COMMENTARY
The 25-minute umpire conference during the eighth inning on Wednesday afternoon at Tropicana Field shouldn’t entirely have surprised you. Not in a league that, in six years, hasn’t even figured out how to eliminate the duffel bag of giant headphones that makes every replay review look like it involves a 1970s hi-fi.
It was a worst case, yes. It was also inevitable in a sport so studiously denying simple fixes to improve its product. Though to be fair, Rob Manfred and crew have made sure the scourge of waiver trades in August won’t trouble us again.