84. Talking Baseball with former MLBAM exec. Dinn Mann cover art

84. Talking Baseball with former MLBAM exec. Dinn Mann

84. Talking Baseball with former MLBAM exec. Dinn Mann

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 Baseball was king in the mid 70’s and 1975 was a banner year for the National Pastime. After a decade in the dumps, attendance was booming all over the league with the Reds drawing a team record 2.3 millions fans, 2nd only to the Dodgers in all of baseball… and it was no surprise that the Red Sox led all AL teams in putting fans in seats with 1.75 million visiting Fenway that season. Those two teams would then square off in a World Series that 50 years later is considered an all-time classic. Overall baseball drew 29 million fans… its the last time MLB drew under 30 million fans in a full season of play… and soon, teams were regularly attracting 2 million fans to their games annually… in fact, by 2001, 20 of the 30 teams had more than 2 million fans in attendance including both Oakland and Pittsburgh… and 8 had more than 3 million coming through the turnstiles. Baseball was exploding… the days of small crowds were over… and so the powers that be at MLB set their sights on a new generation of fans and how to grow the game for those who couldn’t attend in person. Enter Dinn Mann… hired by MLB in ’01 to lead the MLBAM division (Advanced Media) the longtime journalist and even longer fan of the game, Mann came to New York with a plan and in the next 15 years, he executed it perfectly. MLB.TV was born, and MLB.com. Oh, and that MLB app on your phone… that too… and before long, the game was being seen, and downloaded, and streamed to the tune of $600 million in revenue per year. In other words, MLB hired the right guy. Mann’s infectious attitude helped spearhead a digital revolution on the diamond, and the fans were happily going along for the ride whether it be with their TV, their laptop or their phone. Play ball, play ball and play ball! Dinn joins us on the Past Our Prime podcast to tell us what was different at the turn of the century compared to 50 years ago and how they used the momentum of an ever increasing fan base to do what many, including Mark Cuban said, was impossible... Baseball was covering baseball… and the fans couldn’t get enough of it. Mr. Mann tells us how he told his crew never tell me how we did things last year… tell me how we’re going to do things this year. He’s a visionary in every sense of the word and as the grandson of the man who owned the Astros and built the Astrodome, Dinn is a lifelong fan of the game. It’s in his blood. And you can hear that passion when he talks about the game of today… how blackouts are the biggest issue for fans and what the owners and players can do to avert a labor stoppage in 2027. And he reflects back on his time at MLB including a morning, afternoon and evening in March of 2015 when he helped create a day where comedic superstar Will Ferrell donned the cap of the A’s…I mean, White Sox… I meant to say, Dodgers… Mariners, Angels, Cubs, Reds, Giants, Padres and D’Backs in Arizona and played 10 positions for 10 teams in about 10 hours! A great day for baseball… a great day for Dinn Mann… and for the 16 years Mann was at MLB… that happened quite a bit. If you like baseball half as much as Dinn does, and you want an inside look at how the game got better and can get better, listen up to a man… the Mann… who knows a thing or two about the inner-workings of MLB. Download and review wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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