All ye know of Rob Manfred, and all ye need to know.

 

All ye need to know about MLB's commissioner and the mastermind of the lockout, Robert D. Manfred, Jr., graduate of the Rome (NY) Free Academy and assorted other institutions, came during the hunting of the A-Rod.

Let us just say that that extended investigation into Alex's juicing ways was not exactly conducted according to Hoyle. MLB's "security forces" impersonated police officers, paid a convicted felon for stolen documents, slept with a source, and—worst of all—managed to derail an active Florida investigation into how A-Rod's supplier, one "Dr." Tony Bosch, allegedly provided underaged, high school athletes with PEDs.

MLB also sued Bosch for "intentional and unjustified tortuous interference" against baseball.  And again and again, whenever the "investigation" looked like it was going up on the rocks, MLB   

extended that lawsuit to include pretty much anybody and everybody having anything to do with Bosch: friends, employees, partners. Even Bosch's brother.

"MLB had no subpoena power. So it created some," was how the Washington Times described this tactic.

If this were a country that was still capable of being scandalized, it would have been, well, a scandal. 

But baseball just went on, threatening to sue innocent people when it wanted to—dropping the suits when the victims threatened to sue back, or if they looked too sympathetic—and finally offering a lot of money and help to turn Bosch himself.

And...so what? I mean, it was A-Rod, and if even Alex Rodriguez deserved a better day in court, all of Alex's dissembling and assorted nonsense had destroyed any possible sympathy for the man.

But much worse than anything Rodriguez said or did was Commissioner Manfred Mann's reaction to the fact that his bloodhounds had managed to derail the Florida investigation into peddling steroids to young people.

"Honestly, whether or not Mr. Bosch had distributed drugs to minors was not of paramount importance to me," this pillar of our national pastime freely admitted. "Rarely do we get a witness who is prepared to testify firsthand about his distribution of drugs to professional athletes, who hasn't engaged in any conduct that's illegal."

That's right, folks. You heard it right from the horse's ass.  

Look, juicing was—and is; of course it's still rampant in baseball—a terrible thing. It has distorted the whole history of the game, one of its most vital elements, and defrauded countless fans—and those players who were NOT juicing, but whose statistics and compensation have been permanently stunted because of the juicers.

Not to mention all the damage, still not fully known, that it has done to the bodies and brains of many players.

But those are all, even at their worst, ancillary damage, inflicted by consenting adults upon other adults who should have known better. 

Infinitely worse has been the damage inflicted upon kids—upon high school and travel team and college players—by coaches demanding that they similarly "enhance" their bodies by juicing up.  

But hey, as Rob Manfred told you himself, he doesn't give a damn.