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Sports Seriously
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred promised a Little League Classic for 2027, a game that he cannot know will happen.
Manfred announced during the 2026 edition on Sunday, Aug. 23 that the Blue Jays and Cubs will play in the 2027 Little League Classic in Williamsport on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2027. It will move to a Thursday night to accommodate ESPN’s new broadcast schedule with baseball.
If it gets played at all.
The game is 12 months away and on the other side of a labor fight that has not even really started yet.
The collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1. Owners and players have been meeting since the spring. Nobody in the sport is talking about a deal being close, and a lockout is the outcome most people around the game expect. That would put at least spring training and the front of the schedule at risk long before anyone gets to August in Williamsport.
Manfred announced the game from the ESPN booth during the Braves and Brewers game in Williamsport, and then got asked the inevitable labor question minutes later.
“We want to make a deal. We want to play baseball next year,” Manfred said. “We’re planning on playing baseball next year.”
He also admitted it is early and there is a lot of work to do.
The 2027 Little League Classic would be the 10th. It is one of the few things in the sport players and owners do not argue about. Players fly in the day of the game and spend time with the kids before the game. Then they play in a 100-year-old ball park with 2,500 little leaguers in the stands. Manfred said he never hears complaints about any of it, not the extra flights, the small clubhouse or anything.
“It’s some of the magic of the game, to tell the truth,” Manfred said.
The Cubs have been in Williamsport before. They played the Pirates in 2019. It will be Toronto’s first time.