WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Players who have won a World Series — and those who have come up short — seethed Monday at Commissioner Rob Manfred’s reference to the sport’s championship trophy as merely a “piece of metal,” saying that comment reflected a disconnect between baseball’s boss and those who produce the product on the field.
“It bothered me, man. I hated it. It made him sound really out of touch,” said reliever Sean Doolittle, a member of the 2019 title-winning Washington Nationals. “That’s the holy grail of our sport. That’s what we show up for in the beginning of February, thinking about and working towards.