The Guardian: "Does Rob Manfred Hate Baseball?

Hunter Felt, The Guardian, August 5, 2020:

[I]t's hard not to look at [MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's] actions and wonder if his seeming indifference to the game and its players goes beyond just cold-hearted corporatism. To put it bluntly: it doesn't seem as if Manfred likes baseball at all.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when "Rob Manfred Hates Baseball" went from an internet meme meant to mock the commissioner into a working theory to explain his behavior. ... For a while, at least, Manfred's supposed hatred for the game was an amusing talking point, a comically absurd reduction of his nonstop complaining. ... Then came word of Manfred's quest to ravage baseball's minor leagues. This was a commissioner who was not here to grow the game: he was running a business and, like many executives who come into a new situation, all he saw were various inefficiencies left behind for him to "fix". ...

Manfred seems to have looked at this pandemic as a gift rather than a setback. The very real economic impact of Covid-19 was the perfect excuse for him to go forward with his minor league contraction plan without the pushback he otherwise would otherwise have surely received. The shortened 2020 season is a perfect situation to install his various "improvements": a National League designated hitter, a three-batter minimum rule for relief pitchers and even the ridiculous extra-inning baserunner idea. ...

[Manfred's] reaction to the outbreaks was clear: "the players need to be better. But I am not a quitter in general and there is no reason to quit now." This is going to be the line from here on out: nothing going forward will be the commissioner's fault: the plan was foolproof. If the players can't get through the season, if it has to be shut down then it's all on them. Maybe Rob Manfred doesn't hate baseball per se, but he makes it obvious that he doesn't care much about baseball players.

Manfred's refusal to accept responsibility, his quick willingness to ascribe blame to others, his indifference to, or inability to gauge, public perception of his ignorant and callous comments – it all sounds horrifyingly familiar:

nothing going forward will be the commissioner's president's fault: the plan was foolproof. If the players American people can't get through the season next year or two, if it has to be shut down they end up dying then it's all on them