Jeff Wilpon, Not Rob Manfred, Wanted Mets And Marlins to Stage Walk-Out Then Get Back on Field and Play [UPDATE]

Today, MLB and NHL collectively joined the NBA, WNBA, and MLS in protest as teams across all American leagues canceled their games in an attempt to fight social injustice and protest against the shooting of Jacob Blake. Some MLB teams canceled yesterday, but today it became far more widespread. It's been a positive movement as the discourse over the last 24 hours has revolved entirely around police brutality, racial injustice, and why the teams decided to protest.

Tonight, the New York Mets and Miami Marlins agreed to postpone their game as a part of the protest crossing all sports. But in what appears to be a leaked video from a pre-press conference discussion between Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen and an unknown party, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has his own thoughts on the matter.

In the below video, Van Wagenen tells whoever he's speaking to that Manfred wanted teams to come out at 7:10, exit the field as a show of support, and then re-take the field at 8:10 to play the game. His thoughts behind this were that there's a lot at stake and rescheduling would be complicated.

This is just unbelievable. Absolutely un-freaking-believable, even from Rob Manfed, inarguably the worst commissioner of all the American sports leagues. How can he not get this? How can he seriously ask these teams to make an empty gesture then continue to play and figure they'd be okay with it? It's legitimately difficult to comprehend the level of either apathy, indifference, or complete inability to understand what's going on right now.

Manfred needs to go if what Van Wagenen says is true here. He doesn't care about his players at all if this is what he thought would be a viable alternative to actually showing support for the Black players in the league and the Black community in America as a whole. It's appalling.

Then again, Manfred did tell us earlier today that his idea of a successful season is making an owner happy as he receives a World Series trophy, to which Manfed previously referred to as a hunk of metal. So maybe we shouldn't be too surprised.

UPDATE: Van Wagenen released a statement that claims it was Jeff Wilpon's idea for players to leave the field and return after an hour, not Rob Manfred's.