[music]

>> Major League Baseball is riding a wave

of momentum. Tendencies up, games are

faster, and stars like Aaron Judge and

Shohei Ohtani are helping bring new fans

into the sport. Yahoo! Finance's Brian

Sozzi caught up with Hall of Famer CC

Sabathia and MLB Chief Marketing Officer

Uzma Rawn Dowler to talk about all this

at Can Lion.

>> We have incredible momentum right now. I

I do like to say baseball is on fire.

We're having a moment, but we're in the

moment. To your point, the the rule

changes that we implemented that the

commissioner implemented a few years ago

have been incredible for our sport just

as it relates to more action on the

field, getting a younger audience not

only in stadium, but on TV. Um it's a a

great time. Business is is up across our

viewership, our attendance in stadium.

We've had five straight years of

attendance growth, three straight years

of 70 million plus fans in our stadiums.

So, we're really excited about where the

the state of where MLB is at right now.

>> When you come to an event like Can

Lions, I mean, the beach is packed. I

mean, our Yahoo! Beach has been packed

uh literally all week. What do you

What's your goal? What are you trying to

get out of an event like this?

>> I've been getting asked that question a

lot. I mean, there's a reason why we

brought CC and our other uh legends here

as well. We want to be able to tell

the great looking guy.

A great brand ambassador for MLB as

well, I'll I'd say. I think that we just

want to make sure that we are present

here having conversations with brands. A

number of our brand partners are here.

Adobe's here, Mastercard's here.

We have a strategic partnership with

Boardroom. They're here as well. So, we

want to make uh we want to draft off of

sort of their relationships as well and

and make sure that we're telling the MLB

story and having conversations about

where we're at, the state of our

business, and who wants to align with

MLB, and how we can tell our collective

story together.

>> CC, is this a weird moment for me

because in my head I'm still waiting for

you to come out on the mound tomorrow.

Like, I still HAVE MY WHY IS CC SABATHIA

HERE? LIKE, I'm waiting for him to

pitch, but [laughter] you haven't

pitched in a number of years. You are an

ambassador uh to the game like Uzma just

mentioned. How is it different for you

walking to a park today than when you

pitched?

>> Uh I think it's uh I have a different

perspective, you know, having a chance

to be on this side of it and and kind of

see the business side of it and you

know, really understand the game. You

know, I thought when I retired that I

would just be a far away from the game

and not, you know, really watch and

I realized that I love baseball. You

know, where I'm a baseball fan where

baseball family. My wife's an agent for

CAA and having a chance to be on this

side with MLB and

kind of have an impact over the whole

summer of the game, not just one

particular team working for

organization. Um, you know, it it's

awesome to to kind of have that impact.

>> How involved

>> He has some real quick. He has some

great ideas. Like I don't think a lot of

people realize last year during the

All-Star game the Hank Aaron moment. It

actually started with CC. It was his

idea

and he came to us

and we took it and you know, worked with

the team to help execute and implement

it, but that originated from him and so

we love that collaboration with CC and

our other former players for them to

feel like they have a voice at the table

and a seat at the table. A good idea can

come from anywhere and so that's been a

really really I think refreshing part of

the process for me even.

>> Well, that's an easy follow up for me.

What other good ideas do you have for

MLB?

>> [laughter]

>> You know what was was crazy is that we

have that commissioner ambassadors

group. Dexter Fowler and Jimmy Rollins

are here and to Ozzie's point, you know,

for All-Star this year, you know, Ryan

Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Shane

Victorino have a huge input

a huge input of kind of what's going to

happen on the field and what what fans

are going to see and what players

connect with the fan base.

So, it doesn't have to actually come

from me. It's it's all of us. You know,

we talk about the game. We have a group

chat. We call each other nightly about

baseball. So, we all have you know,

ideas and you know, we have input on

what hats go out on the field and you

know, what you know, socks and different

things like that are going to be input

put in play and you know, I think our

group has a real good grasp

on you know, what is good for us to be

endorsing for MLB.

>> seeing vibe check. We got a good vibe

check.

>> [laughter]

>> We do have a group chat, DJ.

