Not surprisingly, Rob Manfred was named Major League Baseball's new commissioner on Thursday. He'll take over once Bud Selig officially retires in January. Manfred went into the vote as the favorite to take over and, even though some owners, most notably the White Sox' Jerry Reinsdorf, wanted to go another way, they ended up making the expected call.
It took five ballots for Manfred to get the necessary two-thirds majority, but once he got there, he was elected unanimously on the sixth ballot. That's important. Reinsdorf, Arte Moreno of the Angels and Paul Beeston of the Blue Jays were the leaders of that group that wanted Red Sox President Tom Warner (and the last holdouts once Manfred finally got enough votes), but it's good that they didn't continue to fight their losing battle after Manfred had gathered the necessary support. The final 30-0 vote I'm sure was symbolic, but it does show that the owners are united.
With the 20th anniversary of The Strike this week and a new labor deal on the horizon for 2016, the owners presenting a united front in those negotiations is vital. One of the reasons a strike was inevitable in 1994 is because the owners couldn't agree amongst themselves what they wanted from the players. Well, there hasn't been a work stoppage since. And Rob Manfred is a big reason why.
Manfred's been at the forefront during each of the past three CBA negotiations, so he's perhaps the man best-equipped to handle that role moving forward. He's also been involved in everything that's important to the owners, most notably the establishment and enforcement of the joint-drug program. More importantly, the players respect his role in this area. Moving forward, Rob Manfred will have the trust and respect of both sides.
Ever since he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer last September, it was clear Manfred was Selig's choice to take over. That has increasingly become the trend in the four major sports. It started with Paul Tagliabue hand-picking Roger Goddell, and it continued with David Stern appointing Adam Silver as his successor. And it's widely assumed that Bill Daly will become NHL commissioner once Gary Bettman finally hands over the reins (which is long overdue). Although, none of those appointments were contested and Manfred's was. We'll see if that has any lasting impact.
The bottom line is Manfred was far-and-away the most qualified of the three candidates, and he's probably the man best-equipped to maintain the current healthy state of the game. After all, Selig's been grooming him to become commissioner for 15 years. (And he's followed a trajectory pretty similar to Adam Silver's.) As a result, the transition should be relatively seamless.
Whether you like Bud Selig or not, you have to admit that he's done a lot of good over the past 23 years. Manfred has been involved in a lot of that, and now it'll be his job to keep that momentum going.
He'll also have to deal with some significant obstacles right off the bat. Before he even goes anywhere near the labor negotiations. For starters, the Rays and A's have stadium situations that badly need to be resolved. Then there's the length of games. The average game takes more than three hours, which is more than a half-hour longer than the average game 30 years ago, and it only continues to skyrocket. You're hard-pressed to find a game that finishes in under three hours, especially when certain teams play (you know Yankees-Red Sox is going to last closer to four). Likewise, attendance is fine for the most part, but TV ratings continue to drop, especially for the World Series.
Ultimately, I think Rob Manfred will be able to handle all of these issues. Will everything he does go perfectly? Of course not. But I'm confident he'll be a very good commissioner. The owners made the right call. Baseball is in good hands.
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