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MLB Season Predictions: How do we feel about Detroit Tigers in 2026?

The Detroit Tigers open up their 2026 campaign on Thursday afternoon on the West Coast against a National League opponent for the second-straight year, looking to make it to the playoffs for a third-straight season.

This summer’s edition of the Olde English D has a bit more beef to it than that of last year’s, especially with the addition of Framber Valdez to the starting rotation, as well as a late-career reunion with the legendary Justin Verlander.

Looking ahead to what we all hope is a run to the World Series, the Bless You Boys staff convened to offer their predictions in roundtable fashion. The categories up for discussion were as follows:

  • Tigers Record
  • Tigers MVP
  • Tigers CY Young
  • Tigers ROY

A good portion of the responses were pretty much expected, especially when it came to a certain consecutive Cy Young Award winner and the top prospect in the big leagues. But there was plenty of variation in the record predictions, plus a few cheeky picks as well.

Take a long look at what the Bless You Boys staff had to offer.

Cannon at the Hot Corner:

Record: 92-70

This is a better team than last year. Valdez is important, JV is back, Finnegan and Jansen stabilize the bullpen, and you might have heard of Kevin McGonigle. This isn’t some flawless super team or anything, and the bottom of the division is gonna give us fewer easy wins than last year, but it’s a great roster to start a championship chase with.

MVP: Colt Keith. Why the f not? I’ll put my money where my mouth is. I love Keith, I think he’s gonna turn into a .280/30 HR kinda guy, and I hate being boring. My next two picks are super boring.

Cy Young: Well, here’s boring. It’s Skubal. We all know it’s Skubal.

ROY: Ok, here’s boring answer two. If this is someone other than McGonigle, I fear things will have gone terribly wrong.

Patrick O’Kennedy:

  • Tigers Record: 88- 74
  • Tigers MVP: Tarik Skubal
  • Tigers CY Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: Kevin McGonigle

Peter Kwasniak:

For some reason, I’m not feeling very bold on predictions this year. I’ll go with the obvious choices all around.

  • Tigers Record: 90-72
  •  Tigers MVP: Skubal
  •  Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  •  Tigers ROY: McGonigle

Hopefully, the Tigers put together a solid season, not the wild, hotter-than-the-sun first half and colder-than-arctic finish.

Frisbee Pilot:

  • Tigers Record: 92-70
  • Tigers MVP: Kerry Carpenter
  • Tigers Cy Young: Framber Valdez
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

I enjoy being both optimistic and unconventional… except for ROY, we all know McG’s gonna absolutely kill it out there.

Brandon Day:

  • Tigers record 91-71
  • Tigers MVP: Greene
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

Boring takes, but I believe in them. I really think the combination of McGonigle and hopefully healthy Gleyber is going to make this a more consistent offense, and this is the best pitching staff they’ve had since 2014. They have good depth beyond the starting five in the rotation. Just have to hope the big boys stay healthy and do what they’re supposed to do, but that’s the way it is for everyone.

Frisbee: I was thinking maybe Riley for Tigers MVP, but I’m really worried about his physical decline so far. Or maybe it’s just a bump in the road, who knows?

Day: Yeah, hard to know. He’s 25, but he is going into his fifth season already and thrown himself around a lot in the outfield. Not so surprising that he lost a step but the metrics definitely agree that he was a bit below average runner last year after always being on the faster than average side his first few years. I would bet Riley has a 40 home run season or two ahead of him though and hasn’t really peaked as a hitter. May just need to get him into the DH spot once a week going forward to help keep him fresh. But Riley has never really failed as a hitter his whole life until the second half of last year and he didn’t like it. I bet he comes back strong.

Cam Kaiser:

  • Tigers Record: 88-74
  • Tigers MVP: Skubal
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

On paper, the Tigers got better this offseason in a way that fans haven’t seen since Mike Ilitch was dolling out six-figure contracts like hot cakes. With the acquisition of Framber Valdez and future Hall of Famer and Detroit legend Justin Verlander, it’s exciting to see them back to being players for major free agents.

Hopefully, it’s a sign of what’s to come for the future of the pairing of Chris Ilitch and Scott Harris. There are still major concerns, though. Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize had very discouraging springs, while potential rotation solutions in Reese Olson (entire season) and Troy Melton (foreseeable future) find themselves on the shelf with arm injuries. Kenley Jansen and Drew Anderson should elevate the bullpen over the goofballs Harris acquired at last year’s deadline, Kyle Finnegan — welcome back! — not withstanding, though they are still lacking in the strikeout department.

Finally, the offense wasn’t upgraded externally. Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, and Gleyber Torres should be solidly above-average hitters. Spencer Torkelson and Dillon Dingler will probably hit. But this is a middle-of-the-pack offense that was inflated in the first half of 2025 by All-Star (half) years from Javier Báez and Zack McKinstry.

The biggest upgrade to the lineup rests with the bat of the team’s top prospect in Kevin McGonigle. McGonigle had an excellent spring and, by all indications, seems to be breaking camp with the big club, but expecting an immediate impact from any rookie is asking a lot. We’ll see what the kid can do; the season might depend on him.

Ashley MacLennan:

I’m choosing to go high on this season like an absolute fool.

  • Tigers Record: 90-72
  • Tigers MVP: Riley Greene (please, Riley, please)
  • Tigers Cy Young: Tarik Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: Kevin McGonigle, duh

Jay Markle:

  • Tigers Record: 89-73
  • Tigers MVP: Skubal
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

Fielder’s Choice:

  • Tigers Record: 88-74
  • Tigers MVP: Skubal
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

Zane Harding:

This was an 87-75 team last year that was a massive collapse away from 90-plus wins. Nevertheless, that’s a .500 team without Skubal.

All else equal — a bold assumption, I know — we added Valdez/Verlander in free agency, 6.2 fWAR last year, and are promoting McGonigle, a Bobby Witt Jr. level prospect who is projected for 2.6 fWAR by ZiPS in just 91 games of action… (he’s projected to exceed Witt’s rookie season, to speak to his hype.)

I’ll still factor some for entropy, but I’m coming in bullish relative to the roundtable.

  • Tigers Record: 96-66
  • Tigers MVP: Skubal
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

Easiest answers for MVP Cy and ROY ever.

MacLennan: Poor Kevin if it turns out he just has a somewhat okay rookie season, lol. We’re literally pinning our hopes and dreams on him and Skoob.

Day: Well, add Framber and Kevin to last year’s squad, and I like their chances over the Mariners. Postseason ball is impossible to predict, of course.

Harding: Witt was worth 2.3 fWAR in his 150-game rookie season, FWIW. He was 22; McGonigle is 21.

Mr. Sunshine:

  • Tigers Record: 98-64
  • Tigers MVP: Gleyber Torres
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

Harding: NOOOO Sunshine out-wins again!

Cannon: Wow, 98 is crazy. I like this guy’s thinking

Les Lim:

  • Tigers Record: 95-six seven
  • Tigers MVP: McGonigle
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: Max Clark

Adam Dubbin:

  • Tigers Record: 87-75
  • Tigers MVP: Spencer Torkelson
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

It’s the year of the Tork, baby! But I think the team will underperform overall.

David Rosenberg:

  • Tigers Record: 91-71
  • Tigers MVP: Greene
  • Tigers Cy Young: Skubal
  • Tigers ROY: McGonigle

I’m not really picking anything too spicy this year, but that’s because this is a good team that has a chance to be great. The Tigers were a win away from the ALCS in 2025. The pitching staff is better and the lineup has more experience, and adding Kevin McGonigle to the roster is the offensive addition that they needed.

