4:33pm: Selig and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf are speaking in private, tweets Nightengale. Reinsdorf has long been a Selig advocate, but his opposition to Manfred as Selig’s successor has been well documented. The ChiSox, as noted below, are one of the teams currently opposing Manfred.
4:05pm: Schmidt tweets that the second vote for Manfred again resulted in a 22-8 split. Heyman tweets that there will be a 30-minute break in the action before any further proceedings resume.
3:48pm: The eight teams currently not willing to join the majority on electing Manfred include the Blue Jays, Red Sox, White Sox, Nationals, Angels, Athletics, Diamondbacks, and Reds, according to reporting from the New York Daily News (via Twitter).
2:43pm: The next stage will involve an up-or-down vote on Manfred, reports Schmidt (Twitter links). Voting has yet to begin at this point.
1:47pm: Manfred was just one vote shy of being selected as commissioner after the first round of voting, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times offers some interesting vignettes of the still-ongoing proceedings.
1:32pm: After several votes, there is still not a sufficient consensus to name a new commissioner, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The meeting has been adjourned for a break at this point.
12:58pm: Major League Baseball’s owners took part in a series of meetings again this morning and are now prepared to hold a first vote on the game’s new Commissioner at approximately 1:30 EST. One of the three finalists, MLB VP of business Tim Brosnan, has dropped out before the voting, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter.
That leaves MLB COO Rob Manfred and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner as the two candidates for the Commissioner’s chair (unless a deadlock were to result in a re-opening of the search process, at least). As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained yesterday, the vote had expected to come down to the pair. The major question has been, and seemingly still is, whether Werner’s backers could draw enough support to hold up the coronation of Manfred, who has been considered the heir apparent to longtime Commissioner Bud Selig. A vote of 23 owners is necessary to elect the game’s new leading executive.
We will keep track of any updates in this post, as they are reported.
If Tom Werner is elected commissioner, it’s going to be really weird. I especially wouldn’t be looking forward to people complaining about his alleged bias any time the Red Sox stand to benefit from anything ever.
You mean like the Mitchell Report? 🙂
I’m not totally sure what you’re specifically referring to
Probably when the Red Sox forced Pettitte to admit to taking HGH.
That was the Supreme Court.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has one nasty curveball
It’s that “lefty” thing. And she’s so small she hides the ball well.
Uh, I’m pretty sure all that came from Jason Grimsley and Brian McNamee
I was being sarcastic 🙂
For some reason I don’t think you’re being sarcastic there. I Really hope you are.
Well I know that there were a lot of Yankees and not any (I think? Been a while) Red Sox except for like… Eric Gagne I think? My life has been very busy in the last 6 years 😛
Um yeah, and it left out the 2 biggest names in Manny and Papi. Then again it also left out A-Rod too.
Seems like a push to me, honestly 😛
The tests were about PED results 2003 and prior, not 2004 – present (or I should say 2004 to 2007 which is when the report was released)
They were “left out’ because they had nothing to use to put them IN other than the 2003 tests, which they were legally bound NOT to reveal in public. There was no way for them to be included.
Good point
He’s a NYC native, I’d think the bias might go towards the Yankee’s in that situation. He’s been a part of a lot of different sports orgs and just assume most guys just take the jobs that interest them the most regardless of which team it might be with,
I thought I read somewhere that he had been a Red Sox fan prior to getting into the business. He did do high school/college over here.
Total speculation on my part, just haven’t met to many NYC natives who are true Sox fans. He most certainly could though, be curious if we will know the vote breakdown to see if other AL east owners also support him.
There’s certainly no other NY team he could have rooted for.
He was 7 when the Giants and Dodgers left town and 12 when the Mets came to town and 19 before they did anything special. IF he is a fan of a NY team, my money would be on the Yankee’s.
That’s like saying the Brewers benefited from Bud Selig being commissioner.
I can’t tell if that was sarcasm, but people do that constantly xD
How exactly do you think they got a new domed stadium and changed leagues?
Since Bud has been commissioner, 22 years, the Brewers made the Playoffs twice, 2008 and 2011.
So yeah, lining the owners, city, and the state pockets with $$$, really benefited the Brewers greatly.
Ryan Braun benefited.
28 teams in the mitchell report. No player from the Mitchell Report was from the Brewers
Maybe not by name, but Braun got popped twice since the report.
“Braun came under scrutiny for a disputed testosterone test that he failed in 2011, and then for his connection in 2012 to the Biogenesis of America clinic that allegedly providedperformance-enhancing drugs to professional baseball players. After MLB’s investigation following the Biogenesis scandal, on July 22, 2013, Braun was suspended without pay for the remainder of the 2013 season and playoffs (totaling 65 regular season games) for violating the league’s drug policy.”
That’s true but mitchell report is different than the Braun incident and Braun got by the first suspension on a technicality
It’s happening with Selig already. I know they getting like 40MM from MLB through revenue sharing, I think. Manfred wants to change that system. And Werner will keep that system the same. So as much as I don’t want Werner to be the commissioner that extra 40MM will help us every offseason. Werner is more of an entertainer guy, that doesn’t know much about the game. As I paraphrase John Henry, “That is why Larry Lucchino runs the Red Sox”.
Can there be a mystery candidate???
Are u voting for Jose Quintana?
I was thinking voting for Pedro (Napoleon Dynamite reference) so there’s no confusion.
No there is no mystery candidate it’s either Manfred or Werner.
buzzkill
Don’t see a lot of change in direction between these two. The game needs help expanding its appeal. I worry that these two guys are going to focus too much on worrying how to divide an enormous pie and not enough time on esthetics of the on the field activity.
Werner proved himself to be such a poor leader and a liar when he was the owner of the Padres that I cant see him doing anything that would help baseball be better as a sport if they elect him. God help us all as fans if the owners do elect him.
Why do people dislike Manfred? It’s a good name for baseball, very masculine.
But the best name in this whole discussion is Willy Winebaum. He is the guy who ordered the food for the owners.
What’s the point of holding out if the vote is that one sided? Unless you bring a third candidate in I don’t get the point
I feel the new commissioner will be Manfred and the 8 teams that are holding out for Werner will get something for giving up votes. Like for instance Bill Madden wrote a piece in the New York Daily News about the revenue sharing and how it helps the Red Sox so that is one thing that Manfred could keep the same or give Werner a job in MLB should he want another job if he doesn’t get the commissioner’s position.
Actually from what I’ve read it’s Reinsdorf leading the anti-Manfred campaign. So either they have a personal history or Reinsdorf is the one who’s demanding promises for the 8 holdouts.
I have no idea, to be honest I am listening to a Boston radio show and one of the hosts is a BBWAA writer and that is what he said, so I just commented based off of that idea. But I think that the Red Sox will get something out of the deal as well the 7 other teams and Manfred will be the next commissioner.
Well, he can always swing Lew Wolff by agreeing to approve a stadium in San Jose.
Lol and then the Giants will back out
Haha, back and forth 🙂
Manfred is a snake like Selig and would be terrible for this sport that needs to be better Nationally than a regional sport.
MLB Network Radio, Jim Bowden’s idea (just mentioned): Give Toronto an All Star game to change their vote. Fair (or is that “buying a vote”)?
Also made a good point that Manfred will know who was against him. There will already be a black list against those teams. I suppose that is a reason to try to get to a “hung jury”.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Red Sox vote for Manfred, at Werner’s request. He’s probably too far back to win it but can be seen as the magnanimous guy acting for the good of the game.