A LETTER TO THE EXECUTIVE TEAM- choose to be heard, share your voice with baseball leadership.

Here's the email I sent to the Major League Baseball executive team today. You can share your voice with them at MLBExecutiveRelationsCS@mlb.com

 A great leader in the US Army Infantry once told me "we are not judged by our success, rather, we are judged by our most recent failure." from a sincere fan who is in love with the game. A fan who subscribes to MLB.TV, visits fifteen to twenty games a year in no less than five different ballparks here is a list of failures that I judge Robert Manfred for, and expect to be fixed.

 1. The blackouts on MLB.TV I don't have to care about broadcast rights and contracts. I do get to expect that when I pay for a subscription to MLB.TV, it shouldn't come with asterisks or small print telling me why a local network or streaming service is the only way to watch a game. Stop it. Offer all games played every day in any city for a flat rate.

 2. Can we fix the superimposed advertising on the back stops? As well, get rid of the fake chalk on the back of the mound. Let the teams sell that space on their respective mounds, the fake stuff simply feels well, fake. I get it, you are going to sell every square inch of space you can to maximize profit. As free Americans I expect it. What I also expect twenty years into the twenty-first century (I should have said "a quarter way to the twenty-second century") is quality. I'm sick of the glitching broadcasts. Players bats and gloves competing with "insert tonight's sponsor" for camera focus. This is the video quality I expect from a volunteer group's Zoom meeting and everyone's virtual backgrounds. Not THE MLB.

 3. Why are there two homeless teams? The Athletics were allowed to move to a AAA stadium out of market for what reason? Shouldn't we expect MLB charter teams to have an MLB stadium? Or do we just not respect the fans that let that organization exist enough to ensure they have one of the thirty finest places to watch the game they finance? How about the Rays, as the governing body, why didn't MLB pick up the tab on the roof of Tropicana Field and look for reimbursement later? Fifty-five million dollars is a lot to me but it's less than half a percent of the reported twelve billion one hundred thousand in revenue for MLB last year. Does the MLB really not have an account for things like this? 

 4. Competition disparity. Why are ownership groups like the Athletics and Pirates being allowed to treat the organization as a piece of their investment portfolio? Do these owners not owe the fans and athletes anything? They quite literally couldn't do it without either of those demographics. We don't need a salary cap. Rather, we need a salary floor. Fix this. The great players stuck on non competitive teams and the loyal fans who invest year after year knowing it is for not deserve better and it is the commissioners job to protect us. 

 I eagerly await the almost guaranteed "copy and paste" response I will receive. I dare you to surprise me. Respond like you care and like it matters. Because it does.

Very Respectfully, Gary Prtune