MLB adds Guardians, Brewers, Twins to TV roster
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
Major League Baseball announced Tuesday it will produce and distribute local games for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins for next season, signaling that all three teams will break away from the bankrupt Diamond Sports Group.
The Texas Rangers will also break away from Diamond, which is 19 months into Chapter 11 reorganization, but is considering other local media options for the 2025 season, MLB announced.
The Guardians, Brewers and Twins will join the Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres as teams under MLB’s umbrella. The Diamondbacks and Padres were dropped by Diamond last year; the Rockies were previously affiliated with Warner Bros. Discovery, who shut down or sold their regional sports networks at the end of 2023.
MLB, which launched a local-media division when Diamond went into bankruptcy, will negotiate cable and satellite distribution agreements and make local streaming available through MLB.tv. Joining MLB and thus not being tied to the territorial rights associated with distributors will eliminate blackouts. MLB projects that games for the Guardians and Twins — teams that, unlike the Brewers, did not have a local direct-to-consumer streaming option — will see increases of 235% and 307%, respectively, in reach.
The Guardians, Twins, Brewers and Rangers were all on expiring deals with Diamond. Eight other teams — the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals — are still in limbo.
Diamond recently submitted a reorganization plan that calls for it to shed broadcasting rights for every team in its portfolio except the Braves, though the company is seeking renegotiated terms with the other teams. A confirmation date, during which a bankruptcy judge will determine whether Diamond will move forward as a reorganized business, has been set for Nov. 14-15 in Houston.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
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