Rob Manfred downplays Oakland Athletics fans reverse boycott: "It is great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd"

Oakland Athletics fans had a great turnout for their 'reverse boycott' game, but it didn't seem to make an impact on Rob Manfred. As Commissioner of Baseball and head honcho of MLB, Manfred speaks for all team owners. So when he chose to downplay the Athletics fans' act of passion in protesting their team's ownership, it makes it feel like it didn't affect much.

Being the Commissioner of any major sports league is often a thankless job, but Manfred seems to come under fire more than others. His tenure has seen the league lose a lot of popularity, which in fairness, they have started to recover from. However, the perception that he does not have the sport's best interest in mind has been stuck to him for a long time.

Rob Manfred shared his thoughts on the results of the Oakland Athletics fans' reverse boycott, shared to Twitter by Joon Lee.

"I mean, it was great. It is great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That's a great thing" - Rob Manfred

While he said multiple times that is was great, he also compared it to an average night for the rest of the league. From a statistical standpoint, he is likely correct, but he is purposefully missing the point. The Oakland Athletics do not draw crowds like that regularly because they do not deserve to. The organization is not putting out a product good enough to warrant average crowd sizes.

ESPN summarized the events of the reverse boycott game and shared the deatails on Twitter.

"27,759 A's fans packed Oakland Coliseum for a "Reverse Boycott" to prove their worth to owner John Fisher and Major League Baseball" - ESPN

The protest was to show the fans are there, in the area and ready to buy tickets, if they have a good enough reason.

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Why does Rob Manfred support the Oakland Athletics' move to Las Vegas?

San Francisco Giants v Milwaukee Brewers

At some point in the last decade or so, MLB fell out of love with Oakland. The opportunities for money and growth in a city like Las Vegas might just be too good for John Fisher to pass up. However, a relocation needs to be voted on by all the other team owners. Rob Manfred represents all these team owners, from the New York Yankees to Los Angeles Dodgers and everybody in between.

So if Manfred is in support of this imminent move of the Oakland Athletics, it stands to reason most of the league owners do as well.