brandon Contes

Published

3 years ago

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The New York Mets are no stranger to apologizing for a gaff, and this time it was general manager Brodie Van Wagenen who needed to issue a statement which clarified comments he made about commissioner Rob Manfred. 

Expressing private thoughts in-front of an unexpectedly hot mic is a seemingly more common occurrence thanks to increased remote meetings. On Thursday, Van Wagenen went on a rant about Major League Baseball’s commissioner, while unknowingly being broadcast by the Mets’ app. 

“He just doesn’t get it,” Van Wagenen told two people in a room at Citi Field, along with the entire world via the Mets app and website. 

Multiple MLB games were postponed Thursday night, including the Mets contest against the Marlins, as players chose to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Instead of skipping the game entirely, Van Wagenen believed Manfred wanted the Mets and Marlins to leave the field at their scheduled start time of 7:10, only to return an hour later for first pitch. 

“Baseball’s trying to come up with a solution that would be super powerful. Three of us here, can’t leave this room,” Van Wagenen said. “They’re saying, ‘It would be really great if you could have them all take the field, and then they leave the field, and then they come back and play at 8:10.’

“And I was like, what? … They’re not playing, that’s not happening. But that’s Rob’s instinct. It’s exactly what we were talking about. At a leadership level, he doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it.”

But after Van Wagenen found out his comments were broadcast on the web, he issued an apology, claiming his rant against Manfred was “wrong and unfounded.”

“Jeff Wilpon called Commissioner Manfred this afternoon to notify him that our players voted not to play,” Van Wagenen’s statement read. “They discussed the challenges of rescheduling the game. Jeff proposed an idea of playing the game an hour later. I misunderstood that this was the Commissioner’s idea. In actuality, this was Jeff’s suggestion. The players had already made their decision so I felt the suggestion was not helpful. My frustration with the Commissioner was wrong and unfounded. I apologize to the Commissioner for my disrespectful comments and poor judgment in inaccurately describing the contents of his private conversation with Jeff Wilpon.”

Adding to the Mets blunder, team owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon released a statement of their own to explain the situation. Both statements misspelled their general manager’s name as “Brody” instead of the correct spelling of Brodie.

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Rob Parker Bringing MLBBro.com Podcast To iHeartRadio

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this groundbreaking project – this sound has never been heard before in connection with Major League Baseball.”
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Published

18 hours ago

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March 28, 2023

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Rob Parker loves Major League Baseball and he is expanding his reach in the sport. His site MLBBro.com is taking another step forward just weeks after announcing a partnership with the league to provide coverage of minority players from the past and present.

He will add a podcast to the brand’s portfolio. The MLBBro Show Podcast – The Mixtape will join the iHeartRadio podcast lineup. While Parker oversees the brand, the show will be led by MLBbro.com’s Vice President of Operations JR Gamble.

Gamble brings more than two decades of experience covering the league to the show. The first episode drops right after Opening Day on March 31.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this groundbreaking project – this sound has never been heard before in connection with Major League Baseball,” said Parker, who has been a Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) member since 1990.

“It’s baseball coverage with hot sauce, loud and proud and in living color. Get on board from day one!”

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Sports Online

What Implications Would TikTok Ban Have on Sports Media & Business?

“Prominent Democrats have spoken out against banning TikTok in the United States, but the effort has bipartisan support.”
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Published

21 hours ago

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March 28, 2023

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If TikTok is banned in the United States, a very realistic possibility, the ad market around sports and sports media stands to take a significant hit. Front Office Sports took a look at the companies that used the social video platform to advertise to sports audiences in 2022 and 2023.

Among the advertisers making major investments in TikTok was Degree, whose March Madness advertising campaign includes an ad that is exclusive to TikTok and stars Giannis Antetokounmpo. For the Super Bowl, T-Mobile supplemented its FOX ad buy with a TikTok campaign, while State Farm chose to skip the network broadcast of the game and spend all of its advertising with the digital platform.

It’s not only advertisers. Leagues and networks factor TikTok prominently into reaching younger audiences. The WWE, FIFA and the NBA all saw significant growth in their audiences on the app last year. On top of that, FOX and ESPN both have taken advertising money from TikTok in the past for postseason baseball and college football broadcasts respectively.

Prominent Democrats have spoken out against banning TikTok in the United States, but the effort has bipartisan support. The Biden administration and other lawmakers have voiced concern about the security threat the Chinese government’s involvement with the app poses to Americans and their personal data.

The appeal of TikTok for networks and advertisers is easy to see. Between 2021 and 2022, no social media platform showed more growth for engagement from sports fans. TikTok’s sports audience jumped 65% in that timeframe. Facebook saw 22% growth and for Twitter, it was just 8%.

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Sports Online

Dan Le Batard Addresses Response To Stephen A. Smith Criticism

“Oo-wee I seem to have gotten people mad.”
Jordan Bondurant

Published

2 days ago

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March 27, 2023

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Last week Dan Le Batard went back and forth with his former ESPN cohort Stephen A. Smith, with Le Batard not pulling any punches with the First Take host.

“I hate what you two have done to sports television,” Le Batard said to Stephen A., mentioning Skip Bayless, Smith’s former co-host. Dan said on his South Beach Sessions podcast that specifically his issue is with the constant need to make the arguing over a point the primary entertainment focus.

Stephen A. responded by questioning how he and Bayless are responsible for the rise of people in the space without a journalism background when both he and Skip are trained journalists and spent years working newspaper beats before they got their breaks on television.

“You can say that all you want to; I would say, who the hell are you?!” Smith said. “To sit up there and say me and him. What about you? Where the hell were you? Living under a rock? Teaching at Miami U? You were part of it too! You ain’t innocent!”

Le Batard faced some blowback for his stance on Twitter, and on Friday Dan posted a quick video response on his Instagram.

“Oo-wee I seem to have gotten people mad,” Le Batard said. “And the reaction was hostile and swift on Elon Musk’s kind, gentle community app.”

“People say that I am a fat, ugly, hypocritical, jealous, jerk, asshole, moron, idiot,” he added. “And I’d just like to defend myself against that…I’m not jealous.”

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