>> Are you in the group chat?

>> I am not in the group chat.

>> [laughter]

>> You're not in the group chat?

>> We got to add her to the group chat.

>> I don't know. I feel like I want to be,

but sometimes I like to be a step

removed as well. But sometimes I'll be

like, EJ, like get their gauge on like

if they like this or if they don't like

this. Just to like see if like we should

then pitch it pitch it up the up the

ladder, but it's good.

>> CC, doing this interview had me think

back on my uh

>> [laughter]

>> my little league career,

which is no idea what you did. But look,

I thought about it and I got I had a

lame jersey. I had those little stirrups

that you put on the outside of your

socks. And I got to use bat from Sears,

which is now no longer no longer a

business. Um I look at the youth of

today, they're getting lessons. They

have some of the best outfits I've ever

seen. Um in some respects better than my

suits I wear to work. Like what is the

state of youth baseball as it gets so

competitive?

>> Yeah, I mean it's it's it's it's tough.

I mean I I told Ozma last night, you

know, in this uh state where we're at

right now in youth baseball, I wouldn't

have been able to play this game. Um I

don't think my parents could afford

um you know, every weekend flying to

uh Atlanta or Hoover, Alabama or Florida

or or these different places um to play

baseball. I played baseball because I

stayed in my community. I was able to

play with my friends and I was able to

grow and and uh mature that way in the

game. So,

um I had my dad as my coaches, you know

what I mean? Like

>> The same thing that we grew up with.

>> There was no one-on-one, you know,

hitting coach or anything like that. No

pitching coach. When, you know, at the

at the beginning of August

>> we put on the football pads. And you

know, when in November we we played

basketball. So,

um you know, with my own kids I try to

make them multi-multi-sport athletes.

Um try to break it up. I think the other

sports make you a better player. Um but

I definitely think there's some things

that we can do um as players, as a

league, um to kind of help um

you know, some of these kids that are

that are that love the game, that want

to play, but can't actually afford to

play on on travel ball teams.

>> Wilson, what can you do to protect the

future of MLB and and get more bats,

gloves, shoes, you name it into the

hands of next generation?

>> I I'll I'll go back to when

Commissioner Manfred first became

Commissioner. I think he announced his

commissionership in Williamsport

at the Little League facilities there.

And his first initiative was really

announcing our play ball platform, which

is really encouraging kids, quite

honestly, not even just organized youth

baseball and softball, but getting out

there and and like hitting in your

backyard or catching in your backyard

with your brother or your sister or your

mom or your dad. And so those

initiatives are the initiatives that we

have under our play ball umbrella are

really helping sort of grow the game and

and impacting youth baseball and

softball participation.

>> And we saw in 2022,

we had a record number of first round

picks especially from African-American

community. And you know, all of those

kids came through our program. We have

an MLB develops program. We have a

breakthrough series program. We have a

Hank Aaron all throughout the summer

down at the Jackie Robinson complex in

Vero. And the impact that we've made at

at the youth space already,

we're seeing, you know, pay dividends

throughout the draft.

>> The MLB has taken a lot of big swings in

recent years. They have the pitch clock.

You have, you know,

how it's how you use relievers has

changed. Like what's the next big swing

to improve the fan experience, Isman?

>> I think that we're seeing it right now

with the implementation of ABS

and what that has done for the sport. I

think some some of the loudest cheers in

the ballpark right now were during an

ABS challenge.

And so that has been incredible to see.

And I think the Commissioner

and our labor and baseball ops team is

constantly taking a look at ways that we

can improve and listening to fan

feedback, player feedback across the

board to see what new additional changes

we can continue to implement. But ABS

has been really exciting for us

especially coming off of the success of

the sweeping rule changes that we had a

few years ago.

>> CC, have you thought about what it had

been like if you were to pitch with a

with a pitch clock and some of these

changes we've seen now?

>> No, I would love the pitch clock.

>> You're always fast.

>> Yeah, I pitch quick. You know, I'm

trying to get out of there.

>> [laughter]

>> But I mean even as a fan, you know, I'm

I'm a huge fan of baseball and the first

couple of years I retired, I would have

to watch two or three games at a time

just because there's not enough action.

You know, you got 45 seconds in between

each pitch

and it's just a 4-hour game. So it was

hard to watch. Now, I mean I can you

know, you watch a game in 2 and 1/2

hours. I can take my kids to the

ballpark. I feel like families are back

at the ballpark during the school year

during the week because you know that

you can watch 2 hours and 15 minutes of

the game and you're going to get most of

the game in.

>> I had a 5-year-old in last postseason

like he was negotiating to stay up to

watch postseason games like 7th inning,

8th inning and I like I was like yeah,

good. You can stay up because it wasn't

that late. It was it's awesome.

>> When I I look at the sport right now,

Shohei Ohtani I just a larger than life

character, Bobby Wood Jr. is certainly

coming to his own.

Um

Who are the Who are the next versions of

these two? Like what Who are the players

we're not watching but could be the next

sports

>> Yeah, it's it's a it's a kid in in St.

Louis, JJ Weatherholt.

I think that the NL Central has the most

concentrated young talent right now. If

you just look around, you got Connor

Brogdon and Paul Skenes,

O'Neil Cruz in Pittsburgh. You got

Jordan Walker and JJ Weatherholt. They

got a kid named Joshua Baez that they're

about to call up. That's that's actually

really good.

You got Pete Crow-Armstrong

in in Chicago.

Um You know, you say you can just go

around the board and I think

[clears throat]

you know, Sal Stewart and Hunter Greene

and you know, Elly De La Cruz in in

Cincinnati.

So I think if you look at that division,

every night I'm watching one team from

that division whoever they're playing

cuz you're going to get good pitching

and you're going to see a young star

that

could probably be our next face of the

game.

>> What I was talking to a snowboarder

Olympic snowboarder Scotty James here

and he he said he was I think early on

in making his transition from athlete to

entrepreneur. How have you made that

transition? How hard is that?

>> Uh it it I mean it hasn't been hard. I

think this is going to sound crazy, but

when I retired right after I retired

COVID hit. So there was no wanting to go

to spring training. There was no, you

know, feeling like, you know, I'm

missing baseball cuz nobody was playing

baseball. So it gave me a chance to kind

of figure out what I wanted to do. Um I

had actually signed up to do a bunch of

broadcasting things and figured I didn't

like that.

>> [laughter]

>> Oh, you're really good.

Like I'm just sitting here, you know

what I mean? This is all just take my

job.

>> I like getting it on my own terms, you

know what I'm saying?

Um so

>> you don't like that with the signature

laugh.

>> [laughter]

>> I love hearing his signature laugh on

broadcast.

>> Where Where Where does this MLB food

come from?

>> Our ballpark bites. I mean if you think

about it, like one of the ways that

we're bringing new fans into the

ecosystem also is uh touching on other

fan passion points. Like there are so

many things that are organic to

baseball. Music. Like we're the only

sport that has a walk-up song. Uh food

is such a big part of our culture as

well. Every ballpark has their own

specialty ballpark item. I think in

Seattle it's the choco chocolate covered

crickets, um which has a weird

aftertaste, by the way.

>> I saw a uh short rib corn dog in Kansas

City.

>> and it's hot.

>> Yeah, wild, right?

>> And so that's one of the ways that we're

sort of tapping into other passion

points that maybe our fans might have,

bringing them into the side door of

baseball, feeding them that content, and

then ultimately growing them to be that

core fan that we want them to be.

>> I understand uh Uzma, you can't talk

about any of the CBA stuff. Totally

appreciate it. But you've done a lot of

great work on marketing. Uh you have a

lot of big wins from the food to the

pitch clock, people coming back to the

game.

Are you worried that, you know, that

overhanging cloud impacts the amazing

work you and your teams have done?

>> I think to to to that point I'll say

that we are we started it. Like baseball

has incredible momentum right now. We

are on the upswing and we want to

continue to to sort of uh feed that, um

and focus on sort of the

the the positives that we have going for

us and make sure that we're having the

right conversations at the right time

with the right brand partners and media

partners to make sure that they're

helping us tell our story and we're

helping them tell their story.