Rob Manfred’s initial reaction to the “Golden At-Bat” rule was similar to most people’s when they first heard the idea.
While a guest on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” in 2015, Manfred completely dismissed the idea of any batter coming up in a given situation during a baseball game, a notion that has been popularized in recent weeks and which Mafnred said has created some “buzz.”
“You’re guaranteed to see those guys play 35-40 minutes, which is basically like 90, 95 percent of the entire game,” Jon Weiner, who is known as Stugotz, said in reference to NBA games. “In baseball, when I go to a Marlins game, I’m only seeing four at-bats of [Giancarlo] Stanton. So I want to implement what I call the ‘magic at-bat,’ where each manager, at any time during the game … so four to five magic at-bats for each manager, where he can put Stanton in any whenever he wants.”
“What do you think?” Stugotz concluded.
“You’re wasting my time,” Manfred said.
“Why?” Stugotz asked.
“That’s a crazy idea,” Manfred replied.
Stugotz’s idea is slightly different than the “Golden At-Bat” rule since it would allow for multiple instances compared to just one.
“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,” Manfred continued. “And I think the suggestion that you just floated would fall squarely in the category of ‘Would interfere with the history and traditions of the game.’”
Imagine a world where the Yankees entered the ninth inning with the bottom of the lineup due up and then manager Aaron Boone could instead deploy a star hitter — say Aaron Judge — to hit instead.
It would change everything about team building, for starters, making a deeper, lengthier lineup less valuable and elite hitters even more valuable than they already are.
Juan Soto might be able to command even more than the $600-plus million he’s expected to make in free agency in this scenario if he were to get at least one extra at-bat in each game.
The Post’s Mike Vaccaro wrote Wednesday that the idea is “idiotic, imbecilic and utterly moronic.”
Former WFAN host Mike Francesa said he would refuse to watch baseball again if this “Golden At-Bat” rule was to be instituted by MLB.
“That is not the sport that I grew up with, and I cannot even fathom; I cannot even seriously interject that that is a real possibility,” Francesa said on his podcast. “That changes the game so fundamentally, it changes every part of the game. It changes the history of the game. It changes evaluation of players. It changes everything! To me, it’s not even something to discuss. I don’t take it seriously.”