Now that you know where the Bless You Boys staff stands entering the 2026 campaign, give us your takes in the comments below!

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Chicago Cubs history unpacked, March 25

Free of charge for the discerning reader.Happy birthday to PCA and others, and other stories.

Today in baseball history: 

Cubs Birthdays:Frank Dwyer, Bill Carney, Polly McLarry, Denver Grigsby, Jim Ellis, Jeff Kunkel, Scott Sanders, Neal Cotts, Pete Crow-Armstrong*. Also notable: Tom Glavine HOF.

Today in history:

  • 31 – First Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus.
  • 421 – Friday at 12 p.m. — City of Venice founded.
  • 1306 – Robert the Bruce crowned Robert I, King of Scots, having killed his rival John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch.
  • 1655 – Astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
  • 1857 – Frederick Laggenheim takes the first photo of a solar eclipse.
  • 1882 – 1st demonstration of pancake making, held at a department store in NYC.
  • 1919 – Woodrow Wilson’s dream of a League of Nations becomes a reality after the League Covenant is adopted at the Paris Peace Conference.
  • 1954 – RCA manufactures the first color TV set (12½” screen at $1,000).
  • 2019 – NASA cancels a planned historic all-female spacewalk because it doesn’t have enough spacesuits to fit women.

*pictured.

**this turns out to be untrue. Click the link.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Knicks Legend John Starks Says New York Is ‘Best Team in the East’

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John Starks isn't holding back.

The former NBA All-Star and Sixth Man of the Year believes the New York Knicks are the best team in the Eastern Conference.

Starks is remembered for his long Knicks tenure, helping lead the team to the NBA Finals in 1994 along with Patrick Ewing.

The former undrafted guard became an All-Star the year the Knicks advanced to the Finals and he became the first player in NBA history to make at least 200 three-pointers in a single season when he accomplished the feat in 1994-95.

“We’re the best team in the East.”

While the Knicks have been behind the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons during the entirety of the season and have gone 0-3 against the Pistons.

However former NBA Sixth Man of the Year, John Starks said the Knicks, not the Pistons, are the team to beat in the East.

It's worth noting that Detroit's best player, Cade Cunningham, is out indefinitely due to a collapsed lung.

"That San Antonio game showed me that they're a championship-quality team."
- John Starks

"I feel like we're the best team in the East," said Starks in an exclusive interview. "I really do. I know Detroit has the record over us, and I know Boston is ahead of us right now. But when I saw that San Antonio game, it’s almost like when you dangle some meat in front of some guys and they go get it. That's what it looked like to me. That told me that they can beat anybody in this league."

Starks is referencing the New York Knicks' 114-89 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on March 1 when New York vastly outplayed the Victor Wembanyama-led squad.

However, he does preach that the Knicks need to be more consistent against the top teams in the NBA.

"They’ve got to be consistent when you're playing against these good teams, and they haven't shown that, obviously... But I think when it comes to playoff time, all these guys are going to lock in, because they've been there. Sometimes you start to look ahead and you forget you’ve got to play Detroit and you’ve got to play the Celtics. You’ve got to play the Cavaliers. You’ve got to play the Lakers. You’ve got to play all these good teams. But that San Antonio game showed me that they're a championship-quality team."

Starks: Knicks can make NBA Finals run

The former Knicks star said that he's confident that the team can make an NBA Finals run this year. It would be the first time since 1999 - when Ewing was still on the team - that they'd be in the championship round.

New York would have to go on the road and likely get through the Pistons in Detroit if they want to get to the Finals. They defeated the Pistons in six games in the first round in Detroit last season.

"No question," said Starks about the Knicks making a Finals run. "Understand one thing about this team: they know they can go on the road and beat anybody. The playoffs is all about going on the road and winning on your opponent's home court. That's the most important thing."

"You can always shift the home court. If you go seven games, then that game - that's the only thing the home court advantage means. Other than that, you can go in and just like what they did to Detroit last year. They had the home court, and then went in and shifted it in our favor. We're good."

Knicks Legend: “He's back to being Jalen Brunson.”

Starks gives tremendous credit to the Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns pairing. The duo is in their second season together and previously led the squad to the Eastern Conference Finals last year.

"I think Karl is doing a tremendous job and making conscious efforts on the defensive end of the court," said Starks. "He's starting to get a little bit more in that post where you like your big man. He's just not settling for jump shots. Now he's been more aggressive going to the basket. I like where he's at in his thought process."

"I think he didn't figure that part out. Now I think he's back to being Jalen Brunson."
- John Starks

"Jalen is going to do what he's going to do. I think he struggled over the last three or four weeks because teams are starting to play him differently. They're starting to take the ball out of his hand, and everybody's starting to double him early in the game. I think he was kind of struggling with that: how to be aggressive on the offensive end, how to get his teammates involved, and keep his teammates involved. I think he didn't figure that part out. Now I think he's back to being Jalen Brunson."

Starks: Knicks have turned up defensive intensity in recent weeks

The Knicks are currently hot right now, riding a six-game win streak entering their Tuesday night game against the New Orleans Pelicans.

"I like where we are headed and I like the way we are playing right now. We're getting back to our DNA, and that's on the defensive end of the court. I think we lost a little bit of that during that losing streak. Guys got so worried about the offensive end that if you're struggling on offense, you can get it on the other end."

"We kind of turned the corner when we played against San Antonio. We started off from a defensive standpoint. I haven't seen these guys move that fast in awhile. It was like eight guys out there on the court on defense. That's how you could see that intensity level step up."

Starks does mention the recent back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, but said that's probably just the Los Angeles effect of having to travel all the way from the east coast to the west coast.

"Obviously, we took a step back against the Lakers and the Clippers, but that could be the Los Angeles effect and the driving and flying. But after that they got back to playing aggressively. On the defensive end, Golden State woke us up again.

“You gotta play hard, and you can't go out there and underestimate anybody in this league because they can beat you, and they just carry that over into the next game and the next game."

"I like where we are from a mentality standpoint. A couple of guys have to get going with their shots, but other than that, defensively, I like where we are heading into the playoffs."

Defense Should Lead For The Knicks

The former All-Defensive Second Team guard said he believes the team's identity is on the defensive end. If they can execute on that end, the sky's the limit for the Knicks. New York is fifth in points allowed per game and in defensive rating.

"You have to have an identity. You can't just go into the game and say one night we're going to play defense and one night we're not. Offensively, we're going to shoot the ball great, one night we're not."

"I think when you want to hang your hat for any team, you hang your hat on the defensive end of the court, because that keeps you in the games until your offense gets going."

"That's always been our mentality when I was here, and it's going to continue to be that way here in New York, because when this crowd gets going and is hollering, 'Defense! Defense!', they want you to go out there and guard."

"I think we got enough on the offensive end of the court. Our shooting has been a little erratic lately, but I think overall once playoff time comes, we'll work out the kinks and we should be fine."

John Starks spoke exclusively with DJ Siddiqi on behalf of Covers.com. All quotes in this article are taken from an exclusive interview conducted by Covers.com. Journalists and media outlets are welcome to use these quotes, provided they are attributed to Covers.com. Please ensure links back to the original article to provide full context for readers.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

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Barcelona takes on Spanish rival Real Madrid in Women's Champions League quarterfinals

MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid will try to close in on a first semifinal appearance in the Women’s Champions League when it hosts three-time champion Barcelona in the first leg of the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Manchester United will make its debut in the last eight against Bayern Munich.

Barcelona will try to make it to a record-extending eighth consecutive semifinal appearance, and a sixth straight final in the competition that it has dominated in recent years.

