Rob Manfred's outlook for the future of Major League Baseball

Commissioner Rob Manfred has some radical new ideas for the future of Major League Baseball.  On Thursday, January 8, Manfred shared his vision for MLB in a studio segment of New York's WFAN.  He discussed expansion and realignment.  The league hasn't expanded since the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined in 1998.  The commissioner, a long-time advocate of expansion, stated that he would like to see two expansion teams before he leaves office in January of 2029.

Here is Manfred's plan:

* Major League Baseball is currently balanced with both the American League and the National League having 15 teams and six divisions of five teams, each league having an odd number of teams.  Manfred wants to expand the league to 32 teams and realign divisions geographically to lessen the travel burden on players.   There would be 16 teams in each league and eight divisions of four.  He stated, "Thirty-two teams would be good for us.  When people buy your product, you oughta try to find a way to sell it to them."

* Manfred's plan would mean moving away from the traditional American and National Leagues in favour of East and West leagues.  However, the commissioner did say he would keep two-team cities separate.  The Cubs and White Sox, Mets and Yankees and Dodgers and Angels would remain in different divisions.     

Manfred's plan makes sense from a travel perspective.  MLB players travel very often, given the 162-game schedule.  The commissioner discussed how difficulties with the first round of the playoff if it features a team from each coast.  This makes the scheduling too late for fans in the east or too early for fans in the west, or sometimes both.

I have qualms about abandoning the American and National League formats.  The traditionalist in me is strongly opposed to that.  I think many fans would agree.  I believe that the fans deserve a say in any major changes in the format of Major League Baseball.  It's the fans who always get the short end of the stick.  Yet, they buy the tickets and purchase the baseball regalia.  The cost of attending games keeps rising and more and more games are being streamed online, instead of shown on network TV.

I am not a big enthusiast of expansion either.  Too many teams are not to my liking.  However, I would like to see a team return to Montreal, although I'm not optimistic about that happening anytime soon.

As a Toronto Blue Jays fan, I enjoy the rivalry between the Jays and the Yankees and the Red Sox.  I would prefer that those three teams remain in the same division.  With geographical realignment, who knows?

Major League Baseball does have some issues to overcome before it can even consider expansion.  A new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the players will have to be reached during the next offseason.  Otherwise, there will be a lockout, which MLB can ill-afford.  A lost season would turn many fans away from the game, especially if they perceive both owners and players to be greedy and self-serving.  Nevertheless, wealthy teams such as the Yankees, Dodgers and Blue Jays will be reluctant to have salary caps.  

The stadium situations with the A's and Rays have not yet been completely resolved.  Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton io October of 2024.  The team is set to return to an updated Tropicana Field for the 2026 season, but plans for a new stadium seem to have been suspended.  A new stadium in Las Vegas, set to be the home of the Las Vegas Athletics is under construction and expected to open in 2028.

- Joanne

Should the United States isolate itself?

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

- John Donne (1571 or 1572 - 1631), English poet and scholar

Meditation XV11, Published in 1624 as part of Donne's essays and meditations

There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.

- U.S. Vice President JD Vance in a January 29, 2025 interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity

JD Vance

JD Vance is wrong.  Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.

- Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo 1V

Obviously, Pope Leo strongly disagrees with JD Vance's concept of love.  The teachings of Jesus also contradict Vance's notions about Christianity.  Christ made it clear in the parable of the Good Samaritan that everyone is our neighbour.  We are all members of the human race.  We have an obligation to serve humanity.  Isolationism doesn't work.  The United States cannot separate itself from the rest of the world.  As human beings, we all share the planet Earth.  To vilify immigrants, migrants and refugees, whether legal or undocumented, is absolutely cruel and detestable.  To unleash ICE agents on innocent people, and to take the life of a human being, Rachel Nicole Good, is an atrocity, an abomination.  The 37-year-old mother was not a "domestic terrorist."  She was a human being.  She was shot three times by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota who called her a profane name.  Trump and Vance, Ice agents and others, fail to realize that Rachel Good's death diminishes them because, in the words of John Donne, "Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind."  They do not realize that the bell rings for them.

Therefore, the United States should not be cutting foreign aid.  It should not be withdrawing from international agencies.  America is not, and cannot be an "island unto itself."  It will always be "a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

Wendell Wilkie, the Republican candidate for the American presidency in 1940, had a very different view of the world than Trump, Vance and their supporters.  After losing the wartime election to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wilkie embarked on a seven-week tour of the world.  In late 1942, he met with many of the Allies' heads of state as well as ordinary citizens in places such as Russia and Iran.  

In April of 1943, Wilkie published a book called One World, inspired by his travels.  One World became a bestseller.  In fact, it spent four months at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.  It sold 1.5 million copies during those four months.

A new edition of Wilkie's book should be published around the globe.  It should be required reading for all members of the United States Congress, although it would be anathema to the MAGA base.  One World advocates an end to colonialism and equality for non-whites in the United States. It challenges the doctrine of American exceptionalism.  Wilkie's travels led him to the conclusion that the world is inter-connected and that isolationism is no longer possible.

When you fly around the world in 49 days, you learn that the world has become small not only on the map, but also in the minds of men. All around the world, there are some ideas which millions and millions of men hold in common, almost as much as if they lived in the same town.

- Wendel Wilkie, from One World

In his book, Wendel Wilkie stresses that the "reservoir of goodwill" towards the United States" is much stronger than toward other contemporary powers.  He writes the following:

I found this dread of foreign control everywhere. The fact that we are not associated with it in men's minds has caused people to go much farther in their approval of us than I dared to imagine. I was amazed to discover how keenly the world is aware of the fact that we do not seek—anywhere, in any region—to impose our rule upon others or to exact special privileges ... No other Western nation has such a reservoir. Ours must be used to unify the peoples of the earth in the human quest for freedom and justice.

Wendell Wilkie

My, how times have changed since Wilkie's day!  There is no longer a great deal of goodwill toward America after Donald Trump's tariffs and his ICE attacks.  I can imagine what Wilkie would think about Trump's foreign policy and his unlawful attack on Venezuela.  I'm certain that Trump would dismiss him as a radical leftist.

     

- Joanne

How two Canadians patented the light bulb before Edison

So, you've always thought that Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb.  Well, that's not exactly true.  It's more accurate to say that Edison refined the light bulb.  You see, two Canadians patented a design for an incandescent light bulb in 1874, preceding that of American inventor Thomas Edison by five years.  The two Canadians, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans, are generally unknown, and according the Canadian Encyclopedia, their early work on the light bulb in Toronto has "gone largely unrecognized," even though it was "an important development in the development of electric lighting."

Matthew Evans

Henry Woodward 

Thomas A. Edison

On July 24, 1874, Henry Woodward, a medical student, and his partner, Matthew Evans, a hotel keeper, filed a Canadian patent application for an electric light bulb.  On August 3, the patent was granted.  Their second patent, issued in the United States in 1876, was among those bought by Thomas Edison.  It was Edison who refined their technology and created a long-lasting bulb.  In 1879, his light bulb burned tor 40 hours.

Below is Woodward and Evans' Canadian patent.  

Woodward and Evans were neighbours in Toronto.  They performed experiments using a battery and an induction coil.  On a winter evening in 1873, the two men observed the light created by the spark at the connecting pin.  According to one report, the light was bright enough for Evans to see the time on his watch,  "If only we could confine that to a globe of some sort!" Woodward speculated.  "It would revolutionize the world."

Woodward and Evans eventually developed a prototype incandescent bulb with a carbon rod filament, similar to previous experiments by Sir Joseph Swan (1828-1914), an English physicist, chemist and inventor.  In 1860, Swan had developed a primitive electric light.  However, due to a lack of a good vacuum and an inadequate electric source, the bulb had inefficient light and a short lifetime.  In 1880, after the improvement of vacuum techniques, both Swan and Edison assembled practical light bulbs.

