Still of video posted to twitter by @LeBatardShow
On Tuesday, On Pattison explored MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's bizarre idea to test out a "Golden At-Bat Rule," under which a team could send a superstar batter to the plate at any time.
We called it crazy. 99% of baseball fans called it crazy.
Turns out, Manfred thinks it's crazy too. The Dan Le Batard Show unearthed a 2015 video on Wednesday where the Commish not only calls the idea "crazy," but says even discussing the idea is a waste of his time.
Simply incredible:
"You're wasting my time..." – MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to @stugotz790 back in 2015 when Stu first presented his idea for the "Magic At-Bat" in audio we just unearthed. Manfred recently said MLB is considering a rule change called....The Golden At-Bat.
WATCH:… pic.twitter.com/wOMaX0OtQ6
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) December 4, 2024
Jon "Stugotz" Weiner. a co-host on the show, presented Manfred with the exact same idea Manfred embraces now. (Stugotz calls it a "Magic" at-bat instead of a "Golden" at-bat, maybe Manfred will tell us that's a substantive difference?)
After dismissing the idea as crazy, Manfred loops back with a more detailed--and telling--response.
"Let me give you a really serious answer," says the Commissioner. "We are very open to the idea of making changes to the game. We see pace-of-game as one example of it, we see instant replay . . . as another example of it. When you make those changes, I think it's always important to ask yourself the question as to whether you are interfering with the history and traditions of the game. And I think the [Golden At-Bat] idea that you just floated would fall squarely in the category of 'would interfere with the history and traditions of the game.'"
Yes. You are correct, 2015 Rob Manfred. That's exactly right.
Please speak to 2024 Rob Manfred, who seems to have smoked a copious amount of bath salts over the last nine years.
Here's our take: This rule is never going to be implemented. The Athletic's Jayson Stark suggested that the idea could be tested in the All-Star Game this year. And honestly, baseball fans won't care particularly much about bizarre rules in the ASG. (Seems pointless to let a "star" replace a batter who is literally also a "star" at the plate in that game, but we digress.) But you won't see this in actual major league games.
Manfred was probably floating the idea as a trial balloon... and it went over like, well, a lead balloon. Baseball fans overwhelmingly expressed the same concerns that Manfred expressed in 2015, regarding the history and traditions of the game.
Hopefully the concept does not resurface in any serious way. But if it does, anyone who cares about the game of baseball will be ready to kill it with hammers.
