Rob Manfred Admits He Had Tough Competition From The Players

We can finally kiss the MLB lockout goodbye.

A new CBA has been agreed upon and the 162-game schedule has been salvaged.

Following the agreement, Commissioner Rob Manfred delivered a press conference to announce the news.

Manfred offered an apology to all baseball fans, acknowledging that the past three months have been tough to bare, with tons of uncertainty, back and forth between the two parties, and disappointing days as negotiations came to a halt multiple times.

Manfred also offered some praise for the players union, and had this to say about them after the long and arduous lockout finally came to a close.

Rob Manfred: “I’ve never been surprised at the solidarity of the MLBPA. It may be one of the best unions in America.”

— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) March 10, 2022

Now You Love Us?

It’s interesting to hear Manfred say this.

It’s a nice little bit of praise, but at the same time, he spent the last three months blaming the players for everything that has gone wrong, deflecting any blame from himself.

It’s ironic that now he praises the players after such a long process in which he tried to paint them as the bad guys in this whole ordeal.

Manfred tried to make himself and the owners look like heroes, when they were the ones with a corrupt agenda from the very start, something that was made clear even before the lockout, during the 2020 return to play negotiations, where negotiations went so poorly that Manfred ultimately implemented a 60-game schedule after the two sides could not come to an agreement.

So, it’s almost unfair that Manfred praises the players after months of painting them as the villains.

Manfred and the owners are the ones that dragged this out, not the players.

And while it’s great to see that the lockout is finally over, he almost seems to be trying to undo his negative comments about the players.