Sir Joseph Swan

While their experiments contributed to the advancement of electric lighting, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans fell into obscurity.  They were unable to secure the money required to refine and mass produce their bulbs.  The cost of materials was high and there was public skepticism about replacing oil lamps.  After failing to find investors, they decided to sell their U.S patent rights to Thomas Edison for $5,000.  When their project ended, Evans remarked that "the inventor never gets the reward of his labour."     

SOURCES: Pinecone Diaries: Canada's Stories and History, "Shining a Light on Henry Woodward: Canada's Hidden Hero Who Beat Edison to the Lightbulb," by Craig Rourke, January 10, 2025; The Canadian Encyclopedia; Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia

- Joanne 

My 2026 Wish List

 
Last year I posted my personal wish list for 2025.  I promised to let you know which of my wishes came true and to write another wish list for 2026.  

To be perfectly honest, very few of my 2025 wishes came true.   Donald Trump holds on to power, although he is neither mentally nor physically fit to be president of the United States.  He represents almost everything I find repugnant. However, I will not lose hope and I will continue to support democracy.  Unfortunately, I believe that the whole world is in for a rough ride. Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump's buddy, is still the Israeli prime minister.  He is facing corruption charges, but will fight tooth and nail to hang on to power.  As for Vladimir Putin, he is a murderous dictator who will never willingly give up power.  

In sports, I wished all the Toronto teams the best of fortune in 2024.  Only the Toronto Blue Jays delivered.  The Toronto Raptors didn't even make the NBA playoffs.  After winning the Grey Cup in 2024, the Toronto Argonauts had a lacklustre 2025 season.  The Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Florida Panthers.  The Panthers went on to win the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row, defeating the Edmonton Oilers in the final.  The Toronto Jays, however, did the unexpected.  They delighted their fans in Toronto and the rest of Canada by going all the way to the World Series.  They gave us a thrill, despite their heartbreaking loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  They brought some excitement and fun to Canadians during a grim 2025.

My wishes for 2026

I refer to Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu as the Unholy Trinity.  They are all Alpha males in their 70s and they have caused an enormous amount suffering, death and destruction.  All three pose a threat to world peace. 

Israel's national election is officially set for October 27, 2027.  However, there is a report that Netanyahu has asked his aides to prepare contingency plans for elections as early as June, about four months sooner than expected.  If that happens, I hope the Netanyahu government is soundly defeated.

The U.S. midterm elections will be held on November 3, 2026, unless Trump stops them from being held freely.  I hope that the Democrats win control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  

I am not a fan of Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta.  However, the next provincial election is to be held on October 18, 2027.  It may be called earlier.  If that happens, I hope Smith's United Conservative Party government is defeated by the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Alberta, led by Naheed Nenshi, the former mayor of Calgary.

In sports, I hope the Toronto Blue Jays can finish the job and win the World Series in 2026.  I'm a homer and I want all the Toronto teams to do well.  Unfortunately, the Leafs seem to be just an average team this year.  They may have to struggle to even make the playoffs.  As for the Raptors, they have improved.  The Argos need to have a better season than the last one.

The Winter Olympics will take place in Milano Cortina, Italy from February 6-22, 2026.  I hope Canada does well, especially in hockey.

The FIFA World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19 in North America.  It will be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.  I wish the Canadian team well.  I fear that Trump's horrible immigration policies will turn the event into a fiasco.

The World Baseball Classic will take place from March 5-17, 2026 in Miami, Florida, Houston, Texas, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Tokyo, Japan.  Of course, I'll be cheering for Team Canada.

Finally, I wish for a just peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine.  In the Middle East, there must be a two state solution.  There must be a Palestinian state and the Palestinians must recognize Israel's right to exist.

Russia must never gain control of Ukraine.  Putin will never stop at Ukraine.  He will attack other countries.  Everything possible must be done by the liberal democracies to bring about a just peace to these troubled regions.  It is unfortunate that the United States, under Trump, does not support its longtime European allies and threatens the sovereignty of Canada, its northern neighbour.

- Joanne