The Catalan club is playing in its 11th straight quarterfinal and seeks to reclaim the title it lost to Arsenal last season. Barcelona topped the league phase with an unbeaten campaign that included 20 goals scored and three against.

Madrid, in its second consecutive quarterfinal, was eliminated by Arsenal in the last eight last season. If finished seventh in the league phase.

Man United has been thriving in its first European experience since a defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in qualifying in the 2023-24 season. Bayern recovered from a 7-1 loss at Barcelona at the start of the league phase to finish fourth and qualify for the quarterfinals for the eighth time in 10 seasons.

On Tuesday, Arsenal defeated English rival Chelsea 3-1 in their first leg of the quarterfinals. Wolfsburg took a 1-0 lead over record eight-time champion Lyon in a meeting of two of the competition’s most storied names.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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The Spin | Cricket’s Tetris calendar is a recipe for player burnout and fan apathy

South Africa v New Zealand T20 series highlights schedule that is increasingly hard to keep up with

Clinical guidance suggests recovery from emotional trauma can take weeks or months. In some cases, the lingering pain can last for years. Elite cricketers, though, are expected to compress that timeline into days.

Take Mitchell Santner. The New Zealand captain oversaw his team’s crushing 96-run loss by India in the T20 World Cup final on 8 March. It was the Black Caps’ fourth defeat in an ICC final since 2019 and, having swatted aside South Africa in the semi-final, would have stung. Well, Santner had to do his contemplating on the flight back home as seven days later he was suited and booted for a T20 international against the Proteas at Mount Maunganui.

Continue reading...
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Norwegian skier Atle Lie McGrath wins World Cup slalom title after losing his temper at the Olympics

HAFJELL, Norway (AP) — Norwegian skier Atle Lie McGrath secured the World Cup slalom title on home snow Wednesday to conclude the season on a positive note after losing his temper at the Olympics when he squandered a big first-run lead.

McGrath broke down in tears during a long, emotional embrace with childhood friend and Olympic giant slalom champion Lucas Pinheiro Braathen of Brazil, who straddled a gate early in his second run to pave the way for McGrath's title.

McGrath, who won three slaloms this season, earned his first discipline title.

Timon Haugan, another Norwegian, won the race by finishing 0.44 seconds ahead of Olympic champion Loic Meillard and 1.03 ahead of Eduard Hallberg of Finland.

McGrath, who came eighth in the race, finished 64 points ahead of 2022 Olympic champion Clement Noel and 73 points ahead of Pinheiro Braathen.

McGrath, who was born in Vermont but grew up in Norway, entered the final run of the slalom at the Milan Cortina Games with a big lead. But after straddling a gate, McGrath angrily threw his ski poles away and ventured toward the woods to gather himself.

Marco Odermatt, who does not compete in slalom, secured his fifth straight overall title before the finals. He was awarded the large crystal globe after the slalom.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

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MLB opening day starting pitcher matchups: Who's on the mound for each team?

The 2026 MLB season is upon us, with nothing but possibilities and dreams of October celebrations ahead.

The journey begins on opening day as each team puts its best foot (or in this case, arm) forward in an effort to get off to that coveted 1-0 start.

Here is a look at the 30 pitchers who have earned the honor of being their team's opening day starter. Some are established veterans with plenty of experience in the role. Others are getting the call for the first time. And still others are being thrust into the maelstrom due to injuries or other complications.

No matter the circumstances, the feeling is the same. Let's play ball!

2026 opening day starting pitchers

Here's the schedule for the first three days of the 2026 MLB season, with each team's opening day starting pitcher in parentheses.

All times Eastern

Wednesday, March 25

Thursday, March 26

Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw the final pitch of the 2025 season when he recorded the final out in Game 7 of the World Series. He'll throw the first pitch in the Los Angeles Dodgers' title defense at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Friday, March 27

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB opening day pitching matchups for all 30 teams

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MLB 2026 bold predictions: Skenes takes Pirates to playoffs while ABS bums us out

First things first: The extremes aren’t so very extreme in Major League Baseball this year.

These aren’t the dark days of the 2010s, when teams were blatantly trying to lose, making for some easy 100-loss seasons and an equal amount of moderately decent teams stacking wins like folded laundry.

In 2026, there’s probably no more than five teams who can be confidently counted out of postseason contention. And that makes the annual exercise of bold predictions a little trickier.

Yet even if there’s legitimate hopes in almost every precinct, we can still take some stabs at eye-opening feats and surprise outcomes. With that, a venture out onto the limb for 2026:

The Mets – not the Dodgers – are the real super team

Owner Steve Cohen, who still spends like no other individual in ownership, has gotten a free ride out of this whole Dodgers-ruining-baseball narrative. Credit to his players, we suppose, for not winning the past two World Series.

Yet after a highly-disappointing 83-win, no-playoffs season, the Mets are stacked, hungry and primed for a huge season. Maybe it’s just a 2026-only alignment, but there is no more dynamic 1-2-3 in the game than Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette. Freddy Peralta gives them a real No. 1 in the rotation.

Clay Holmes is fully stretched out. Rookie Nolan McLean (and, later, Jonah Tong) gives them high-end arms to miss plenty of bats. The bullpen is… different, anyway, which isn’t a bad thing.

Can they dislodge Philadelphia atop the NL East? It will be a great race. But more quietly than usual, we feel something special coming from Queens.

The Pirates will make the playoffs

Throwing this out there while it remains a “bold” stance to take.

We’re not patting ownership on the head for actually bringing in reinforcements but will begrudgingly allow that they’ve at least given the Buccos a chance. An always fallow lineup finally has definition.

And while we’re concerned they got too excited about trading away pitching, the Paul Skenes-led group – which should get Jared Jones back, too – is deep enough to contend. We’ll take the trades of Johan Oviedo and Mike Burrows as a rousing endorsement of top prospect Bubba Chandler.

And we’ll wait like everyone else for the arrival of Konnor Griffin, franchise shortstop. Nothing’s automatic about all this – but for once, the ingredients are there.

ABS will be kind of a bummer

This is ostensibly the year all the Screenshot Warriors have waited for – the automatic ball-strike system, or, colloquially, “robot umps” at least partially integrated into the game.

Hey, the system works great: Challenges must come in a timely fashion and the “Robot” cooks up a verdict far quicker than a judge in traffic court. Yet in a mild bit of be-careful-what-you-wish-for, the notion of fighting over 0.1 of an inch will seem silly.

Especially when a pitcher like Skenes paints a perfect pitch on the corner to ring up a hitter, only for the prince of pedantry – ABS – to say, “Nah, you’re not good enough.”

JJ Wetherholt is the NL’s Rookie of the Year

Players aren’t concocted in a lab, but if you had to put together a perfect package for the modern game – without simply saying, “Give me Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani” – Wetherholt might be your guy.

He’s speedy. He puts the ball in play. Has power that will only continue to develop. Is a natural shortstop but can play all over the field.

In this case, he’ll be at second base because there’s a Gold Glover, Masyn Winn, at short. They should make beautiful music together up the middle. And while the St. Louis Cardinals’ rebuild may get unsightly at times, Wetherholt, the seventh overall pick out of West Virginia in 2024, will be appointment viewing.

Tarik Skubal tosses a perfect game

The stars will align someday. Tarik Skubal’s combination of dominance and efficiency and his frequent dates against AL Central lineups will result in the ultimate pitching accomplishment: Twenty-seven up, 27 down.

The lefty many expect will get close to a half-billion dollars this offseason can get deeper in games quicker than most, thanks in part to a fastball-changeup combo that can bury hitters in an 0-2 hole before their walk-up music has faded. And consider some of his gems last year:

  • Nine innings, two hits, no walks, 13 strikeouts, 94 pitches against Cleveland.
  • Seven innings, two hits, one walk, 90 pitches against the Chicago White Sox.
  • Seven innings, three hits, no walks, 10 strikeouts, 93 pitches against Cleveland.
  • Seven innings, one hit, one walk, 13 strikeouts, 93 pitches against Minnesota.

At some point, every liner will find a glove, every blooper will hang up long enough for an outfielder to run underneath it. And while it won’t make Armando Galarraga whole, the Tigers will have instant replay this time as a backstop against injustice.

Jason Benetti’s star continues to rise

For now, from a national perspective, he’s something of a “guy you’re familiar with yet don’t totally know.” Now, as the man behind the mic for a rebooted Sunday Night Baseball on NBC and its streaming arm, Benetti has a platform to become the entertaining and familiar voice viewers want from their big-time broadcasts.

The Detroit Tigers play-by-play man has done plenty of baseball and college hoops for Fox, yet this is his first foray as a true No. 1 guy. The booth format on NBC – which will integrate analysts from the participating clubs – will keep the product fresh each week while allowing Benetti to tee up the visiting talent. Like he does with, say, Bill Raftery on a Big Ten hoops game.

In an increasingly complex viewing world - especially within baseball - Sunday nights will once again be a safe harbor for fans seeking the familiar.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB bold predictions for 2026: Pirates to playoffs, Mets best in NL

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Who is Tony Vitello? What to know about Giants' new manager

The Tony Vitello era has officially begun in San Francisco.

Giants general manager Zack Minasian and President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey sought out Vitello because they wanted to do something out of the ordinary. They chose a new manager with no Major League Baseball experience, coming straight from managing the University of Tennessee.

"As much as this feels out of the box, Tony's name has been bouncing around Major League Baseball for awhile," Minasian said during Vitello's introductory news conference.

He added: "We kept coming back to 'this one would be really interesting' and just got even more interesting as we continued to speak."

Despite his lack of MLB experience, Vitello showed an eye for talent, dedication to his craft and passion for the game. That's what stood out to the Giants' decision-makers.

"It's something I've come to really appreciate about Tony and honestly made me feel more confident in this decision," Posey said. "This guy, he was hard to get ahold of. He was on the field all the time or he was bouncing from city to city recruiting, and just because this was on his plate, he was still full go with what his job was at Tennessee. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that. I wish it was easier to get in contact sometimes, but that's a little bit of how it played out."

Here's what to know about new Giants manager Tony Vitello:

How old is Tony Vitello?

Vitello is 47 years old. He was born on Oct. 9, 1978.

Tony Vitello contract, salary

Just weeks after his 47th birthday, Vitello signed a three-year contract (with fourth-year option) with the Giants. He will earn $3.5 million annually, according to The SF Standard.

Where else has Tony Vitello coached?

The elephant in the room is that Vitello has no MLB experience. He has coached MLB talent at Tennessee, however.

Vitello spent eight years as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, between 2018 and 2025, winning two SEC regular-season titles, two SEC Tournaments and the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

In that span, he coached Christian Moore, Garrett Crochet, Chase Silseth, Ben Joyce, Andre Lipcius, Trey Lipscomb, Jordan Beck, Seth Halvorsen, Chase Dollander and current Giants pitcher Blade Tidwell.

Posey praised Vitello's keen ability to build a culture. The coach's efforts have seemingly paid off.

"As a coach, I was just trying to make my way," Vitello said during his October introductory news conference. "I got thrust into a position at a young age that I probably didn't even deserve, so I was just trying to do a good job, and fortunately it helped get me to the next spot and the next spot and the next spot, and eventually this did become a dream, where I just decided if it was, if I was blessed enough to receive an opportunity, this is something I wanted to do before I was done coaching, in general."

Prior to Tennessee, Vitello served as an assistant coach at Arkansas, TCU and Missouri.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is San Francisco Giants new manager Tony Vitello?

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Bold predictions for San Francisco Giants' 2026 season

March Madness is rolling in college basketball, but Major League Baseball has its own version of madness in March: roster finalization, anticipation and preparation for a lengthy season — and a series of predictions to go with it.

The 2026 MLB season begins with the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees playing at Oracle Park at 5:05 p.m. PT (8:05 p.m. ET) on March 25. There's lots for the Giants hopeful to be excited for ahead of the 2026 season, but die-hards might not be so optimistic.

San Francisco has a new manager in Tony Vitello, a standout college baseball coach who rose to fame during his eight-year tenure at Tennessee, where he won an NCAA Tournament championship, two SEC Tournament championships and two regular-season titles.

It is his first year ever as an MLB manager, the Giants hiring him in October 2025. With zero MLB experience, the talk is whether Vitello is the answer to the Giants' recent mediocracy, or whether his hire puts a stamp on who they've been the last five years.

They didn't make any splash signings, but the Giants front office didn't just sit on their tails and hibernate during the winter. Despite not landing Japanese pitching sensation Tatsuya Imai, losing out on the sweepstakes to the Houston Astros, the Giants still managed to land effective players.

San Francisco brought in pitcher Tyler Mahle on a one-year deal, infielder Luis Arráez on a one-year deal, and Harrison Bader, to name a few.

Still, it'll be a roller coaster to see how they fare in the NL West against the San Diego Padres or arch rival Los Angeles Dodgers, who are coming off back-to-back World Series championships.

Here are some bold predictions for the San Francisco Giants during the 2026 season.

More MLB: When is Opening Day? 2026 schedule, start date for every team

Giants aren't as mediocre, but will still (barely) miss wild card

Giants fans can expect some life out of this new-look Giants team. The new additions will provide temporary excitement, but this team doesn't seem to have addressed its main issues: the bullpen, a closing lineup that'll make noise, and securing the outfield.

Personal drive, momentum swings, other teams being bad, are all legitimate reasons why the Giants won't be as bad as some think. But none of their offseason moves scream out NL West title, let alone World Series title ... but they can be more competitive than previous seasons.

In 2025, the team was the definition of mediocre at 81-81. They were just outside of a wild card spot.

This season, they will win more games, but others will, too, after improvements to their teams. Not sure if this is even a 90-win team, but nothing is off the table.

The Giants finish just under 90 wins at 85-77, which might not be enough for a wild card berth but it does provide more excitement this season. There will be times throughout the season where you ask yourself whether this team is a contender.

It could swing either way. MLB.com predicts the Giants will be a wild card team when it's said and done, with the second-best record in the NL West, behind the Dodgers.

Luis Matos, Bryce Eldridge, other prospects emerge

The Giants have been investing in their prospects and one of them will emerge as a rotational guy.

Bryce Eldridge is a 6-foot-7 first baseman who showed the potential he has in spring training, bombing a three-run home run. Was it a fluke or a sign of more to come?

In 40 at-bats during the 2026 spring training, Eldridge compiled nine hits, eights runs, a homer and 6 RBIs. His OPS was .830, with a batting average of .225.

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MLB 2026 opening night on Netflix: What you need to know

Major League Baseball's broadcast universe expands this season to include Netflix, but only on a limited basis.

The streaming giant's latest venture into the world of sports will include the actual Giants, of San Francisco, hosting the New York Yankees in an exclusive broadcast of the first game of the 2026 MLB season.

Netflix had to cobble together its announcing lineup from scratch, but the crew does feature some very familiar names to baseball fans.

Matt Vasgersian will handle play-by-play duties with former major Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and ex-Giants outfielder Hunter Pence offering commentary. Lauren Shehadi will report from the field.

