Major League Breakup

EPISODE 207: Skipper vs. Samson.

The unsubtle edge beneath the surface of The Sporting Class, slicing its fin across our waters like a shark, is a grudge between Nothing Personal’s David Samson and Meadowlark co-founder John Skipper that’s almost two decades old.

When David was president of the Marlins, he would often argue that John, then the president of ESPN, did not love Major League Baseball — his partner — anywhere close to enough.

The Worldwide Leader, the argument went, doted on football and basketball, lavishing them with real estate on ESPN1 (not 2) as well as debate-show rundowns and SportsCenter packages. Meanwhile John treated the National Pastime — as personified, helpfully, by David, its squeakiest wheel — like an alleged afterthought.

All of which is to say that when MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced, via a particularly pointed press release, that baseball was at last breaking up with ESPN — terminating a marriage that has lasted a quarter-century — I knew which ex-presidents I needed to discuss this divorce.

And somehow, I still underestimated how much they wanted to get off their chests.

YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Lovingly,

Pablo