CC Sabathia couldn’t be more bullish on the present and future of Major League Baseball.

“I don’t think we need to change really too much right now,” said Sabathia, a six-time MLB All-Star and 2007 AL Cy Young winner. “I think the game’s in a good spot. The stars that we have in the game are incredible right now.

“We just need to get the product out there so the fans can see it.”

Prior to the 2023 season, MLB announced a slew of rule changes to increase action and speed up pace of play in order to re-energize America’s pastime, especially among younger demographics and audiences. Highlighted by a new pitch clock, the elimination of the defensive shift and bigger bases, initial results seemed promising.

Through the first one-and-a-half weeks of the season, batting average was up 16 points, stolen bases spiked 30% and the average game time was down 31 minutes—on track to be the sport’s lowest since 1984.

At the midway point of the season through July 7, batting average is up from .243 to .248 while OPS has risen from .706 to .730 while an average of 8.7 strikeouts per game is near MLB’s all-time high of 8.81 in 2019.

While players and fans have needed time to adjust to the rule changes, it’s part of a new era of baseball led by a crop of young and exciting superstars including Shohei Ohtani, who Sabathia says is “the best player to ever play baseball,” Elly De La Cruz, Ronald Acuña Jr., Corbin Carroll, Julio Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

“The players have never been this good than they are now, so it’s a lot of fun to watch,” said Sabathia, who was hired in April 2022 as a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred.

Like MLB, one of its main sponsors, Mastercard, has also evolved over the years.

First launching its Priceless campaign during the 1997 World Series, Mastercard has gone from a predominately advertising-led marketing strategy to storytelling and now storymaking via experiences, with Priceless serving as the common theme and thread throughout.

“From an objective perspective and vision perspective they are thinking along the same lines as we do,” Mastercard chief marketing officer Raja Rajamannar said of MLB. “There’s a meeting of the minds and there’s chemistry between us and them. Sometimes they come up with parts of ideas and sometimes we do, but together we take the whole thing forward year after year and from strength to strength.

“I’m very pleased with how our relationship has been going with MLB.”

First begun in 1997, Mastercard’s partnership with MLB, especially as the presenting sponsor of the MLB All-Star Game, serves as a major opportunity for the brand to introduce and highlight new campaigns, activations and technologies like Priceless, Stand Up To Cancer, Home Team Advantage Small Business Contest, contactless payments, digital collectibles and NuDetect fraud detection technology.

At the 2023 MLB All-Star Game at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Mastercard hosted five winners of its Home Team Advantage Small Business Contest, who each received a $10,000 grant as well as access to Mastercard Digital Doors 2.0 to help grow their businesses online.

Mastercard also orchestrated The World’s Biggest Stand in conjunction with Stand Up To Cancer which brought All-Star players and fans in attendance to their feet at T-Mobile Park to support those battling cancer.

Food Truck Row provided local businesses with an opportunity to showcase their culinary creations to those in town for the game, while Mastercard cardholders were able to experience the week’s events like the Home Run Derby, Celebrity Softball Game and All-Star Game like never before through unique experiences via the Priceless platform.

Not only has MasterCard worked with MLB for the past 25 years, a partnership which was extended in 2021, but the brand with 2.2 global cardholders works across other sports whether it’s with leagues, teams or athletes including Lionel Messi, PGA Tour, UEFA Champions League, Annika Sorenstam, Roland Garros, League of Legends and Arsenal Women.

Regardless of which athlete, sport or league it’s working with, Mastercard continues to prioritize thoughtful experiences for new and existing consumers.

“We’ve created and curated experiences for consumers where we connect the dots across multiple areas in a given passion point,” Rajamannar said. “Each sport we actually look at it to see if it makes sense as something for us to reach consumers in an effective way and in a way we’re differentiating our brand while helping consumers connect to what matters to them the most.”