Tuesday marked a truly sorry day for the sport of baseball, but you would not know it by looking at MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
Manfred met with reporters to announce that the league was canceling its first two series of the 2022 regular season. The announcement came after the league failed to reach an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in order to end the ongoing lockout. The league had previously warned that games would be cancelled if a deal was not reached by Feb. 28.
During his press conference, Manfred was seen smiling while announcing the bad news. That led to resounding criticism of Manfred on social media.
Manfred cannot even argue that his smile was simply a poorly timed screen capture. The fact of the matter is that he smiled and chuckled before he even began speaking and then continued to laugh and joke with reporters.
This is just the fourth time in MLB history that a work stoppage has led to the cancellation of regular season games and the first time since the 1994-95 player strike. That is obviously nothing for Manfred to be smiling about, but he is an expert at making himself look a fool in public after all.
More must-reads: