Manfred’s job depends on his ability to create new revenue opportunities for owners.
It is June 21st, the first day of summer. Summer means baseball in the United States and there was a book called the “Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn about the Brooklyn Dodgers players of the 1950s. So, it might be a good time to ask if Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred acts in the best interests of baseball. In 1921, the 16 American and National League owners gave the new Office of the Commissioner a wide-range of power to police the entire industry. The owners laid out “the best interests of baseball” power in the Major League constitution. Best interests of baseball. Does that mean the entire baseball industry which includes owners, players and baseball consumers? Does that mean just the owners? In Manfred’s case, it is just the owners after all he works for those 30 people and he carries out their policies.
Manfred in the last year has trashed Oakland politicians for not caving to all of the Oakland Athletics’ owner John Fisher’s wishes to build an Oakland stadium-village. In Milwaukee, Manfred railed against Wisconsin politicians who did not give Brewers’ ownership hundreds of millions of dollars for a massive facelift of the 22-year-old Milwaukee stadium. Manfred’s record includes the restructuring of the minor league system which included getting rid of 42 franchises and then reminding local politicians if they want to keep their teams you better spend money on maintaining ballparks. The Down East Wood Ducks minor league franchise located in Kinston, North Carolina won’t be doing business in the city much longer. Diamond Baseball Holdings will soon move the team to Spartanburg, South Carolina. The reason? A stadium-village is being built in Spartanburg and money is to be made. Manfred’s sole job, in the best interests of baseball, is to increase revenue streams for his bosses.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
