Rozner: It's no surprise that Rob Manfred thinks World Series trophy is a 'piece of metal'

Rob Manfred scowled a most unbecoming scowl.

He raised his voice, clearly irritated by the interrogation, gesturing dismissively as if he were somehow above it all.

When he wasn't smirking, he was shaking his head in disgust and mocking the stupidity of those who dared to press him on anything, like a 5-year-old sticking out his tongue.

He occasionally traded this embarrassing behavior for a level of arrogance that was even more alarming, so unprofessional as to leave you wondering how he was hired to do anything.

No, these weren't reporters asking questions.

This was March 2005 in Washington as Manfred - then a baseball labor lawyer and Bud Selig's right-hand hatchet man - sat with Selig in front of a House Oversight Committee and pretended to have never heard of steroids until five minutes before that hearing.

His behavior - and sometimes a refusal to explain missing documents - bordered on contempt of Congress and emanated from his contempt for everyone.

Rob Manfred was so ill-equipped to be commissioner of a sport that any baseball fan would have thrown a "piece of metal" through the television if told that 10 years later he would become caretaker of their beloved game.

Yet, after Selig collected hundreds of millions of dollars and profited off steroids more than anyone outside of a few players, he gifted the job to Manfred when he was not the choice of all baseball owners, including one very powerful voice here in Chicago.

Manfred somehow procured the job and then handed Selig a $6 million pension on his way out the door.

That's probably just a coincidence.

Regardless, it has never once in all his years in baseball seemed like Manfred had a passion for the game, not before leaping into this job or since.

So what part of Manfred's handling of this entire Astros cheating debacle comes as surprise?

From the moment he announced the weak penalties on Houston last month, and tried to bury the story the afternoon of the national championship football game, he has made mistake after mistake.

Two weeks ago, amid the worst of the controversy, he leaked a playoff format alteration to try to change the story.

That lasted about 15 minutes - and then it was back to the Astros.

Teams began opening camps, players started arriving and nearly every team had players crushing those who cheated.

The commissioner, they said, is soft on crime.

Manfred should have been in Houston's camp for that pathetic news conference when the players refused to answer questions, another act which has only extended the story and caused more resentment.

On the other hand, every time Manfred speaks he makes it worse, his hubris bleeding through every word, flowing through every sentence.

The latest was an attempt to blame it on the players association, forcing the MLBPA to release a late-night statement a few days ago where it also looked foolish.

Yeah, it's a mess.

The opposition players are furious and never before have you seen baseball's union members going after one another like this.

They're not holding back and have no intention of stopping.

But the worst moment thus far was Manfred pushing back in an ESPN interview on the idea of stripping the Astros of their World Series title.

Said Manfred, "The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act."

He just can't help himself.

The commissioner of baseball admitted that to him the World Series trophy is nothing more than trash.

It's that very arrogance that had members of Congress in 2005 wondering where this man came from, why he was sitting in front of them and what they should do about baseball's joke of an antitrust exemption.

But the "piece of metal" was the ultimate in Manfred showing his assets, and the players reacted appropriately.

"That's someone who has never played our game," said Cubs veteran Jon Lester. "You play for a reason. You play for that 'piece of metal.'

"If that's the way he feels, he needs to take his name off his trophy."

Justin Turner, whose Dodgers lost to Houston in a now infamous 2017 World Series, was among many to hammer baseball's blundering boss.

"Calling the World Series trophy 'a piece of metal,' I mean, I don't know if the commissioner has ever won anything in his life. Maybe he hasn't," Turner said. "But the reason every guy is in this room, is working out all offseason and showing up to camp early, and putting in all the time and effort is specifically for that trophy, which, by the way, is called the 'Commissioner's Trophy.'

"So for him to devalue it the way he did tells me how out of touch he is with the players in this game. At this point, the only thing devaluing that trophy is that it says 'Commissioner' on it."

Once he realized he had stepped in it again, Manfred said, "In an effort to make a rhetorical point, I referred to the World Series trophy in a disrespectful way. It was a mistake to say what I said."

Sounds terribly sorry, doesn't he?

For those who hadn't seen him for what he is, Manfred gave it all away in that one sentence.

Baseball doesn't mean anything to him and now that it's obvious some players have suggested he find a new job.

He can take his rhetoric with him - but leave the piece of metal.