Brodie Van Wagenen Says Rob Manfred ‘Doesn’t Get It’ in Video

An unidentified person then asked Van Wagenen: “Who said that?”

Van Wagenen replied that it was Manfred, “And with Jeff, scheduling’s going to be a nightmare, and there’s so much at stake. And I said: ‘Jeff, that’s not happening.’”

The unidentified person said, “They’re not dealing with reality,” to which Van Wagenen responded: “They’re not playing. But that’s Rob’s instinct — exactly what I’m talking about — at the leadership level he doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it.” He added that the Mets were waiting to coordinate their plans with the Marlins, and that Wilpon was waiting to hear about the decision.

The Mets do have scheduling issues. They had four consecutive postponements from Aug. 20 through Aug. 23 after a player and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, and had been scheduled to play nine games in a six-day span, including a doubleheader with Miami on Tuesday and two against the Yankees this weekend.

On Thursday, though, the players decided that the mundane problem of their schedule could wait.

“I’m very proud of them, just fully support what they did out there, to use the baseball platform to voice their opinion for this topic,” Mets Manager Luis Rojas said. “We all feel strong that we’re very much against racism and injustice and we want this to stop right now.”

For his part, Van Wagenen said he regretted that his comments about Manfred had distracted from the day’s more meaningful message.

“This conversation is about recognizing the pain and the anguish that Black people are experiencing every day in this country,” he said. “The fact that I put myself and this organization into the conversation in a way that takes away from the real point, I’m disappointed in myself.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/sports/baseball/brodie-van-wagenen-rob-manfred.html