In addition, former ESPN anchor Elle Duncan will lead the studio show, with Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo filling the pre- and postgame analyst chairs.

Netflix is also taking over the broadcast of the All-Star Home Run Derby, which will be contested July 13 in Philadelphia.

2026 MLB opener on Netflix

  • New York Yankees at San Francisco Giants
  • Date: March 25
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
  • Location: Oracle Park, San Francisco
  • AccuWeather forecast: Partly cloudy with game time temperature in the mid-60s and wind gusts up to 31 mph. Chance of rain 0%.
  • Starting pitchers: LHP Max Fried (Yankees), RHP Logan Webb (Giants)
  • Streaming: Netflix

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Netflix has exclusive rights to MLB opening night: Yankees vs. Giants

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The Celtics’ orca-loving Joe Mazzulla is an NBA oddball. He’s also a masterful coach

Joe Mazzulla won the NBA title with the Celtics in 2024. Photograph: Mark Stockwell/AP

The Boston Celtics’ head coach, Joe Mazzulla, is a very odd man. He is also a very good coach.

Take, for example, a story Celtics guard Derrick White told in an interview last November. According to White, the first sound at one Celtics practice wasn’t a whistle.

It was gunfire.

“[Mazzulla is] like, ‘Play the music!’… and next thing you know, it’s just machine guns going off … you’re in a war zone,” White said. He was laughing – but not really laughing.

The 37-year-old coach scored the sweat session with the sound of death, bullets rat-a-tat-tat over 10 straight minutes of zigzags and full-court pickups. He wanted players’ lungs burning. He wanted them to taste the vomit.

Mazzulla believes – and he believes many things – repetition under stress rewires your brain. Psychologists have spent decades studying how stimuli paired with intensity create recall that bypasses deliberation. The military industrialized it: conditioning, desensitization, immersion. The principle underneath it is simpler and more universal: the brain learns fastest when it’s overwhelmed. Adapt or die.

There’s something unsettling about it all. Basketball borrowing from the logic of war. Every coach will give platitudes about stress inoculation. Mazzulla puts sensory overload into practice. The goal is the same: strip decision-making down to instinct.

Mazzulla’s version of controlled chaos is the sound of gunfire, hence the practice session. Why? So, when weeks later, in the fourth quarter, a guard brings the ball up full court, the crowd is loud, and the game is tight, any player wearing green and white can turn into the Manchurian Candidate: synapses snapping into place to deliver the kill shot into the hoop.

Related: How Detroit’s New Bad Boys climbed from the NBA’s cellar to rule the East

A lot of this is odd. And a lot of what Mazzulla says is odd. He doesn’t really talk like other NBA coaches. His press conferences can sound more like philosophy seminars than strategy. Maybe Mazzulla’s deadpan delivery is Andy Kaufman performance art: half-jokes, half-koans, delivered with a straight face. Players have learned to stop trying to decode everything and just absorb the tone.

He has talked about wanting a wolf to guard his house, never sitting with his back to the door at restaurants in case anyone sneaks up on him and avoiding revolving doors because “if one of them gets stuck, then you’re just a sitting duck”. He wants his players to study the movements of orcas and hyenas to enhance their games.

The thing is, whether it’s because of his quirks or despite them, Mazzulla is a very effective coach. He’s already led the Celtics to one championship, and deserves the Coach of the Year award after leading the injury-riddled Celtics to the second seed in the East this season, while holding the second-best offensive rating, fourth-best defensive rating and third-best net rating.

It should be remembered that Boston were supposed to have a gap year after Jayson Tatum went out last postseason with an achilles injury. Starters Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis were both traded. Bench bigs Al Horford and Luke Kornet left in free agency, a harsh cost of survival under the new collective bargaining agreement.

Most teams would have reset. But Mazzulla got in the lab and changed the Celtics’ DNA. He kept the offense organized around spacing, timing and reads, building a system that could function until Tatum’s return. And defensively, he pared it back to the bone: just the raw, flayed nerves of constant ball pressure. This kind of scalable infrastructure helps role players reach their ceiling without your best player.

As the team changed, so did Mazzulla. It would have been easy to ask Jaylen Brown to be Tatum. Instead, he uses every player to their strength.

That’s why Ron Harper Jr, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo González and Luka Garza have been able to step in and up. Even Brown is expected to rebound, run, defend and play with the same energy and physicality the Celtics ask of everybody.

What’s behind the new philosophy? This summer, Mazzulla went to France, where he met with Guillaume Vizade, a fellow basketball oddball and the head coach of Le Mans. Two coaches from different systems tried to crack the code of creating advantages before a defense can set.

Vizade talks about the meeting like a thinktank: “Our shared ideas about arriving into offense while playing, amplifying advantages and creating chaos in opposing defenses connected very quickly during those discussions. I felt both lucky and proud to be able to present some of our methods and actions, and in return, I received even more by exchanging ideas with Joe and his disruptive approach.“

Vizade’s teams don’t just run; they vibrate. Hard-wired into a single hive mind. Like fungi. It’s how Boston play now. When the first option on offense is cut off, the offense doesn’t flinch. It reignites into a sequence of cuts and relocations that open up scoring gaps.

Mazzulla’s COTY case also rests on how much he changed Boston defensively. Last season, the Celtics could let opponents play one-on-one, live with contested shots without fouling. This year, they pick up their opps full-court and pressure the hell out the ball.

When one defender takes a risk, another one fills the space. If someone gets beat, the next man rotates. If that pass gets made, another closeout comes behind it. That’s why Celtics corner-help blocks have become such a staple. Boston are rotating so well they’re forcing opponents to make that one extra pass. Mazzulla has done all this without a great rim protector.

Related: NBA’s bizarre ‘tanking’ problem has spewed theories but no solutions | Sean Ingle

The clearest example of Mazzulla’s approach came in the 2024 Finals, when Dallas kept their big men near the rim, helping off shooters on the weak side to crowd the paint. Early on, it worked. Boston drove into traffic and ended up kicking the ball out late.

Mazzulla’s adjustment was using that help against Dallas. Boston began pulling the help defender toward the ball, often using a guard like Holiday to drag the Mavericks’ big man across the floor. As soon as the help stepped over, they swung the ball to the other side before the defense could recover.

From there, the options were obvious: a layup, a post-up or an open corner three. What looked like simple ball movement was really a smart way to pick apart Dallas’s defense, turning it against itself. Mad scientist-level scheming.

Speaking to last year’s disappointing second-round playoff exit, he said: “Every season exposes yourself to yourself … third year you get a taste for what it’s like to lose.”

That’s how Mazzulla rolls. He shows his players film of orcas and hyenas, predators that never attack all at once. Instead, they circle, shift, waiting for just the right moment before closing in and snapping their prey’s neck. Boston’s offense works the same way. The ball moves from side to side until the defense finally gives up a good shot.

Other outlets have detailed that being a Celtic means embracing the Joe Mazzulla experience. We’re talking about a guy who roams the facility barefoot while delivering instructions in an icy, hyper-focused monotone. He operates the Celtics like a man who knows he’s in the Matrix and wants his team to warp the simulation to their advantage.

The league is in good hands. JB Bickerstaff is honing the blade in Detroit, Mitch Johnson fast-tracked the Spurs mutation, and Mike Brown is restoring Eden in the Garden. But Mazzulla has raced far ahead of the pack for COTY by retooling a depleted contender while staying contending. Insane.

That’s what elite coaching looks like.

That’s why Joe Mazzulla should win Coach of the Year.

Play the music.

