Remember the line from that 80’s song that goes: “My future’s so bright, I’ve got to wear shades”. Well modern baseball in terms of what we think of as Major League Baseball has a bright present and future in terms of the active young players in the sport and the many highly thought of prospects who are coming up the pipeline. Unfortunately for fans of the top baseball league in the world, it’s tone deaf Commissioner, who is playing the roll of corporate spin stooge as the owners mouth peace to the hilt, faces a very grim future. The League AKA cartel and many of the franchise owners, blinded by misguided business practices and modern corporate greed that would make Standard Oil proud, have no care in the world that they are running the league into a deep ditch like a freight train flying off vandalized railroad tracks on a dark western desert night.
When MLB first announced in August 2014 that Rob Manfred would be the new Commissioner, there seemed to be some thought that he might try some new ideas that could move the sport forward from its well owned label as a stick in the mud business that never made change unless change was forced upon it, tying itself to tradition so tightly that it certainly at times left itself more screwed over than it otherwise might have been. Clearly now, that was a false hope born out of master spin doctoring. If anyone could have managed to become so hated, by fans of all teams, from all political viewpoints in a way Manfred has, I can’t think of who that equivalent would have been in recent times.
After the news broke about the Astros cheating scandal that caused some to wish that the 2017 championship trophy be taken away from the franchise, Manfred referred to it as a hunk of metal. Even if true in every manner of speaking, no smart business leader says something so dumb sounding on its face. It was if he totally was missing the point of why fans were wishing for such an action to be taken, even if he knew it would be impossible for the league to do so. When Georgia passed some very flawed voting restrictions in the view of many, Manfred and the league chose to move the 2021 All Star game from Atlanta to Colorado, something panned by many Braves fans even on the political left as it certainly did have a negative impact on local business that needed an excuse to bring people back coming out of phase one of the covid pandemic.
But those were not even Manfred Man’s greatest hits, as he kept blinding himself with more bright lights that shown upon him for being the chief officer of Major League Bungling. His league’s response when it locked the players out in December 2021, immediately remove all references to the players and any likeness of them from all MLB owned league and team websites and resources. Talk about a move that went over like a lead balloon. Then as the lockout was genuinely threatening to cut deep into the 2022 season at an early March press conference, he appeared to actually be laughing about the situation facing baseball, another dumbass look.
Now we come to 2023, he and his cartel have been proven time and again to be chief masters of gas lighting. Why the A’s should go to Vegas, because Oakland wasn’t trying, accept Oakland had a better offer in terms of dollars on the table than what the no good Athletics owner swindled out of Nevada this week. He mocked the fans who attended the reverse boycott game, saying they had enough to equal an average MLB crowd for this season, something on that night that was larger than the crowds attending games hosted by the Royals, Orioles, Rangers, Mariners, and Diamondbacks. He also referenced the stadium situation with the diamondbacks and weeks earlier made similar comments about the Brewers. Manfred clearly believes that public financing of stadiums is good, even though numerous economic studies from all sides of the spectrum have proven this to be a lie. After all, if building a stadium were such a great guarantee of more revenue, then damn it all why wouldn’t the wealthy billionaire owners of the teams just build the facilities themselves? Think about it. It is a classic case of a rich corporate class wanting all the benefits and no risk, saddling the society with all the risk and the debts. Ask cobb county Georgia how their recent experiment with the Braves is working out?
But Robby boy couldn’t stop there, he then sticks is foot further down his throat by saying when it came to pride events, that the teams should do what they can to not make the players uncomfortable by putting logos on uniforms promoting the event. Jesus Mary and Joseph, what the hell are the logos about the US military like for some who have opposed the actions of our government, or logos of police and fire units when some rightfully have questioned the practices of American law enforcement. What about the Mother’s Day Breast Cancer marketing in conjunction with the Coleman Foundation, one of the worst rated when it comes to charities and an organization with a history of being hostile to women’s groups who don’t subscribe to a far right Christian agenda. Rob, let me spell it out for you, if the pride events make players uncomfortable, let them live with the discomfort and learn something, otherwise get rid of the logos that support the military, cops, cancer organizations, hell even the Jackie Robinson 42 logos because you will offend the closet racists that play in your league.
There are other things that are coming out just this week too that make Manfred and the men who run this league look so penny wise and pound foolish. They want to cap spending on technology, limit the number of staff a team can hire, all in the name it would seem of cost cutting while trying to give the false appearance of promoting a balanced league. Memo rob, these owners are worth billions, the sport brings in 11 billion in revenue each year and even after deducting player salaries, there are still nearly 7 billion dollars in revenue that remain. The league would be more balanced if owners were actually trying to win.
Manfred is making it very difficult for fans of baseball to truly remain fans of its top league, where the best professional practitioners of the game come to perform. IN a separate piece that I will post later this weekend, I’m going to be making it very clear to Manfred and his cartel why going forward, I’m cutting back what I spend on anything that sends dollars to the league and its teams.
If we could just focus on the player’s, Major League Baseball has a future that is so bright, but deep dark forces that are being brought upon it by the people who operate the business side of the league are throwing serious shade on what we otherwise would experience with the players, as we are unable to just keep our eyes and minds focused on those bright stars on the green playing field.
Blind Baseball Perspective 