MLB commissioner reflects on anniversary of lockout ending

Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the nearly 100-day MLB lockout ending.

To note the occasion, commissioner Rob Manfred reflected on last winter's stalemate with WEEI's Rob Bradford on the Audacy Original Podcast "Baseball Isn't Boring."

"We were at the end of the window. We really were. When I went home the night before the player vote, I was feeling pretty low," the 64-year-old said, per Audacy Sports' Ryan Gilbert. "We’d gone back to New York and the night before the player vote actually happened, we had announced we were going to cancel additional games. I thought we were in a really, really bad spot. I went from the office up to my apartment, by the time I got there things had started to move a little bit. Fortunately, we got it done the next day."

While the lockout forced a two-week delay to the 2022 campaign, the fans were still able to see a full 162-game slate and a full postseason, one capped with the Houston Astros' World Series title over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Now, with spring training in full force and the World Baseball Classic underway, the lockout seems like a distant memory. Most of the headlines are now dominated by the rule changes making their way into America's Pastime, but Team USA also kicks off its WBC schedule on Saturday against Great Britain.

Regardless of whether you're a fan of all the rule changes and whether you plan on tuning into the WBC, there's no doubt that MLB fans are in a much better place than they were just over one year ago.