Tuesday marked a truly sorry day for the sport of baseball, but you would not know it by looking at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
Manfred met with reporters to announce that the league was cancelling its first two series of the 2022 regular season. The announcement came after the league failed to reach an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in order to end the ongoing lockout. The league had previously warned that games would be cancelled if a deal was not reached by Feb. 28.
During his press conference, Manfred was seen smiling while announcing the bad news. That led to resounding criticism of Manfred on social media.
Why is this man smiling? pic.twitter.com/abelhMZKJU
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 1, 2022
the man who called the world series trophy “a piece of metal” smiling on a day when mlb cancels games pic.twitter.com/UpVgC74yyH
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) March 1, 2022
Rob Manfred is smiling as he cancels games. This is the Commissioner of Baseball.
— Jason Smith (@howaboutafresca) March 1, 2022
https://twitter.com/BarstoolMizzou/status/1498783224637632512
When you are very upset over the fact you have to cancel baseball games pic.twitter.com/DdxzOZc54T
— Richard Staff (@RichardStaff) March 1, 2022
Manfred cannot even argue that his smile was simply a poorly-timed screen capture. The fact of the matter is that he smiled and chuckled before he even began speaking and then continued to laugh and joke with reporters.
https://twitter.com/SDFriars23/status/1498790098439065600
For anyone who believes a screen grab can be deceitful, here is video of a DIFFERENT moment in the press conference of Rob Manfred laughing. On the day he cancels games. pic.twitter.com/kLfrEapm3D
— Korked Bats (@korkedbats) March 1, 2022
This is just the fourth time in MLB history that a work stoppage has led to the cancellation of regular season games and the first time since the 1994-95 player strike. That is obviously nothing for Manfred to be smiling about, but he is an expert at making himself look a fool in public after all.
