“You don’t make any money doing any of that stuff,” Peter Bayer said with a laugh.

His heart and hope lie inside a grey warehouse a few miles from Highway 34 in Weld County, his heaven a canvas of black netting and neon-green paint. A symphony of popping balls and pinging bats alternate solos while a low, angry chorus of whirring fans wage a losing battle against a 94-degree afternoon.

“These bigger names, they all focus on the college-and-above market,” Bayer, a former Regis Jesuit baseball standout, explained. “What I want to bring is this amazing big space as an oasis to take 13- and 14-year-old kids and build them up, to just have an awesome space to have access to all these things.”

Head 7 miles east of the Scheels in Johnstown, turn right in the middle of nowhere, and you’ll eventually run into the , a 22,000-square-foot indoor training facility that opened Saturday to more than 200 curious kids, parents, coaches, and patrons in its first 90 minutes.

The place puts the “art” in state-of-the-art. It’s wired with Trackman technology, the same kind used at Major League stadiums across North America, including Coors Field. Two new HitTrax machines are on the way. The bulk of the complex is taken up by six long batting cages, at least four extendable pitching mounds and a 100-feet-by-30-feet practice field.

“If I was 12 years old, what would I want to do?” “And that’s what I’m trying to do here.”

“Do the parents of those 12-year-olds know?” I wondered, “that it’s run by a guy on Major League Baseball’s ineligible list?”

“I get it every so often,” Bayer said. “It’s obviously less now than it was before … it’s not like I’m out there lying to kids about what I did. At least this way, I can be a positive role model.”

***

Bayer turned 31 in March. The way he sees it, the baseball gods put him on the scenic route to his life’s calling: Teaching. Kids. Paying it forward.

He grew up in Parker, under the shadow of Ponderosa High School. He grew into a 6-foot-4 fireballer, a righty who helped anchor Regis Jesuit’s state title winners in 2011. Atlanta Braves manager Walt Weiss was a family friend and mentor.

His college chapter started at Richmond and ended at Cal Poly Pomona. He discovered Driveline, one of the country’s cutting-edge baseball labs. His fastball velo max went from 88 mph before Driveline to 95 mph after. Tampa Bay selected him in the ninth round of the 2016 MLB amateur draft.

“‘OG,’ that’s what the kids call me,” Bayer chuckled. “‘You’re like a Driveline OG.'”

The Rays traded him to the Athletics in 2018. Two years later, COVID-19 shut down the minor-league season entirely. A $400 stipend wasn’t cutting it. Bayer delivered for DoorDash. He wasn’t just looking for a quick buck. He was looking for any buck. He took up online betting. He went to online forums. He found betting experts. It became a short-term, competitive fix.

“You get your sport taken away from you, so you resort to something else to fulfill a competitive thing in your mind,” Bayer says. “This was something I could do. I was sitting at home and going crazy because I couldn’t play my sport.”

MLB’s investigation found he had conducted 100 baseball-related wagers from May-August 2020. It accused him of placing at least 25 wagers worth $1,000 or more, and at least a dozen involving the A’s, his organization at the time.

Bayer doesn’t deny the action. He denies the volume and specifics of MLB’s report.

“I think I had a stupid mindset,” he said. “(It was), ‘I have nothing left to lose. I can’t play.'”

In February 2021, Major League Baseball launched an investigation into the pitcher and placed him on administrative leave. In April 2022, he was moved to the ineligible list.

A spokesperson for Major League Baseball emailed the following statement to The Post: “After a thorough investigation, it was determined that Mr. Bayer repeatedly bet on baseball in violation of Major League Rule 21 and MLB’s Policy on Sports Betting and engaged in other misconduct that was not in the best interests of baseball. Therefore, he was placed on the ineligible list, where he remains.”

Rule 21 (d) (1) says that any “player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.”

Bayer applies for reinstatement every November. Kids he’s worked with shot video testimonials pleading on his behalf. Former teammates did, too. , now with the University of St. Thomas, has worked with Bayer since 2019 and was so moved that he emailed MLB commissioner Rob Manfred directly last fall to ask for clemency.

“He’d be great as a college coach,” Phillips says. “The decision (MLB) made to not even let him be a coach, it was tragic. He could still be a player, even. He’s really special.”

Initially, he was told it would be a one-year suspension. Only that one year keeps marching into perpetuity.

“The thing that was unfortunate, to be honest with you, was that my mental health got really (expletived),” Bayer said.

“Anybody in my shoes, it’s like, ‘Oh, man.’ You’re just holding onto hope. It was a lot. So ultimately, it was like, I don’t know. I had to move on.”

He played independent ball. Mexico. The Rocky Mountain Vibes in Colorado Springs. Dancing around the periphery, staying sharp in case a window opened up. It never did.

“The insane thing is, if I try to go to Coors Field and say, ‘Hey, I want to work for the Rockies as a sales rep,’ and sell tickets, I can’t do that,” he says. “I literally can’t be involved.”

Friends and former confidants on college baseball staffs still went out of their way to recommend him. He’d inquired about becoming a coach at a collegiate program at least three times since 2022.

“The (athletic department) would say, ‘With his background, we don’t want to risk it,'” Bayer said.

