Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he wished he’s made some different decisions during baseball’s tumultuous 2020, a year in which Manfred handed down punishment in a historic sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros, delayed the start of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was involved in a public labor dispute with his players as Americans suffered through harsh economic hardship, and had to manage through COVID-19 outbreaks among the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals once the season finally started in July. He declined to offer specific mistakes, except for one: the spring labor dispute.
“I’ll tell you one thing absolutely for sure, I blame myself for allowing the labor situation to get as public as it did,” Manfred said during a TIME 100 Talks discussion on Aug. 20. “If you look back, one of the things that we changed when I came to baseball was we didn’t bargain in public. Most of the four contracts I did, people didn’t even know we were negotiating. I think it was an important part of the success that we enjoyed. And I got away from that. I allowed the institution to get away from…