This is definitely a subject to talk about if you are a big baseball fan like me. 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer is under hot water because he had baseballs confiscated by the umpires in a game against the Oakland Athletics. So why is this a hot topic in the baseball world?
The reason is because Bauer and Manfred have had a history together of disagreements going back to 2017. That year, Bauer secretly told Commissioner Manfred exactly what the Houston Astros were doing in their cheating scandal and Manfred did absolutely nothing about it until the 2019-20 MLB off-season in which many fans call it a "soft punishment".
In 2020, Bauer was all over Manfred and Major League Baseball for the new rules implemented such as runner at 2nd to start extra innings and having the #1 seed in each league pick who plays each other in the postseason. During that season, Joe Kelly threw behind Alex Bregman and over the head of Carlos Correa which resulted in an 8-game suspension. In Bauer's vlog during the season, he said "It's harsh, but there's no room anywhere in baseball to throw over someone's head regardless of what they did". He then followed up with "How are you gonna judge he was trying to throw at someone when the pitch to Correa was a breaking ball and not too many people throw a breaking ball over the head on purpose."
Later that season, Bauer made custom cleats that had #FreeJoeKelly. After MLB got a word of it, they told Bauer if he wore them during the game, then he would be ejected from the game and possibly suspended. In this past off-season, Bauer said that about 70 percent of pitchers use pine tar or some sort of substance to enhance their performance. In his 2nd start as a Dodger, he had baseballs that were marked and were confiscated by the umpires. Bauer also stated that if Manfred was not going to do anything, then he would do it himself.
Now comes the question, am I for Bauer or Manfred? I am for Trevor Bauer 100 percent because he is not just making baseball interesting again, but he is also promoting the game better than the Commissioner himself. When a sport has a player who speaks out just like Bauer, there are going to be supporters and haters. Bauer has been vocal a lot throughout his career on many topics in baseball and for good reason.
I just do not see how anyone can support Rob Manfred especially when he called the World Series Trophy "A piece of metal" during the Astros cheating scandal, creating pace of play rules to make the game under 3 hours, runner on 2nd to start extras, as well as the pro-rated salaries that were discussed this past May and June during the Covid break. Trevor Bauer is right about all that he has said about the controversies and about Manfred. Rob Manfred will not have the last laugh. Bauer is smart enough to actually know what is going on in the game on both sides.
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