“And I’m not saying that this isn’t justified. Or isn’t fair. But there are so many MLB players out there that did horrible things and they’re just, ‘Oh, whatever, that’s fine.’ As bad as the thing is, there are still a lot of people in my corner, a lot of friends who know the type of person I am.  And that I am a good person. I just get to now build this (facility) out, so now that’s where my focus is.”

***
Bayer can still bring the heat. Quietly. He was at Coors Field a couple weeks ago and took a turn at the speed-pitch booth, just for giggles.

BAMI

Ninety-six. No warm-up.

“I know, 100%, I could still play professional baseball,” Bayer says. “That’s the crazy part of it.

“It’s been a whirlwind of life. A whirlwind of a 10 years. A lot of people would’ve lost their mind or would go off the deep end. I obviously did that in 2020 for a little bit. But I think (I’m) slowly but surely picking up the pieces. I’m doing the right things.”

With the right people. Pete got the coaching bug early. He worked with 40-45 players last year as an independent contractor. His clientele included two players from greater Loveland who were driving all the way to Centennial for workouts. One of them was the son of Endless Garage owner and entrepreneur Justin Summers, who knew of a warehouse in southwest Greeley already set up for softball training.

“(Summers said), ‘There’s this amazing facility up here, we think you’d be the perfect guy to run this,'” Bayer recalled.

“It’s kind of how it was supposed to happen. In a crazy, weird, stupid way, maybe this was all kind of happened for a … I don’t know.”

“For a reason?” I asked. “For a purpose?”

“I can’t obviously change the past. But I can make the best out of every day and build the future. That’s what this is about.”

With that, a staffer in glasses closes in, just behind Bayer’s right shoulder, and hovers. Question for the boss.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “But do you know where the microphones are?”

Bayer points to a far wall. Then he cocks his head back wearily and smiles, the grin of a man who bet on himself. And won.

I said I was encouraged by the changes to the Rockies’ front office and excited to see the team’s rebuild. However, I added that the upcoming labor war would stall the Rockies’ reconstruction project.  A lengthy and ugly lockout was all but certain. A full 2027 season was in jeopardy, I said.

The muckety muck said I was overreacting.

“This is different than the last lockout,” he said. “We were coming off the 2020 pandemic then, and I think the lockout kind of snuck up on people. I think it’s a good sign that both sides have been talking publicly about this. It’s more out in the open.”

I was skeptical when he said it then. I’m even more skeptical now after reading the rhetoric thrown into the public arena this week.

The Ultimately, MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to a new CBA on March 10, salvaging the 162-game season. However, the start of the season was delayed by eight days.

This lockout could be much longer and a lot worse.

On Wednesday, the MLBPA made its proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement public. On Thursday, MLB presented its 200-page proposal, which included its first official salary cap proposal since 1994.

The union’s response was swift, predictable, and unyielding.

“(Wednesday), the MLBPA presented a comprehensive package of proposals designed to improve compensation for players at all levels, and to incentivize and reward competition on the field,” interim union chief Bruce Meyer said in a statement. “The owners responded today with a demand for a salary cap system, something generations of players have fought against. The last time the owners made such an explicit push for a cap — over 30 years ago — it led to the longest work stoppage in MLB history.

“For generations, our members have fought against cap systems because they harm players at all levels, erode or eliminate contractual guarantees, pit player against player, lead to more work stoppages, not less, and get worse for players over time.”

In other words, MLB’s proposal was a non-starter.

Under MLB’s proposal, each team would need to maintain a payroll between $171.2 million and $245.3 million, starting in 2027. There would be a 50-50 split of revenues.

“The biggest issue we need to solve next to continue to grow the game off the field is fixing the payroll disparity unseen in any other major U.S. sport,” MLB spokesperson Glen Caplin said in a statement. “Ultimately, the game is about hope and competition and too many fans in too many markets have too little hope their team has a fair chance to win.

“Fans overwhelmingly support a salary cap and floor like in the other leagues because they don’t believe a $446 million spending gap from top to bottom is a fair fight. Our salary cap and floor proposal levels the playing field while sharing baseball revenue with the players 50/50 as we grow the game together.”

The players aren’t buying it.

“Baseball is experiencing unprecedented momentum and owners are enjoying record viewership, revenues and franchise values,” Meyer’s statement said. “Billionaire owners are not seeking to cap their profits or asset values, only player salaries.

“This isn’t out of generosity or a desire to protect the game’s well-being. It����ap a play to control costs, increase profits and maximize franchise values — all at the expense of players past, present and future. We’ll continue our review of the owners’ proposal and stand ready to negotiate system improvements that benefit players and fans alike.”

The only shared sentiment from either side is that they are seeking a new CBA that will “benefit the fans.”

That’s laughable. Volleyballing the fans back and forth in negotiations has nothing to do with the labor war. This is about money and power. The fans are an afterthought.

A fundamental part of MLB’s proposal is a change to local media revenues. As the sport would centralize TV revenue, a major change commissioner Rob Manfred has sought. That means the big-market teams with the largest television contracts, such as the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, are willing to share their TV money — a trade-off in exchange for the other benefits they’d reap in a cap system.

Writes Drellich: “It����ap a change that owners probably would never be willing to make outside of a cap system.”

The key point in the latest labor battle is that MLB wants to change the system by implementing a hard cap. The MLBPA does not.

It’s important to remember that MLB remains the only major North American professional sports league without a cap-and-floor system. The owners argue that the players — especially the wealthiest, along with their powerful agents — will have to bend and reconsider their position on a cap.

put it this way: “The league is positioning its salary cap stance as the panacea to competitive balance issues. Regardless of some small-market, low-revenue teams’ ability to construct some of the best teams in baseball — the Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Guardians are perennial winners under the current system — large-market, big-payroll teams have won the past 10 World Series.

“Combine that with the dominance of the Los Angeles Dodgers and league polling that shows fans want a cap-and-floor system like the NFL, NBA and NHL, and it has emboldened the league to pursue change, even if the union regards a salary cap as a declaration of war.”

That sounds ominous.

The last time baseball owners proposed a firm cap, in 1994, it prompted a 7½-month strike that forced the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years. MLB eventually withdrew the cap proposal after pressure from the National Labor Relations Board. Still, the damage was done.

On the field and in the public consciousness, baseball is in a good place. Changes — the pitch clock and ABS, in particular — have made the game more enjoyable. The level of play has never been better.

But if games are wiped out in 2027, the fallout could be worse than in 1994. There are a lot more entertainment options now than there were three decades ago. This time around, baseball fans might not forgive, and they might forget to come back.

So let’s get to a few of them:

• Will Broncos owners Greg and Carrie Walton Penner, the husband and wife team that form the Penner Sports Group, eventually become the controlling owners of the Rockies?

Such a deal is not imminent, but it wouldn’t shock me if it eventually happens. I’ve had a source close to the situation tell me there is no timetable for that to occur, but the source also told me it could very well happen down the line.

• Did Paul DePodesta, the Rockies’ new president of baseball operations, know about the deal when he left the Cleveland Browns to join the Rockies in November? Was he aware that the Penners were planning on buying a 40% ownership stake in the Rockies?

I’m told that DePodesta did not know that a deal was coming, meaning that his oft-quoted statement, “I’m a sucker for a challenge,” still rings true.

• Will Dick Monfort’s role as the owner of the Rockies change?

The short answer is no. He already backed away from his day-to-day involvement in the team when Walker Monfort, his oldest son, became team president. As Walker Monfort told me shortly before the season opened, “I’m more responsible for day-to-day than I have ever been, but I would say my dad is still the ultimate shot-caller, so to speak.”

• Will the Penners reduce their involvement with the Broncos and become hands-on owners at 20th and Blake?

Nope. As Denver Post Broncos beat writer Parker Gabriel put it: “The Penners are not going anywhere with the Broncos and the NFL. They will not have day-to-day roles with the Rockies, sources told The Post, and they are plenty busy with football.”

• The infusion of an estimated $672 million from the Penner Sports Group allows the Rockies to retire all of their outstanding debt. That provides additional capital that, theoretically, could be spent to increase player payroll. So, will the Rockies go on a spending spree this season? Or in the 2026-27 offseason?

That’s highly doubtful, for a couple of reasons. First, the team is still on the bottom floor of its rebuild and still assessing its talent level.

Second, even though the Rockies are playing better baseball than they did last season (how could they not?), it wouldn’t surprise me if the Rockies flirt with another 100-loss season. Spending big bucks now doesn’t make sense.

Third, and most important, it’s highly likely that Major League Baseball owners will shut down business with a lockout when the current collective bargaining expires in December. That’s going to complicate things and cool down any hot stove action.

• Will Dick Monfort abandon his quest for a salary cap and a more equitable financial landscape across MLB?

That’s a tongue-in-cheek question. I raise it because the Twittersphere has been filled with smart-aleck fans tweeting that the “suddenly wealthy” Rockies can now compete with the big boys. That’s not the case.

Plus, Monfort has a close relationship with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and plans to be heavily involved in labor negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA. Monfort believes that baseball’s economic system is broken, and he wants to help fix it.

• The Dodgers, Yankees and Cubs all have their own lucrative television networks. Could the Rockies, eventually, do something similar?

This is pure speculation on my part, but it wouldn’t surprise me if, somewhere down the line, that happens, especially if the Penner Sports Group ever gains controlling interest in the Rockies.

• How can Broncos ownership invest in the Rockies when they already have a stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks?

This was also out in the Twittersphere. Here’s the deal: Last month, part of the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group that owns the Broncos, also has a 10% share of the D-backs. However, Greg and Carrie Walton Penner do not have a stake in the D-backs, thus allowing them to buy into the Rockies.

• Will the new ownership dynamic allow the Rockies to find a resolution to Kris Bryant’s contract situation?

It certainly appears that Bryant will never play baseball again because of lumbar degenerative disc disease. But, counting this season, he’s still owed $81 million through the 2028 season. One way or another, Bryant will get his guaranteed money. Can the Rockies work out a deal where Bryant would defer some of those millions of dollars? It’s possible, but I don’t think the infusion of the Penner’s money changes anything.

After two decades of operating the Rockies as a mom-and-pop grocery store, it was time for owner Dick Monfort to bring in Walmart as a partner.

In what amounts to a home run for baseball fans in this state and region, Monfort has agreed to sell a 40 % minority stake in the Rockies to the Penner Sports Group, composed of Broncos’ co-owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner.

With a roughly $672 million investment based on Forbes’ most recent $1.68 billion valuation, the Penners will provide funds to pay down debt and financial resources that give Monfort runway to determine his future vision for the franchise as a labor stoppage looms following this season.

For Monfort, it was past time in the national pastime to treat the Rockies as a civic institution. By bringing on the Penners, he shifts the conversation about his ownership from selfish to selfless. At last.

It is wise, if not belated, recognition that family-run sports teams are becoming archaic and lack the wherewithal to consistently chase championships.

Monfort has groused in recent years, including in an interview with The Post before the 2024 season, about Major League Baseball’s lack of a salary cap. The concern about competing became amplified with regional sports networks dissolving, siphoning a source of revenue for a Rockies team that is already heavily dependent on attendance.

In the most recent homestand, the Rockies posted their smallest crowds in Coors Field history.

But lost in that nadir is that Monfort finally realized in October that significant changes were needed.

His decision to promote son Walker Monfort to vice president and give him freedom to hire baseball president Paul DePodesta, general manager Josh Byrnes and a battery of new business people was the clearest signal that he understood how dormant the team had become after seven consecutive losing seasons.

Until Friday.

This is a seismic event. A grand slam for Rockies fans.

By bringing the Penners on board, it creates a pathway for the Rockies to become relevant.

In 34 seasons, the Rockies have managed only five playoff berths, never won a National League West title and appeared in one World Series in 2007, swept by the Boston Red Sox in a buzzkill end to the most magical run in baseball history.

The obvious question: Why wouldn’t Dick Monfort simply sell the team?

This is something understandably frustrated fans have been chirping about for years.

It was not time for that. On multiple levels. Could that change down the road? Perhaps.

But starting with conversations a year ago, the Penners were motivated to get involved rather than take over. This is not a palace coup. It is a partnership. But it is also one (heck) of a safety net.

The new partnership continues momentum for Monfort, which has been evident on the field with the team’s 6-7 record after starting last season 7-33 en route to losing 100 games for a third consecutive season.

And it gives the Penners an opportunity to become financially tethered without dealing with the minutiae of running another team.

Can we pause for a second and acknowledge the commitment to sports and this community the Penners have shown since the summer of 2022?

As they enter their fifth year owning the Broncos, they have built a $175 million team headquarters, moved forward on a privately-financed new stadium for billions of dollars, created a $12 million initiative to donate over 15,000 helmets to high school football teams and and turned the franchise from a laughingstock to a Super Bowl contender by hiring Sean Payton and signing players to in-house contract extensions for more than $400 million over the last 18 months.

To Colorado sports fans, it’s worth even more.

The Penners have shown at every turn that they are amazing stewards, setting a standard for excellence in everything from how their players travel and eat to how they increase alumni involvement.

Before you ask, their roles with the Broncos will not change. Owning the team has exceeded their expectations in how fulfilling, challenging and rewarding it has been. They will still attend practice a few days a week and mingle at the facility.

The Rockies, make no mistake, piqued their interest as a business investment.

Like many who have lived here, they recognize that baseball is a sleeping giant, a potential No. 2 sport in Colorado if Rocktober returns semi-annually. Coors Field, despite being the third-oldest ballpark in the National League, remains a destination spot with its timeless appeal and charm.

Fans have shown they will come if the team is good. It just takes several flips back in the calendar to remember when that was.

Overall, baseball is on the right track, benefiting from the pitch clock, eliminating shifts and creating the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System.

The Penners obviously saw this.

For the Rockies, for Monfort, this move makes sense.

Just look at all the Penners have done, how deep their pockets are, and how much they commit to ventures. They are unbelievably curious people who look for answers, never satisfied with the status quo or mediocrity.

They will learn baseball just as they did the NFL. There is no reason to think they cannot help make the Rockies better.

Everyone will wonder if they will eventually buy the team. That is for a later day and could hinge on the outcome of the labor talks, in which Monfort serves as a hawk in the negotiations for commissioner Rob Manfred.

Since back-to-back playoff berths in 2017 and 2018, the Rockies have nosedived, bottoming out with 119 losses last season.

By bringing in the Penners, Monfort is letting the respected neighbors down the street spruce up the place. Their money matters. But more than that, it provides hope for the future.

And for this city, this state and the fans, that is priceless.

Nine months later, it appears to be the best thing to happen to both parties.

ESPN has a reworked deal that includes out-of-market streaming rights while NBC and Netflix will air games as part of a new three-year media rights agreement announced by MLB on Wednesday.

“I think it����ap really important that we manage to continue a relationship with ESPN. They’ve been kind of the bedrock of our broadcast program for a long time,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said.

NBC/Peacock will become the new home of “Sunday Night Baseball” and the Wild Card Series while Netflix will have the Home Run Derby and two additional games.

The three deals will average nearly $800 million per year. ESPN will still pay $550 million while the NBC deal is worth $200 million and Netflix $50 million.

How ESPN benefits

ESPN, which has carried baseball since 1990, loses postseason games and the Home Run Derby but gains something more valuable for its bottom line by becoming the rights holder for MLB.TV, which will be available on the ESPN app.

