'F-king pathetic': Former Oakland A's pitcher blasts MLB commissioner
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s callous comments about Tuesday’s reverse boycott organized by Oakland A’s fans provoked furious anger on social media from longtime supporters of the team, including former pitcher Brandon McCarthy.
A’s fans were understandably upset with pretty much everything Manfred said about the A’s situation on Wednesday. Regarding the team moving to Vegas, Manfred claimed, “I do not like this outcome,” despite being the guy who helped manufacture this outcome. He also claimed the community didn’t support the team enough, and hoped that A’s fans wouldn’t stop loving baseball.
But the worst of it was what he said about the reverse boycott, which sounded more like something from the doldrums of an online comments section than a statement from a major sports league’s commissioner.
“It was great,” Manfred said. “It’s great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That’s a great thing.”
This is where McCarthy, a retired pitcher who spent two seasons with the A’s in 2011 and 2012, got on Twitter and let Manfred have it.
“This is f—king pathetic,” McCarthy wrote. “How is this not disqualifying? This toad is the steward of a glorious sport, dripping with history and he feels entitled to mock fans who are making their voices heard as he sits by and caters to hiding billionaires? Why do we accept this in our culture?”
In a follow-up tweet he added, “Did you hear how loud it was there last night? That’s real atmosphere. It meant something to people. He doesn’t see any of that. Manfred has no time for anything real. Good baseball, bad baseball, real emotion, manufactured emotion…whatever. Means zilch to him.”
McCarthy’s anger over Manfred’s comments even made its way to the replies, where he called a random chatter “a moron” after they spouted off similar rhetoric to the commissioner.
Even though it’s been nothing but bad news for A’s fans as of late — Nevada’s governor signed the public financing package to build the Vegas stadium for the A’s on Thursday — it must have certainly been cathartic to see McCarthy and other large Twitter accounts get mad at what Manfred had to say about all this. “Why do we accept this in our culture?” is a rallying cry for the moment.
But what this ultimately shows is the difference between an ideal world and reality. Manfred is not “the steward of a glorious sport, dripping with history,” though perhaps that’s what his job should be; he’s a representative of owners with more money than most people can fathom who, when enabled, can get away with some pretty cruel things. The commissioner just has to make sure the owners never have to explain their actions themselves.
Source: SFGATE
