The 2015 Major League Baseball season marked the first
season under the new tenure of Commissioner Rob Manfred and with the season
just about in the books you have to label this first season as a success.
Manfred took over for former Commissioner of Major League Baseball Bud Selig
with the promise to change the game, maybe not radically but change
nonetheless, while improving the game and keeping the most progressive and old
school fans happy at the same time. It seemed impossible at the time but it
looks like Manfred may have pulled off the impossible.
Manfred’s first agenda was to speed up the game with his new
pace of play rules in both the minor leagues and the Major Leagues. Pitching
clocks were installed in the minor leagues and experimented with in the Arizona
Fall League with varying degrees of success while television time outs,
commercials and the annoying “stepping out of the batter’s box to adjust your
batting gloves, read the signs from the third base coach and spit in your hands
even though you took a ball a foot off the plate” were eliminated from the
majors. Excluding the postseason and the month of September, due to rosters
expanding to 40 players from 25 players leading to a slew of pitching changes
night in and night out, Manfred and his pace of play rules shaved about 15
minutes off a game every single night.
Attendance is up across the board once again in MLB and
television deals are fruitful and as plentiful as the oceans on Earth. Baseball
is a business and the money is definitely here and definitely being spent.
Manfred also introduced a domestic violence policy to train and potentially
stop a domestic violence case before it happens and Manfred has enjoyed a spike
in youth and exciting young players to hit the game this season. Manfred
watched as Alex Rodriguez made his comeback tour, the Yankees (which love them
or hate them you have to admit that it’s good for the game when they are
relevant) return to the postseason and the return of the Chicago Cubs as a
power house team in the league.
What Manfred did not deal with is any major steroid
suspensions, Ervin Santana maybe being the biggest name to be suspended this
season, or fall outs of any kind. Manfred wasn’t a part of discussions to
contract a team or two in the league, instead he is spear-heading a movement to
play games in Cuba and Mexico while potentially adding another team or two
somewhere down the line. When a manager leads his team to the World Series,
much like Ned Yost and Terry Collins have in 2015, you have to push the right
buttons more time than not and the same can be said for a Commissioner. Manfred
pushed the right buttons this season but his job is far from done. He has the
second base collision rule to work on and the collective bargaining agreement
ends when the 2016 season does, but if the past is any indication of the future
than Manfred, and Major League Baseball, will be just fine.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)