I didn’t think it was possible to dislike Rob Manfred any more but here we are. Rob Manfred is not a fan of “Free Joe Kelly” and was not letting Trevor Bauer wear the phrase on his cleats. Trevor Bauer took to twitter to say the following:
For everyone wondering why I didn’t wear the cleats tonight, @MLB threatened to eject me and suspend me and levy unprecedented fines against me if I did. I couldn’t put my teammates at risk like that. Earlier this year, MLB said players could put whatever they wanted on their cleats, so long as it wasn’t political or offensive. Apparently, Rob is not a fan of players following his rules, as “Free Joe Kelly” is not political and is very clearly said in jest. Just leaves me over here wondering how following the rules = ejection/suspension/fine and cheating your way to a World Series = no ejection/suspension/fine…y’all really know how to pick your battles…learned my lesson though. Fun is bad, cheating is good. Won’t make the same mistake twice, can promise you that.
Rob Manfred wouldn’t have to deal with this issue if he simply wasn’t an idiot. It’s one thing to let players on the Houston Astros off without a hitch for whatever reason (Wouldn’t have been how I would have handled it but I’m clearly not a commissioner). Yet it’s another to suspend someone for making a face at a player complaining about facing repercussions for their actions. Joe Kelly should not have been suspended a single minute, especially when all players on the Astros got off free while using their manager and general manager as scapegoats.
Then the worst part is, Trevor Bauer was going to be ejected and suspended for wearing “Free Joe Kelly” cleats. As Bauer said, those are clearly within the rules that the MLB set, so what’s the big deal Rob Manfred? Why do you care so much about cleats but seem to not give a single damn about a cheating scandal that has ruined the integrity of your sport? You hardly got this season going, you dragged your feet on the season, you failed to take matters into your own hands about the sign stealing, you suspended Joe Kelly for no good reason as you did not suspend a single Astros player. You have been gaining the reputation as the worst commissioner in sports and you deserve it more than ever now.
