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Trevor Bauer slipped in one last body blow on Rob Manfred before the end of the season
Rob Manfred had a tough night. Hell, Rob Manfred had a tough season, but Tuesday night was particularly bad. Sure, the season-long hellscape was over. Yes, the big-market Los Angeles Dodgers had just won their first World Series in 32 years. But it wasn’t nearly that simple. Justin Turner, removed from the game after a positive COVID-19 test in the 8th inning—highlighting some very real issues with COVID-19 test timing and player availability—could be seen celebrating on the field with teammates after the game, in clear defiance of the league. That was the big one, but it was just the start.
When Manfred took to the stage a short while later to award the coveted “piece of metal” (his words), he was met with a chorus of boos usually only reserved for Roger Goodell. So shaken by the realization that people think he sucks (we’ve got a newsflash for you, Walter Cronkite), Manfred then slurred his way through the World Series MVP Award ceremony like he had been sipping some of that victory champagne.
But if you thought was the end to the evening’s indignities, you were very wrong. Because baseball’s loudest mouth still hadn’t his say, teeing up one final body blow for his mortal nemesis before the season shuttered. Here's one for the road, commish.
Now make no mistake, Trevor Bauer hates everything and everyone. He just hates Rob Manfred more. This isn’t the first time he’s called out the MLB commissioner—previously dragging him through the streets for a rough draft of this year’s ratified playoff changes—but it is perhaps the most vicious, and certainly the worst of them in terms of timing. You’ve heard of kicking a man while he’s down. This is booting him while he’s still falling.