A lot of my posts have to do with how terrible Rob Manfred is. Until he’s gone, don’t expect that to change. I’m a man on a mission. In the wake of more MLB teams coming up with positive COVID-19 tests, Manfred managed to make more hypocritical comments. It’s apparently his thing these days. Here’s my take on his latest statements.
Rob Manfred: “I’m Not a Quitter.” Uh, Yes You Are.
This weekend, MLB Commissioner (if you want to call it that) Rob Manfred had a conversation with ESPN’s Karl Ravech about whether the MLB will continue to play after a few teams had positive coronavirus tests.
“We are playing. The players need to be better, but I am not a quitter in general and there is no reason to quit now. We have had to be fluid, but it is manageable.”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, to ESPN’s Karl Ravech
There’s a lot of garbage to unpack from such a short statement. First of all, the assertion that Manfred is not a quitter is so unbelievably tone deaf and just plain false. This guy pretty much quit investigating the Astros to limit the fallout and ended up not punishing a team that blatantly cheated their way to the largest stage in the sport. He also quit on Minor League Baseball, eliminating 42 teams and then canceling the entire Minor League season. Someone who actually cared about baseball wouldn’t have done that. Oh, and let’s not forget that just a few weeks ago, Manfred was completely prepared to just punt on the possibility of an MLB season happening at all. Now all of a sudden he’s Mr. Committed To The Sport? Not buying it. He’s absolutely a quitter.
Stop Blaming the Players Because You’re Bad at Your Job
Rob Manfred saying “the players need to better” is unbelievably disrespectful and shows a complete lack of self-awareness. On some level, it is the players’ responsibility to mitigate the spread of the virus within the clubhouse and there are certainly steps they can take to make that happen. But on a much bigger level, it’s the responsibility of the commissioner to figure that out. You don’t get to just shove all the blame onto the players when you run the sport.
Obviously, the players are incentivized to take any and all measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading through their clubhouse. They want to play, and they want to get paid. If that wasn’t clear from the negotiations before the season started, you weren’t paying attention. No one who knows anything about baseball is buying into the whole “the baseball players don’t want to play baseball” narrative that Manfred and the owners have been pushing for the last couple months.
Loving the sport of baseball is pretty much a prerequisite to being a baseball player. However, it’s evidently not a prerequisite to be the MLB Commissioner. Rather than take any responsibility for when things go wrong, Manfred is content to demonize the players and publicly criticize them to the media. After quitting on the sport, I wish he would take the next logical step and just quit his job.
When that happens, baseball will be the better for it. #FireRobManfred
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