A Brief And Obvious Point About Rob Manfred Becoming MLB's New Commish

Hangs Out With Undesirables

Manfred could, honestly, re-enact scenes from "Game of Thrones" in his office, on camera, without special effects.

He could make the National League adopt the Designated Hitter while abolishing it in the American.

He could make pointless international circus games more prevalent and mid-week, in a bid to torture test players into seeing what baseball is like when played by the sleep deprived.

He could wreak terrible vengeance on Boston for daring to oppose his ascent, at least temporarily.

He could, in short, do everything within his power to further trash a sport that is taking the express train to somnambulism and age-out, whose World Series is dependent on populous regions making it to get ratings that aren't an active embarrassment.

And he'd still exemplify the following things that Bud Selig could not.

Things like hope. The potential that every new wrinkle doesn't have to suck. That we might, at some point, start to rein in the pointless inter-league schedule, the This Time It's Stupid All-Star Game, or the continuing squeeze on small markets and teams that haven't successfully extorted a pleasure palace out of the local rubes to play their games.

Rob Manfred has been Bud Selig's right hand man for a long time. He's very likely to keep doing the dumb things that Selig would do, and maybe he'll just me a borderline puppet.

And then again, he might not.

And for MLB fans, "he might not" is about all the hope that anyone can muster right about now...