At the end of a long day of negotiating, Major League Baseball introduced Rob Manfred as its next commissioner at a press conference in Baltimore on Thursday evening. Manfred will take over for Bud Selig in January 2015.
Rob Manfred: ‘I have very big shoes to fill’ as Bud Selig’s successor
H.Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports
“It’s been a great day for baseball,” said Selig, at the helm of the sport since 1992.
Manfred, the current chief operating officer of MLB, beat out Red Sox chairman Tom Werner with a unanimous 30-0 vote from baseball's owners on Thursday. Tim Brosnan, an MLB vice president, dropped out of the race earlier on Thursday.
"In the end we ended up with three very strong candidates, any of whom would have been worthy successors," said Bill DeWitt, the Cardinals owner who headed the executive search committee to find Selig's successor. "Manfred was elected because of his dynamic leadership, his passion for the game, his overall ability to deal with labor issues, really all aspects of the game."
Manfred, who called the competition between him, Werner and Brosnan “noble,” has worked alongside Selig for 15 years, and was the lead negotiator for the last three collective bargaining agreements with the players union in 2002, 2006 and 2011.
“I have very big shoes to fill,” Manfred said. “There is no question I wouldn’t be standing here today if it weren’t for Bud. I hope that I will perform as 10th commissioner in a way that will add to his great legacy.”
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