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Contributor: MLB's biggest rivalry this season will be players vs. owners

Shohei Ohtani
Under current rules, the Dodgers can pay Shohei Ohtani $700 million if both parties find the sum agreeable. (Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

The Major League Baseball Players Assn. is arguably the strongest union in the United States whose members include some of the most conservative athletes in professional sports. The owners of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams, who made their wealth through the workings of free enterprise capitalism, want to limit what players can be paid. This apparent political and philosophical irony will most likely lead to a shutdown of baseball at the end of this season.

Wednesday is opening day for the 162-game major league season. The 2025 season ended Nov. 1 with an 11-inning Dodgers victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in what was one of the most mesmerizing World Series ever. Last season, the Dodgers attracted more than 4 million fans for the first time. The Dodgers weren’t alone. More than 71 million fans attended major league games — the third straight season of growth. Over the last decade, league revenue has increased 33%.

And yet, despite all this good news about the health of baseball’s finances, team owners have threatened to lock the players out — essentially an ownership strike — at the end of this season over terms of a new collective bargaining agreement soon to be negotiated with the players union.

Major League Baseball, unlike the NFL, the NBA and the NHL, does not have a hard salary cap that limits what teams can spend on players. This is the key issue for the 30 team owners and Commissioner Rob Manfred, who argues that the system is “broken.” Small-market teams can’t effectively compete, Manfred insists, with economic behemoths like the Dodgers and Yankees. But over the past 10 seasons, 14 teams have made it to the World Series, so the league is not dominated by only a few big spenders.

Major leaguers and fans have weathered five player strikes and four owner lockouts since 1972. The 1994-95 strike lasted 232 days, canceling more than 900 games, including the World Series. Unlike in the NFL, where top players like San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana crossed a picket line during the 1987 NFL Players Assn. strike, unionized baseball players have remained united. So far, no star players have been strikebreakers in baseball. Both Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers — the 2025 Cy Young Award winners for their respective leagues — also serve in players union leadership roles.

A recent report analyzing major league ballplayers' political affiliation found that among those who live in states that allow public access to voter registration records, nearly 54% of the players were Republicans compared with 8% Democrats. Why does a rightward-leaning membership retain such strong union loyalties?

For Miami Marlins pitcher Pete Fairbanks, who is also a member of the players union leadership, it comes down to recognizing that they stand on the shoulders of players who challenged the baseball establishment.

“If you look at the history of the union, we’ve had a foundation set for us,” Fairbanks said. “They fought for players’ rights and for the general betterment of the whole and it's the job of the veteran players to pass that history on to the younger players.”

Marvin Miller, a former Steelworkers Union leader, revolutionized the players’ union and baseball when he led the association from 1966 to 1982. He told the New York Times in 1999 that he was “irked” that many players did not know that it was the union that made their enormous salaries and benefits, arbitration and free agency possible. “When you don’t know your history, you tend to relive it,” Miller said.

Miller, who died in 2012, was a labor history buff who realized that highly skilled workers often developed elaborate ethical codes that promoted solidarity with other employees.

Bruce Meyer, the current executive director of the players association, puts the union’s fractious history with the owners at the center of his communications with players. He spent weeks talking with union members during spring training in Florida and Arizona, emphasizing the importance of unity in the ranks. “The bottom line is that our players have always been of the view that they are fighting not just for themselves but for their teammates and for the players that come after them,” Meyer said.

Manfred’s strategy as commissioner of Major League Baseball has been to talk directly with the players himself, especially the lower-earning younger players who he claims are being shortchanged. He argues that “10% of our players make 72% of the money,” numbers that Meyer disputes.

The commissioner is essentially telling players that their union has engaged in malpractice, losing touch with its own members while the economics of baseball changed around them. Meyer regards Manfred’s attempt to divide players as “standard management-labor tactics.”

Top agent Scott Boras said that, unlike in the NFL, baseball’s open salary system works for players because “your talent allows you to earn what you can earn without taking money from anybody else’s pocket."

Paradoxically, the union has embraced the principles of Adam Smith: Let the free market work. No one forced the Dodgers to pay Shohei Ohtani $700 million. Good for Ohtani, great for Dodger fans. And this year, the Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo will be a field sponsor at Dodger Stadium. The owners, who embrace team revenue sharing and luxury taxes and demand restrictions on salary competition, sound like socialists.

When labor-management disputes interrupt baseball, many fans undoubtedly feel like they are victims of a squabble between “millionaires and billionaires.” Ryan Long, a 26-year-old minor league pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles system and a union leader, thinks the players association should try to understand how regular working people feel about a potential lockout. “Whether it’s people selling hot dogs at stadiums or cleaning rooms at local hotels, the union should help in whatever way it can for other workers who may be hurt if baseball shuts down,” he said.

In late February at the Yankees spring training field in Tampa, I spoke with season ticket holder Richard Barnitt, who wore a shirt designed like a baseball, looking like he could be scuffed up and pitched. “There has to be some kind of cap because the Dodgers and the New York Mets had unlimited money,” he said. Another fan, Carlos Rodriquez, an airplane mechanic living in Tampa, disagreed. “I don’t think a salary cap would be fair to the players,” he said. “The players association does magical work for those guys.”

If locked out, the players are going to want support from fans, to whom a salary cap might sound reasonable. Owners will do what owners do: maximize profits and franchise values. The players union should find ways to show the fans they are not forgotten.

During a previous owners lockout, the association created a million-dollar fund to help pay the bills of stadium concession workers who were thrown out of work. They can do the same again, letting fans know that they understand that most Americans struggle paycheck to paycheck. And maybe Ohtani can chip in a couple hundred bucks — like former Dodger Mike Piazza did decades ago — for each home run.

Kelly Candaele produced the documentary “A League of Their Own,” about his mother’s years playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

If it’s in the news right now, the L.A. Times’ Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Shaikin: Dodger Walk: A great city needs a walking path to blue heaven. Do it, Frank McCourt

A man uses the pedestrian bridge over the 110 freeway.
A man uses the pedestrian bridge over the 110 Freeway that connects Chinatown and the area where Dodger Stadium is located. (Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

Dodgers fans generally hiss at the mention of Frank McCourt — the former owner took the team into bankruptcy, after all — but today is about tipping our cap to him.

Without him, fans would have no option to take public transit directly to Dodger Stadium. On his watch, the Dodgers helped secure government funding for the shuttle buses that provide free rides between Union Station and Dodger Stadium.

Sixteen years later, beyond the addition of a sister shuttle from the South Bay, that’s it.

The Dodgers boast the best team in the world. Shohei Ohtani is a tourist attraction. So is their historic ballpark. The Dodgers sold a record 4 million tickets last year.

In 1990, the last year Fernando Valenzuela pitched for the Dodgers, Los Angeles County unveiled a report that suggested ways to improve access to Dodger Stadium “for those who cannot or do not wish to drive.”

The options: a monorail, people mover, or light rail extension from the Chinatown Metro station; the shuttle buses that McCourt and Metro launched 20 years later; the gondola that McCourt first pitched in 2018 and continues to pursue; and a walking path.

A passenger exits the Chinatown Metro station in January.
A passenger exits the Chinatown Metro station in January. (Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

L.A. is all about the car. You will most likely drive to Dodger Stadium, and so will your children.

For decades, the Dodgers have promised to ease traffic by adding amenities that encourage fans to come early and stick around after the game. That has not materialized, and notorious congestion within and around the stadium is as much a tradition as Dodger Dogs.

What if you could walk, for real? What if you could head into the stadium along a beautifully landscaped and wide Dodgers-themed path, a blue ribbon of fans coalescing into a community, with decorations and food carts, shade and lighting, and chants of “Let’s Go Dodgers!” along the way?

You can walk now, sort of. It’s about a mile.

