Rob Manfred Quotations

We are awaiting a formal response from the union. We expect that in the very near future.

Mr. Wells' statement that the discipline was delayed is pure fiction. With respect to the larger issue of steroids, Mr. Wells is obviously unaware that commissioner Selig has proposed a tougher steroid policy for the industry and that such a policy can be imposed only through collective bargaining.

Mr. Wells' statement that the discipline was delayed is pure fiction.

Because of the nature of our travel and the makeup of our employees, it has never been an issue that we had to centrally regulate, ... The clubs have been close enough as to what they require of the players.

For us to make a deal, there has to be a luxury tax in it.

Given the number of people involved in the organization, from the minor-league system through the major leagues, we don't feel their numbers are suggestive of anything. The sample is too small. Any real conclusion is unfair.

We have our regular crews. If somebody gets injured and they're unwilling to work, we'll find somebody willing to work.

We are disappointed obviously that the union decided today to set a strike date. Our hope had been that we could get an agreement with the players without the players taking this step that causes such concern to so many of our fans. Our disappointment is magnified by the fact that as a result of compromises by both sides we made substantial progress towards a new agreement over the past weeks. A number of important issues have been resolved and we are close on many others.

Tip of the iceberg, I really do believe this topic is resolvable.

We've worked very hard on our relationship with the players association. The economics of the sport are strong and the current agreement has worked very well. Those three things are good reason to be optimistic we can get a new agreement without a dispute.

We think you cannot evaluate a program based on the results of a single case, that overall, the rules that we negotiated are designed to be strict but fair with the overall goal being to deter use. To the extent that anyone disagrees with the result in a particular case, it might be the result of our desire to deter use.

The players' association negotiated for a clean slate when a player is promoted from the minor leagues to the major leagues. That clean slate, however, is a two-way street. If minor-league discipline does not count in determining the severity of the penalty to be imposed for a violation of the major-league program, then such discipline cannot immunize the player from discipline under the major-league program.

We are early in the game, ... But, from our prospective, the most important issue in the negotiations was competitive balance. We believe we have seen a significant improvement just this year.

With respect to the appeal process for on-field discipline, that process was negotiated in collective bargaining and has served the industry well for decades, ... Mr. Wells' dissatisfaction with his appeal says more about his poor behavior than it does about the quality of the appeal process.

We like to keep them fairly low-keyed. You're not going to see a lot of publicity.

The tax mechanism in the last basic agreement would not be acceptable to us this time around.

They make these numbers up. We just think it's important that people understand and realize these are not real in any sense of the word.

Forbes has never had access to financial information from major league baseball or the individual clubs.

David Wells has once again created a distraction with a series of ill-informed and ill-conceived comments,

The minor league program has been very effective at getting us to very low positive rates in the minor leagues,

In all candor, I think the agreement has probably been showing positive trends sooner than we might have expected. It looks like it's working.

If you compress payroll, lessen payroll disparity, have a little restraint at the top, give more at the bottom,

The umpires selected to work the World Baseball Classic are longtime professionals, three of them were members of our full-time staff and many have extensive experience at the Major League level.