Rob Manfred Stood At His Press Conference And Laughed As His Master Plan To Kill The Sport Of Baseball Moved Along As Planned
As you are well aware by now, Major League Baseball's owners and players were not able to come to a deal today. The first two series for the regular season have been canceled as Chris blogged about here. Who but Rob Manfred took to the podium to deliver the news to the public. Comedy ensued. Now obviously no matter what he said here he was going to get shit on. It's his job to represent the greedy, billionaire owners and express their thoughts. That's a position setup for failure every time, but Rob always takes it a step further with his stupidity and lack of appreciation for the sport.
I'm not sure who told the commissioner of baseball to smile and laugh as he announced the cancellation of regular season games for his sport, but it couldn't have been more fitting for the sniveling rat that Rob Manfred embodies. Before giving his statement he actually got up there and laughed. Just laughing right in our faces during one of the darker moments for the sport in recent time. Fuck us, man.
He then said maybe his greatest lie ever, “The concerns of our fans are at the very top of our consideration list.”
Hahahahahahhahah!
This is the same guy who said it would be a disastrous outcome if the lockout resulted in missed games. Manfred and the owners initiated the lockout in early December in an attempt to speed up the process of negotiations, so they said. They then refused to meet or send a proposal for six weeks as every billionaire went on their extended vacations at the end of the year. Manfred claimed today in his press conference that they worked really hard to try and make this deal. He also went out of his way to say they never made their best offer. What??? This is the kinda bullshit fans are being fed and that's why we have a right to be angry.
Then there's this part that infuriated me beyond belief…
A reporter asked Manfred why there weren't constant negotiations over the last three months and not just these rushed meet ups in Florida over the last two weeks. As his brain scrambled for a good lie, he actually said his best answer was to look at the last 10 days and what they accomplished.
They were there for ten full days, guys! Look at them! Braver than the troops. Keep in mind those 10 days weren't close to enough to get a deal done and we are now cancelling games. That's the commissioner of this sport. Proud that games are being banged because in his mind they did their best.
For anyone taking the owners' side here. Keep in mind Manfred claimed today that revenue has been very difficult for the league over the last five years — they've pulled in $43 billion in that span. Revenues go up every single year, yet teams' payrolls stay stagnant. There's a problem there and players stood up for themselves. They negotiated and came down on their demands while the owners refused to budge.
Manfred also said today they have never cancelled games. Simply a blatant lie. So what about in 2020 when the sport had a chance to be the first of the big four to get back to working and have a real spotlight on it? Imagine having the opportunity to be the first sport back from the pandemic? MLB said no thanks. Manfred used semantics to ignore that this all happened two years ago. What about in '94 when the season was cut short and never returned? Just lie after lie.
And remember, the sport had such a horrible time regaining popularity after that work stoppage. It relied upon the steroid era and the home run chase between McGwire and Sosa to revive it. Unless we're legalizing steroids then I don't see a way they recover from this. Any momentum built with these young, fun stars will be lost.
Imagine if they had someone run baseball who actually liked the sport and didn't refer to the World Series trophy as a piece of metal? I bet we wouldn't be here. Dude's a straight up criminal and belongs in jail. No actually he does for racketeering regarding the two baseball scandal that got swept under the rug with these lockout talks. Prison. Jail time. Manfred has to go, man. Figure it out.
I'm sad.
Buy now