A map indicating the pedestrian path toward Dodger Stadium from the Chinatown Metro station.
There's a map at the Chinatown Metro station displaying the pedestrian path toward Dodger Stadium. (Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

At one end of the Chinatown station, there is a map with a pedestrian route, in a glass case that faces away from Dodger Stadium. If you walk out of the station at the other end, or if you just start heading in the direction of Dodger Stadium, good luck finding the map.

There are Metro signs leading you back to the station from Dodger Stadium, but none leading you along the route there.

The Dodgers actually would prefer you did not take that route, or at least the last part of it. I walked it with Alissa Walker, whose Torched newsletter is the go-to place to learn how major sporting events impact the everyday lives of Angelenos.

We entered the Dodger Stadium property at an intersection with no crosswalks, where cars enter and exit the 110 freeway. We stood atop a dirt patch next to a crumbling curb.

“To go a very short distance safely with a feeling that you’re not going to die,” Walker said, “is very difficult.”

With Game 3 of the World Series underway at Dodger Stadium last October, a few folks scurried across a pedestrian bridge with LED lights and blue glow sticks.

The bridge connects Chinatown with Dodger Stadium, traversing the 110. Without this bridge, there is no walking path to Dodger Stadium.

At night, the bridge offers magnificent views of downtown lights. But it had no lights of its own, so the volunteers used the LED lights and glow sticks to attach homemade Dodgers-themed signage to the fence that encloses the bridge.

“Our goal was, just by adding some lights, to make the really dark path at the top of the bridge at night a little bit brighter, so that it felt a little less scary,” transit advocate Jeremy Stutes said, “and to add a little bit of fun and whimsy.”

Pedestrian bridge over the 110 freeway connecting Chinatown to the area where the Dodger Stadium is located.
Glow sticks forming the "LA" logo of the Dodgers were placed on a pedestrian bridge over the 110 Freeway connecting Chinatown to the area where Dodger Stadium is located during the World Series and for several months after. As of last week, the glow sticks were no longer there. (Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

From the Chinatown Metro station, the bridge is three blocks up College Street and one block down Yale Street. It’s an easy walk, and for now you pass an elementary school, a church, a row of Chinese restaurants, a dirt lot where a hospital once stood, parking lots, and an auto repair facility with a Dodgers flag hung on a wall.

When I did the walk last week, the trash at the foot of the bridge included a plastic cup, socks, a piece of rotting fruit, a half-full bottle of tequila, and half of a turkey sandwich, peeking out from torn plastic wrapping that indicated the sandwich had gone bad three days earlier. On the bridge: shopping bags, a pair of flip-flops, stray clothes scattered at one end, and graffiti everywhere.

A sign painted on the sidewalk indicates the direction toward the Chinatown Metro station.
A sign painted on the sidewalk indicates the direction toward the Chinatown Metro station. (Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

That was the point those volunteers made last October: Clean up the bridge and light up the bridge — as they did for three days — and fans will walk there.

“It’s not that it’s not used,” Stutes said. “It’s not designed to be a safe space to use as an alternative to driving.”

When you cross the bridge, you can turn right or left along Stadium Way to get to a stadium entrance.

Turn right, as the map tells you to do, and you’ll encounter decaying sidewalks, with cracked and buckled concrete that turns a modest uphill walk into an obstacle course. Once you get onto the stadium grounds, the paint is fading along the pedestrian path, which offers you no protection from passing cars.

Turn left, and you’ll have to walk part of the way in the street, on an unprotected bike lane. You also could walk along the road behind the Fire Department training center, a path with no sidewalks and passing fire trucks. Either route takes longer than the one on the map, but you would enter Dodger Stadium through a pair of protected and brightly painted pedestrian paths. (That entrance, along Vin Scully Avenue, is a quarter-mile from Sunset Boulevard, where two Metro bus routes stop.)

If the primary choices for getting out of Dodger Stadium after a game are car congestion or Dodger Stadium Express shuttle bus congestion, a downhill walk to Chinatown Metro station — 12 minutes, Metro says — would be a nice option. That’s why those folks lit up the bridge over the freeway during the World Series.

“The lights were just a fun way,” transit advocate Kevin Dedicatoria said, “to show, ‘Hey, here’s a bridge so you don’t have to play, ‘Dude, where’s my car?’ or have to worry about waiting for the bus.’”

McCourt hails from Boston, where the local subway drops Red Sox fans a few short blocks from Fenway Park. When McCourt owned the Dodgers, I asked him if he could envision a subway or light rail extension to Dodger Stadium.

He’d love it, he said then, but the Dodgers were a private business, and government should pay for public transit.

Homes line a street in Eylsian Park, where Dodger Stadium is located.
Homes line a street in Eylsian Park, where Dodger Stadium is located. (ETIENNE LAURENT/For The Times)

It was a fair point. The Dodgers pay taxes. In an era where teams regularly demand stadium and arena deals that exempt them from property tax, the Dodgers have paid $12.8 million in property taxes over the past three years, according to Los Angeles County tax collection records.

Would demand for public transit amid a car culture justify the investment? The Dodger Stadium Express indicates it could: Ridership has just about quadrupled since its inaugural season, from 122,273 in 2010 to 463,147 last year, according to Metro.

Even along the poorly maintained, poorly lit and poorly advertised pedestrian path, Metro said more than 700 riders returned to the Chinatown station on each of the three nights of World Series home games last year.

“As seen in social media videos during the 2025 postseason, the walking path continues to explode in popularity,” Metro spokesman Jose Ubaldo said.

Next steps?

“It’s astonishing to me that the Dodgers have not taken it upon themselves, as this great community partner, to fix this problem,” Walker said. “It is the city’s responsibility, but the Dodgers should be doing this, as part of what they want to represent to this community.”

The walking path includes segments along city streets, a Caltrans bridge, and Dodger Stadium property. Just who is the responsible party?

A Caltrans spokesman said the city is responsible for maintaining the bridge. A spokesman for the city’s department of street services did not provide an answer. A spokesman for the Dodgers declined to comment.

You could almost hear the sigh from city councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Dodger Stadium.

“That’s what my job is: to bring people and agencies and organizations together to accomplish a goal,” Hernandez said. “We’re already in conversation with all these entities.

“We’re looking at some of the things we can enhance to make this a more walkable and accessible option for people.”

City Council member Eunisses Hernandez, center, talks with Circle outreach workers a homelessness response team.
City Council member Eunisses Hernandez, center, talks with Circle outreach workers in Los Angeles. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

How much might those enhancements cost?

Without a look at a city-commissioned Dodger Stadium traffic mitigation study, expected to be completed this fall, Hernandez said she could not put a price tag on it.

“What I can tell you,” she said, “is that it will be less than half a billion dollars, for sure.”

By year’s end, the Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote on McCourt’s gondola project, estimated to cost $500 million and proposed as privately financed. Last November, the council voted 12-1 to urge Metro to kill the project.

Metro granted its approval, but with conditions that included a requirement to explore supplementing the gondola with other Dodger Stadium transit options, including more buses along Sunset Boulevard and a designated walkway from there to the stadium.

The walking path proposed in that 1990 study would have avoided Sunset Boulevard and the current Stadium Way routes — the ones with crumbling sidewalks, or no sidewalks at all — by using escalators and walkways to get fans up and down the hill between Lookout Drive, just off Stadium Way, and Dodger Stadium.

“Pedestrians could be directed through Chinatown,” the study read, “where numerous restaurants, shops and pedestrian amenities are provided.”

It’s hard to sell Chinatown businesses on the benefits of the gondola when fans would ride between Union Station and Dodger Stadium, soaring over Chinatown. It would be easier if a walking path led at least some of those fans through Chinatown, even if only on the way back from the game.

