MLB Network’s Robert Flores didn’t need long to size up Fanatics Fest. “Someone called it earlier a sports ComicCon,” he told WBN. “It’s got everything — combining sports and culture and memorabilia.”
The timing was the point. The event landed in the middle of a loud stretch on the sports calendar, with baseball’s All-Star week just wrapped and a World Cup final closing out the weekend nearby. “All kinds of worlds colliding,” Flores said. “It makes perfect sense to be right here, right in the middle of it.”
Asked about where the game is headed — the World Baseball Classic, the collective bargaining questions ahead, the road toward Los Angeles in 2028 — Flores kept it simple. He thinks baseball is as healthy as it’s been.
“The game is more popular than it’s ever been,” he said. “The numbers are up, attendance is up. The game is in a great place.” As for the labor questions still to be sorted, he waved them off as solvable: “It’ll eventually get figured out. Right now we’re in a great spot.”
Photo Credit: MLB Network host Siera Santos and Robert Flores waltz on the red carpet for the MLB baseball All-Star game, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