ESPN also gets the in-market streaming rights for the six teams whose games are produced by MLB: San Diego, Colorado, Arizona, Cleveland, Minnesota and Seattle.

Even though ESPN no longer has “Sunday Night Baseball,” it will have 30 exclusive games, primarily on weeknights and in the summer months.

“We’re excited to have a midweek package back out there,” Manfred said. “This is an evolution of a relationship. Long relationships go through these things, and it����ap an evolution that I think is significant. I think it is consonant with ESPN’s focus on streaming going forward.”

Baseball is the second league that has its out-of-market digital package available in the U.S. on ESPN’s platform. The NHL moved its package to ESPN in 2021.

Welcome back, NBC

NBC, which celebrates its 100th anniversary next year, has a long history with baseball, albeit not much recently. The network carried games from 1939 through 1989. It was part of the short-lived Baseball Network with ABC in 1994 and ’95 and then aired playoff games from 1996 through 2000.

Its first game will be on March 26 when the defending two-time champion Los Angeles Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The 25 Sunday night games will air mostly on NBC with the rest on the new NBC Sports Network. All will stream on Peacock.

The first “Sunday Night Baseball” game on NBC will be April 12 with the next one in May after the NBA playoffs.

The addition of baseball games gives NBC a year-around night of sports on Sunday nights. It has had NFL games on Sunday night since 2006 and will debut an NBA Sunday night slate in February.

NBC will also have a prime-time game on Labor Day night.

The Sunday early-afternoon games also return to Peacock, which had them in 2022 and ’23. The early-afternoon games will lead into a studio Whip-Around Show before the Sunday night game.

NBC/Peacock will also do the Major League Futures game on the day before the Home Run Derby and coverage of the first round of the amateur draft on the Saturday heading into the All-Star break.

Netflix and baseball

Netflix’s baseball deals are in alignment with its strategy of going for big events in a major sport. The streamer will have an NFL Christmas doubleheader this season for the second straight year.

Besides the Home Run Derby, Netflix will have the first game of the season on March 25 when three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees visit the San Francisco Giants. It also has the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game at Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13, when Minnesota faces Philadelphia. Netflix will stream a MLB special event game each year.

Don’t forget the others

The negotiations around the other deals were complicated due to the fact that MLB was also trying not to slight two of its other rights holders. MLB receives an average of $729 million from Fox and $470 million from Turner Sports per year under deals which expire after the 2028 season.

Fox’s Saturday nights have been mainly sports the past couple years with a mix of baseball, college football, college basketball and motorsports.

Apple TV has had “Friday Night Baseball” since 2022.

The deals also set up Manfred for future negotiations. He would like to see MLB take a more national approach to its rights instead of a large percentage of its games being on regional sports networks.

___

AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

___

AP MLB:

Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the in 2026.

Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

New York Yankees outfielder Austin Slater, one of four players on the competition committee, said three voted in favor after getting support from 22 of the 30 teams. All six management reps voted in favor.

“I think with any sort of technology, there’s not 100% certainty of the accurateness of the system,” Slater said. “I think the same can be said of umpires. So I think it����ap just coming to grips with the impact that technology is going to have and whether or not we were willing to live with that error that was associated with the system, even if the error is very, very miniscule.”

Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who leads the American League in ejections for the fifth straight year, called the adoption “inevitable.”

“Throughout the year, I’ve been a little not totally on board with it or exactly how it����ap going to be implemented but it����ap going to be here and hopefully that����ap a good thing,” he said. “A lot of the things that Major League Baseball has done I think have been really successful in the changes they’ve made and hopefully this is another one of them.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said players will have to adjust.

“You can like it, dislike it, it doesn’t matter,” Vogt said as Cleveland prepared to open a critical three-game series with Detroit. “It����ap coming. It����ap going to change the game. It����ap going to change the game forever.”

ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that year’s . The ABS was tried at , then .

At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions by teams to the ABS.

MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182).

“I love it. I loved it in spring training,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Not all of the players, but most of the players, if you ask them, they really liked it too. I think it keeps everybody accountable. It keeps everybody on their toes.”

At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

In the first test at the big league All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful in July.

Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining.

MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

“Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that����ap acceptable to players,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.”

This will be MLB’s first major rule change since . Those included a pitch clock, larger bases, and restrictions on defensive shifts and pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts.

The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete.

In addition to Slater, other players on the competition committee are Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit����ap Casey Mize and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit����ap Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

Bill Miller is the umpire representative.

No, not because of the Rockies’ dreadful season. Like many of you, I’ve become numb to the mounting losses.

My brain is doing cartwheels because my boss suggested that I write about Major League Baseball’s future expansion and possible realignment as the topic for my weekly journal. Thanks, Mr. Schubert.

So I read various opinions, contemplated rivalries, considered playoff implications, played around with geography, thought about schedules, and fretted over baseball’s history and cherished records.

Why write about this now? After all, expansion is years away, and we don’t even know which two cities will be selected when MLB grows from 30 to 32 teams.

Here’s why it’s a hot topic: Commissioner Rob Manfred recently discussed it on ESPN.

“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel.”

Manfred also talked about TV broadcast schedules, time zones, and the need to grow the game. The last MLB expansion event was in 1998 when Arizona and Tampa Bay joined. The time has come to expand. My front-runners are Salt Lake City, Nashville, Portland, and Charlotte. Picking two from that group will be tough. However, there are other cities in the running.

