The baseball world has definitely not forgiven Commissioner Rob Manfred over his handling of the Astros’ cheating investigation. And after Joe Kelly tried to take matters into his own hands, the situation got a whole lot messier for Rob.
After the infamous ‘Nice swing, b*tch’ game, MLB decided that the best way to handle things was to give Kelly an 8-game suspension for *checks notes* not hitting a single batter. While his suspension was ultimately brought down to 5 games, this is still more time served than the entire Houston team that quite literally cheated the sport out of a championship.
Players across baseball (and across all sports for that matter) have voiced their frustrations from the moment it became clear that no Astros players would be punished for their role in the cheating, but few have been as vocal as Reds pitcher, Trevor Bauer.
Bauer has made it clear that he does not agree with Rob Manfred’s versions of justice, and from the moment that Joe Kelly received his suspension, he vowed to back up his fellow pitcher. He was scheduled to start the second game of a Reds’ doubleheader on Wednesday night, and he planned to make it extra special by honoring Joe Kelly amid his suspension.
And the moment you've all been waiting for…..here's a look at my cleats for tonight's start. FREE JOE KELLY! If you want to be eligible for a chance to win these, see next tweet for details. pic.twitter.com/WR0LrNpgCC
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) August 19, 2020
While those are some of the best cleats we’ve ever seen, Bauer did not get the chance to wear them after all, thank to a last-minute notice from Major League Baseball. Needless to say, Trevor wasn’t the least bit happy.
For everyone wondering why I didn’t wear the cleats tonight, @MLB threatened to eject me and suspend me and levy unprecedented fines against me if I did. I couldn’t put my teammates at risk like that. Earlier this year, MLB said players could put whatever they wanted on their
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) August 20, 2020
cheating your way to a World Series = no ejection/suspension/fine…y’all really know how to pick your battles…🙄 learned my lesson though. Fun is bad, cheating is good. Won’t make the same mistake twice, can promise you that 👊🏻👊🏻 pic.twitter.com/Tyh0JdjJZv
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) August 20, 2020
No one can blame Trevor Bauer for being upset at the inconsistent rulings coming out of the commissioner’s office, and we are grateful for players like him who aren’t afraid to be heard. Maybe he’ll get his wish of being a Dodger one day after all.
