Rob Manfred is a cyborg, sent back from the future to destroy baseball.
And, oh boy, he’s got this: The Baseball Terminator. That’s what he does. THAT’S. ALL. HE. DOES!!!
The commissioner of Major League Baseball since 2015, Manfred strikes me as a guy who doesn’t particularly care for the game. He can’t help but mess and meddle, fudging the fabric of the great game that has survived 150-some years of gradual evolution.
This past week Manfred floated an idea that, Hey, we’ll increase the number of playoff teams by, oh, I dunno, two more wildcards per league, making it a total of 14 teams out of 30 making the playoffs. Yes, we’re bastardizing the legitimacy of the 162-game regular season grind, but … MORE PLAYOFF TEAMS! You can’t have too many!! (Cue the Oprah images: You get a playoff! And you get a playoff! And you get a playoff!)
But it gets better. The top teams of each league get a first-round bye, sitting out the best-of-three first round. Manfred obviously never played the game and hasn’t considered that baseball players are creatures of meticulous routine. They’re not NFL players who could use the week to heal up. Yet another rookie mistake by the cyborg.
But it gets better. The second part of the plan is that the top two non-bye teams — the teams with the second-best records in the National League and American League — would get to choose their opponent. And Manfred would like for this part — it’s his favorite, I’m sure — to be broadcast on some kind of reality TV show. I’m not making this up.
(So, let’s have some fun with this, shall we? Reality show time! Let’s add some spice. The winning playoff team gets to choose any player it wants from the losing team, and that player is in their lineup for the rest of the playoffs. Bizarre? So what! Add some damned intrigue. Instead of avoiding, say, the Angels and their killer lineup, you take the chance and play them. If you win, you get to keep Mike Trout until the playoffs are over. I mean, Oprah would probably dig it, no?)
(Or, how about this — Still in reality show mode: If the teams split the first two games of the best-of-three playoff, the tie-breaker goes to the guy with the best voice. No third game — that’s too traditional. It’s a mano-a-mano throatdown with Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Blake Shelton as the judges. Vaunted vocalist Steven Brault quickly becomes a $30-million guy, just not with the Pirates.)
The point I’m trying to make here is simple: This is all just silly. Expanded playoffs? To what end? To stop the “tanking” of the weaker teams? Gimme a break. It would make no difference.
Manfred is trying desperately to fix the symptoms of what he sees as an ailing game, rather than go straight at the disease. The problem is right in front of him. It’s the discrepancy of revenue/payroll between the larger market teams and the smaller market teams.
The cure? A salary cap and salary floor. The NFL is, in this instance, the model. Every team has the chance at a championship if front office and on-field leadership are strong enough. New York has no better chance at success than Pittsburgh.
Will it happen? Not under Rob Manfred, I’m afraid. It would take a seriously strong leader because the Major League Baseball Players Association would strike in a heartbeat over a cap, and the owners see no need for a work stoppage when the money is rolling in.
It’s all about the immediate $$$ fix for all involved. The long-term health of MLB takes a tumble, while the owners suckle at the supple teat of the almighty buck.
When was the last time you heard Bob Nutting fight for a salary cap? The next time will be the first. Nobody suckles like Bob.
So, buckle up and watch Rob Manfred force Operation Oprah on the great game of baseball. That, and the cyborg umpires he’s already promised, are just the openers of this silly season. He’ll be back.