Even if the gondola system really can accomplish what its proponents say it can — loading 35 people into a cabin every 23 seconds — thousands of riders leaving when the game ends could mean a long line to board.

One of the entrances to Dodger Stadium on Stadium Way, the easiest access when walking from Chinatown Metro station.
One of the entrances to Dodger Stadium on Stadium Way, the easiest access when walking from Chinatown Metro station. (Etienne Laurent/For The Times)

“Also,” the 1990 study said, “passenger waiting following a game is psychologically perceived as being three to four times longer than actual waiting time.”

From this perspective, McCourt might win a few council votes by funding a first-class walking path. The cost, I’m told, would depend on what the enhancements include: signs, lights, trees, shade canopies, sidewalk repairs, escalators, and so on. For something close to $5 million — one one-hundredth of the projected cost of gondola construction — McCourt likely could do an exceptional job.

Is there any sign of progress here? Happily, yes.

In an internal report last December, Metro said Zero Emissions Transit (ZET) — the nonprofit organization now shepherding the gondola project — is pursuing ways to link pedestrians and bicyclists to the transit system and to Dodger Stadium. Those potential improvements include sidewalk repairs and a revitalized pedestrian pathway from the Chinatown Metro station to the bridge across the 110 and then across Stadium Way, to Lookout Drive and the hill above.

“Dodger Walk is envisioned as a series of switchbacks,” the report said, “inspired by the original walking path up Lookout Mountain that existed prior to the construction of Dodger Stadium."

Whether such switchbacks would make the walk to the stadium longer or shorter than the current path remains to be determined.

In a statement, ZET said: “We embrace and include active transit solutions to increase pedestrian and bike access throughout the project area.” In particular, ZET said, it was “supportive” of a walking path to Dodger Stadium.

The Metro report cautioned the concepts “are in the early planning stage,” so L.A. might get an extravagant walking path, a utilitarian one, or none at all.

Here’s hoping McCourt gives us a path of some kind — whether the city approves the gondola or not — because a pretty walk generations can enjoy would be a prettier civic legacy than driving a team into bankruptcy.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Why Netflix is turning Major League Baseball's opening night into a big event

Los Angeles, CA - March 27: George Serrano, of Los Angeles cheers after watching.
George Serrano cheers during the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2025 home opener against the Detroit Tigers at Dodger Stadium. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

For many fans, Major League Baseball's opening day is somewhat of an unofficial holiday. Though this year offers a different viewing experience.

Instead of turning on ESPN or a regional sports channel to catch their favorite team, there will only be one game kicking off the season, and it will be streaming exclusively on Netflix.

On Wednesday, the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants will face off at Oracle Park. Retired baseball stars Barry Bonds, Anthony Rizzo and Albert Pujols, led by former ESPN anchor Elle Duncan, will be in the broadcast booth.

And for one of the many Netflix touches — "Thing," the lovable detached hand from the streamer’s Addams family spinoff “Wednesday,” will be throwing the first pitch.

It's the latest example of a streaming platform finding its way into live sports programming. All of the major services, including Amazon Prime, Max, Peacock, Paramount+ and others, carry some combination of professional sports packages for their subscribers.

For Netflix, this marks the first time an MLB opening day game will be seen globally, as Netflix reaches nearly a billion viewers in more than 190 countries and in 50 languages.

For Gabe Spitzer, Netflix's vice president of sports, it's a chance for the streamer to "work together with a league to grow that audience" beyond just the die-hard sports fans. “Maybe casual fans are tuning in, or someone who's watched a baseball documentary on Netflix thinks, ‘Oh, I'll check out the Yankees Giants game because it's live.’ That's our ultimate goal,” he said.

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A little over two years ago, Netflix first dipped its toes into live-streaming sports events, with the Netflix Cup, a golf tournament between PGA Tour golfers and Formula One drivers. It garnered a modest viewership of around 700,000 views in the second half of 2023.

Spitzer said the big turning point for Netflix in this arena was the November 2024 fight between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and YouTube influencer Jake Paul. That event attracted 60 million households globally and became the most-streamed sporting event in history, according to Netflix. The massive audience tested the technical capacity of the streaming platform, as many fans complained of buffering or losing the video feed completely.

Netflix also turned Christmas Day into an event in 2024, paying $150 million a year for the rights to stream two NFL games on the holiday. The 2025 late-afternoon game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions was the most-streamed NFL game in history with 27.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The opening-day game is part of a larger three-year deal the league has with Netflix, which is paying $60 million annually for a package that also includes the Home Run Derby and the annual Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa. The games became available when ESPN decided to opt out of its deal (the Walt Disney Co. unit negotiated a new package that gives the network 30 games and expanded streaming rights).

The MLB events will help inform Netflix about whether to pursue a larger package when the league's larger media rights contract, which includes the World Series on Fox, comes up for renewal after the 2028 season.

The streamer is also expected to engage in talks for a larger commitment with the NFL when the league exercises its option to reopen its media rights contract after the 2029-30 season.

But for now, the Netflix sports strategy is creating large-scale live events, which Spitzer calls “meaningful water-cooler conversation” for a global audience.

The streamer and the league worked together to make the Yankees-Giants game happen one day early and present it in prime time Wednesday night. As the sole game being played that day, Spitzer said it's “truly the launch of the season.”

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“As we continue to grow baseball around the world and reach younger fans, Netflix is an ideal partner to help us further expand the sport’s fan base with its ubiquitous streaming service," Kenny Gersh, MLB's executive vice president of media and business, said in a statement. "They are approaching their first-ever MLB game with great energy and creative marketing. We are excited to work with them in joining MLB’s collection of elite media partners.”

Lee Berke, a sports media consultant, understands Netflix’s venture into live sports as a way to “elevate the profile of a particular game and give it a Netflix spin — making it something you would only see on Netflix.”

“Every sport is looking now for events that can be of interest to heighten fan awareness, sponsor and distributor interest during the course of a season,” said Berke, pointing out the NBA Emirates Cup — an in-season tournament sponsored by the Dubai-owned airline — and NHL’s Four Nations Cup. “Everybody's trying to come up with a variety of events, because they drive interest, they drive business and revenues. It sort of feeds on itself.”

As the sports industry continues to open itself up for these spectacle-driven games, it provides additional television opportunities for media giants such as Netflix, Berke said. In the end, Berke said, these games are overall beneficial to the industry.

To Berke, the only lingering fear is that game events could further fragment audiences, as different sports now span across several streaming platforms and networks. The upside is they have the potential to help sports leagues capture audience attention, maximize revenue and offset rising expenses.

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“Let's be honest, if you're Netflix, you're looking to attract and retain subscribers. ... This is another tool in the toolbox for helping build growth and sustain subscribers,” Berke said. “The great consistent intellectual property out there that draws audiences year after year is sports, and if you find the right combination of them, it can help you drive your business.”

To aid this live sports push, Netflix recently recruited Duncan, the former anchor for ESPN "SportsCenter," to lead Netflix’s sports coverage. At ESPN, she said, it was “a very well-oiled machine that's been very successful" for decades with “a tried and true way” of doing things.

But as she transitions from a traditional TV network to a streaming service, Duncan's responsibility is different. It's no longer about serving a domestic audience of baseball superfans; she has to keep a sports-curious, global audience in mind.

“If you're watching ESPN, chances are you're a really die-hard sports fan, but Netflix is for everyone,” said Duncan. “How do we hook people who are more interested in watching 'Love is Blind' into a sports show?”

The baseball game will stream Wednesday at 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.