Rob Manfred Thinks Substance Checks ‘Have Gone Very Well’

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred must be living in a different world than the rest of us. Either that, or he’s  just flat out lying.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the MLB’s new efforts to crack down on pitchers putting “sticky stuff” on the baseball, I think we can all agree that the first few days of the checks have been a complete clown show.

But according to Rob Manfred, everything is going great.

“My view is the first two days have gone very well,” Manfred told The Athletic via ESPN. “We’ve had no ejections [for foreign substances], players in general have been extremely cooperative, the inspections have taken place quickly and between innings. Frankly, the data suggests that we are making progress with respect to the issues [in spin rate] that caused us to undertake the effort in the first place.”

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While that may be Rob Manfred’s view, the substance checks were heavily scrutinized on Tuesday night, when Phillies manager Joe Girardi continued to ask umpires to check Nationals ace Max Scherzer. The Nationals dugout proceeded to get into it with Girardi, and a confrontation ensued.

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Joe Girardi Ejected After Getting Into It With Max Scherzer Over “Sticky Substance” Checkshttps://t.co/eOw9MKBnFb

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Rob Manfred noted the situation in Philadelphia wasn’t exact ‘ideal’, but he’s going to stick with the routine checks as they are anyways.

“I understand the incident in Philadelphia was less than ideal, but that was one incident,” Manfred said. “And we expect that we will continue, as the vast majority of cases so far, without that kind of incident.”

I guess we gotta gear up, MLB fans! Rob Manfred isn’t going to stop having pitchers take their pants off during games any time soon.

What a mess.

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