I’ve seen various plans for realignment. Many would scrap the American and National leagues. One plan would create four eight-team divisions.

The plan I like most would create eight four-team divisions, based on geography. I would keep the American and National leagues and protect division rivalries such as Yankees-Red Sox, Dodgers-Giants and Cardinals-Cubs.

The Rockies would leave the NL West and jump to an AL division. The Dodgers wouldn’t be able to bully the Rockies year after year. And let’s face it, the Rockies don’t have a rival.

Here’s how the realignment would look:

AL East
• Baltimore Orioles
• Boston Red Sox
• New York Yankees
• Toronto Blue Jays

Traditional rivals, tough crowds, and good baseball.

AL West
• Las Vegas Athletics
• Los Angeles Angels
• Salt Lake City or Portland
• Seattle Mariners

It’s a sensible plan for travel purposes, and who knows, maybe Vegas vs. Salt Lake turns into a rivalry.

AL North
• Chicago White Sox
• Cleveland Guardians
• Detroit Tigers
• Minnesota Twins

The weather would be a problem in the spring and fall, but those fans are used to it.

AL South

• Colorado Rockies
• Houston Astros
• Kansas City Royals
• Texas Rangers

Hey, Denver and K.C. are both on I-70, right? Additionally, Colorado is a playground for wealthy Texans, making it a natural fit.

NL East
• New York Mets
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• Washington Nationals

The Pirates have to switch divisions, but I’m not sure it matters. Fans from Philly and Queens can continue to duke it out.

NL West
• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• San Diego Padres
• San Francisco Giants

The division stays the same, except for the loss of the Rockies. I’m betting West Coast pitchers won’t miss Coors Field.

NL North
• Chicago Cubs
• Cincinnati Reds
• Milwaukee Brewers
• St. Louis Cardinals

Good, strong baseball fans in Middle America.

NL South
• Atlanta Braves
• Miami Marlins
• Nashville or Charlotte
• Tampa Bay Rays

This would be the most problematic division because, once the Braves get their act together, they would dominate.

Now, on to the schedule.

I’m not an analytical person, so I turned to Hall of Fame baseball writer Jayson Stark for his concept. Stark foresees the possibility of MLB cutting its schedule from 162 games to 156.

Here’s what :

“One club official we spoke with this week casually referred to baseball’s current 162-game slog as ‘an endangered species.’ Another longtime club executive, also granted anonymity so he could speak freely, was even more emphatic. ‘Expansion,’ he said, ‘means the end of 162.’ ”

I’m OK with that. I could even buy into returning to 154 games. Of course, fewer games could mean less money for the players, and their union could balk at that idea. Some fans might worry about records, but baseball survived the change from 154 to 162, and it survived lockouts, strikes and steroids.

But for the sake of this exercise, let’s return to Stark’s idea of 156:

• Twelve games versus each of the other three teams inside the division (36 games).

• Six games versus the other 12 teams in your league (72).

• Three games versus the 16 teams from the other league (48).

That brings us to 156. The players could get more days off, and maybe the World Series would stick to October, where it belongs.

Stark suggests expanding the playoffs from 12 teams to 16. I can’t go there. I don’t want half of the teams in the playoffs. I say, stick with 12 teams, six from each league. That would break down to four division winners and two wild-card teams from each league.

So, there you have it. Your Colorado Rockies, AL South champions in 2034!

Or south. Or southeast. Whatever. Just get the living daylights out of the National League West. Move the heck out of the same division as the Dodgers, Giants and Padres.

It’s extremely rare that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says something that the baseball guys on the Grading The Week (GTW) staff agree with. It’s even more rare when Manfred gives us a snippet of actual, genuine hope to cling to.

But the commish, in a passing as rare as Edmond Halley’s comet, somehow managed to give us both at the start of the week. Manfred said during ESPN’s broadcast of the Little League Classic this past Sunday

“I think if we expand,” Manfred noted, “it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign.”

To that, Team GTW has only two words: Amen and hallelujah.

Rockies being “realigned” out of NL West — A

The baseball guys won’t lie: GTW has been rooting for expansion for a long time. Largely because we knew it also meant realignment — and short of new ownership, which isn’t happening, realignment might be the quickest path to the Rockies becoming relevant again.

Or not being as historically terrible, at any rate.

Now, first off, we know this would inconvenience the thousands of Dodgers fans in the metro — the ones who love to turn Coors Field blue a gazillion times a year.

Yeah, well, tough.

Same for Giants Nation, or whatever you call yourselves these days. And you bandwagon Padres fans. And the three guys we know from down the street who used to live in Chandler, Ariz., and drive to Diamondbacks games twice a year.

Nothing personal. Honest. It’s just that the Rockies need a radical refresh in the worst way possible right now.

And outside of the Monforts firing themselves (which, again, isn’t happening) or promoting more family members into more crucial decision-making roles (which will, no doubt, happen again), the best way to see that refresh through is a change of divisional neighbors.

If you’re a Rockies fan, you should be rooting for a division that features the White Sox or Twins. Or the Rangers and Astros. Or the Royals and just about anybody.

Dick Monfort’s latest punch line is insisting that a salary cap is the quickest way for his Rox to catch the Dodgers’ evil empire. Nonsense. Monfort couldn’t catch Los Angeles if he was riding shotgun in one of Richard Branson’s rockets.

The Dodgers were first. The Padres were fourth. The D-backs were 13th; the Giants, 14th.

No, the purple and black need to be moved to a baseball block that’s more in their, shall we say, tax bracket. More games with the Royals (No. 18 payroll), White Sox (No. 29), Athletics (No. 28), Guardians (No. 25) or Twins (No. 20).

Yes, you can learn to love the American League, Denver. Just ask Astros fans. Besides, with Manfred making the DH universal and balancing the schedule, the idea of “American” and “National” leagues, save for founding franchises, is becoming more arbitrary by the summer.

With Kansas City, the proximity thing is obvious. So is a potential rivalry for two franchises with historically gorgeous ballparks and perennially tortured fan bases. Hey, we could even create an I-70 Cup or something. Loser get an all-expenses-paid weekend in Wichita.

So bring on a new franchise in Portland. Or Salt Lake City. Anything that pushes Denver eastward on a baseball map. Anything that inches them away from the interminable Hellscape of the present.

On Sunday, she took the wheel.

“It makes the game funner,” the 12-year-old explained to me on Blake Street, just before the Savannah Bananas played their Denver farewell Sunday at Coors Field.

“It’s hard to keep track of a baseball game. It can’t keep you interested the entire time. But they do the dances, the umps are fun … it just makes the game fun.”

What’s wrong with that?

While sold out Coors twice over the weekend, the Rockies were busy getting stomped in Arizona by a combined score of 25-12. The Local Nine are on a pace to lose 120 games.

The sun shines along the Front Range everywhere but the corner of 20th & Bleak these days. LoDo could sure use some light. A little joy.

The Bananas are a barnstorming baseball team that’s about fans and fun first. The team’s got its own broadcast deals, including one with ESPN, 10.5 million followers on TikTok, and almost 4 million more on Instagram. (The Rockies’ Instagram feed had about 570,000 followers as of Sunday afternoon.)

They aren’t for everybody. In the bottom of the sixth of their tilt against The Firefighters, a guy standing on a barrel pitched to a batter swinging on stilts. An hour before first pitch, catcher Bill LeRoy warmed up by racing into the upper deck with the public-address microphone. From there, he launched in a banana-tossing contest — whoever could land more fruit inside a fan’s oversized pants down at field level was the winner. If that’s what you want when somebody takes you out to the ballgame, the ‘Nanas are in your wheelhouse.

Apparently, they’re in a bunch of wheelhouses. Coors Field has seen some lines. But Rockies security told me they’d never seen anything quite like Sunday morning, when a queue snaked from the corner of 21st and Blake, then stretched all the way behind the ViewHouse Ballpark before curling back to Gate D again.

Which is why Logan Dahlinger, 16, came up with his family from Arvada at 10:30 in the morning for a 3:30 p.m. first pitch.

“You come to a Rockies game, obviously, and you can kind of get in whenever and it doesn’t really matter,” Sydney’s older brother told me. “I can see why they’ve sold out football stadiums.”

After Sunday? So can I. Like hockey and auto racing, the Bananas are good television, but even better theater in person. It’s dance numbers, turntables, princesses, sleeveless jerseys, and right fielders in capes. It’s a group hug at the mound for foster kids. It’s Karaoke Night, every night. It’s the Frankenstein offspring of Abner Doubleday and P.T. Barnum, God’s answer to the eternal question of what would happen if Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s wooden commissioner, had a sense of humor and a soul.

It’s baseball blended with the unapologetic cornball of a state fair midway, the strut of pro wrestling, the wink of an NBA halftime show, the swing of a jazz funeral, and a pinch of Disney magic.

The dancing stops, but the music never does. When the PA plays “Time of My Life” from the movie “Dirty Dancing,”. If MLB is what we were, Banana Ball is who we are: loud, proud, deep-fried and buzzed. It’s the most American version of the National Pastime you’ll ever see.

The outcome’s determined by points, not runs, and showy stuff is worth more of the former. If a fan catches a foul ball, you’re out. Batters can’t leave the box. There’s a 2-hour time limit.

It’s also dang hard work. Routines are practiced before the gates open the morning of a day game, then again during warm-ups. The Bananas’ operation rolled into LoDo with two semis full of equipment and a crew of 140 traveling staffers.

Blake Street, meanwhile, immediately grasped the a-peel. Amy Holle of Erie even showed up dressed like a banana, a costume she said she’s taken skiing. Her husband, Eric, says he wears a gorilla suit when they hit the slopes, so yeah, Savannah is their jam.

“We’ve watched a little bit on YouTube so that the kids knew what to expect,” she said. “We keep telling our son that dancing is important. In case his baseball career doesn’t work, he’s got a fallback plan.”

It’s worked out for Correlle Prime. A 12th-round pick of the Rockies in 2016, the 6-foot-5 Florida native played at Grand Junction as a 19-year-old, where his teammates included Ryan McMahon, Jon Gray, Dom Nunez and Raimel Tapia. In 2014, he played behind Kyle Freeland and Antonio Senzatela in Ashland, N.C. Instead of getting on Jeff Bridich’s fast track, he wound up bouncing across leagues in three countries before hooking up with the Bananas.

Now 31, Prime doesn’t get star-struck often. He did a bit of a double-take this past Saturday night when he saw Peyton Manning sitting with son Marshall and Marshall’s friends in the home dugout at Coors. Cool dads do what cool dads gotta do.

“Are you going to do the ManningCast again?” Prime asked. “I can’t wait to see the ManningCast again.”

“Oh, yeah, we’re doing that again,” PFM replied. “Maybe Eli will try to come out when you guys are in New York in September.”

“That would be pretty cool,” Prime said.

The Bananas phenomenon went viral the old-fashioned way — word-of-mouth, friend to friend, sister to brother, a text at a time.

Founder Jesse Cole and his crew worked the algorithms the way Greg Maddux worked the corners, sprinkling YouTube, Instagram and TikTok posts that made the distracted curious. Once they dug deeper, they got hooked.

Banana Ball players get evaluated not just for their stats, but for their entertainment value, fan engagement, social media followings, et cetera. If MLB is about WAR power, Banana Ball is about star power.

Players have to bring something to the game-day experience besides a glove.

“Being personable with a bunch of different fans, swooping down to kids, getting on their level, talking to them, taking photos, just taking time to really make people’s days and really brighten their day — that is really cool,” Correlle said. “The fans, they always ask about the dancing. ‘Can you backflip and do all that?’ It’s like, ‘Nah, I can’t do that.'”

Maybe next time, dude.

Speaking of next time, how about we do this again next summer?

“We’ll have to see,” Cole told me after the game. “But this has obviously made a great impression on all of us. Working with the team, the Rockies, working with the city has been tremendous. So we hope we can come back in the future.”

Loved the show. Don’t love those odds. Their schedule reveal is slated for Oct. 9.

“A lot of things have to work out for this to happen sooner than later, but we had a great experience,” Cole continued. “It was wonderful, and we’ll see what happens.”

It’s OK if you don’t get it. Sydney does. So does Logan, whose baseball games Sydney had to sit through.

“It’s hard to watch a full MLB game and truly stay excited for every pitch and every play,” Logan said. “What the Bananas have done is, they’ve kind of revolutionized it. You don’t have to know everything about baseball to enjoy it now. You just have to enjoy the idea of baseball.”

No, the Bananas wouldn’t beat the Rockies. Except at the box office. And in little kids’ hearts.

Playing basketball for the Nuggets provides purpose, but harness racing remains his crush.

Last Sunday drove this point home when Jokic celebrated his horse Demon Dell’Est’s victory in the Dužijanac event in Serbia by hustling to the winner’s circle and spraying champagne. Tears streaming down his cheeks, he hugged the animal and the driver before throwing his hands skyward in jubilation.

It couldn’t have been much different than his reaction when the . He was composed while accepting the Finals MVP trophy, and sheepishly popped champagne before finally letting loose when he tossed Jamal Murray into a recovery pool.

Two things can be true. Jokic can be a three-time MVP and love horses more than hoops. The latter is a family affair. As early as the age of 12, Jokic wanted to be a trainer, and he recently said he owns around 45 horses.

Some have taken this as a sign he will leave the NBA early. My conclusion is the exact opposite. There is little money in the harness racing business. It is about passion, not profit. Basketball offers a financial avenue to keep his stable stocked.

Jokic isn’t going anywhere. And he sure as heck isn’t leaving to start a .

So, hold your horses, Nuggets’ Nation. Jokic loves the Standardbreds. It is his hobby. But he is not leaving his job as the best basketball player in the world anytime soon.

Nick Wrong: FSN’s Nick Wright made headlines for hating on Jokic for years before the reality of the center’s brilliance clobbered him over the head. Now, the world’s biggest Chiefs fan has taken aim at the Broncos. He predicted Denver will finish in last place in the AFC West with the Raiders making the playoffs. There is a better chance of Travis Kelce breaking up with Taylor Swift to date Ariana Grande. Wright is good at his job. But his bias on all things Chiefs has become a tired act.

Rock the boat: Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt broke character and made multiple deals at the trade deadline, shipping out third baseman Ryan McMahon and relievers Jake Bird and Tyler Kinley. Good plan. Wrong year. All had more value last July, leaving Colorado with one legit pitching prospect in return in Griffin Herring. They should have shipped out Seth Halvorsen — getting two arms like him — but that is a trade better left to the next GM.

Tick Tock Mike: Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin has gone 18 straight seasons without a losing record, the third longest streak behind Bill Belichick and Tom Landry. This year for Tomlin reminds me of Andy Reid’s last season in Philadelphia. It feels like he’s a Hall of Fame coach headed for an amicable divorce after Aaron Rodgers craters another team’s fortunes.

Bryce blow up: Bryce Harper telling commissioner Rob Manfred to “get the (blank) out of the clubhouse” if he was going to broach the topic of a salary cap, is not worthy of a suspension. Manfred said the two ultimately shook hands. What it did show is how far apart the sides are regarding the economics of the sport with the collective bargaining agreement expiring on Dec. 1, 2026. Harper is taking an admirable stance, but a word of advice: Baseball will never recover if another World Series is canceled.