CC Sabathia joined Tiki and Tierney on Tuesday and talked about why he loves the Manfred runner rule staying for good in extra innings, and Evan was listening in, and couldn’t believe his ears.
Evan had previously decided to leave the rule change alone, despite being previously vocal about his feelings against it, but after hearing the former Yankee great’s comments, he had to respond.
“Something was said on this radio station today that pissed me off, and it was said by somebody I have great respect for, someone who should make it into the Hall of Fame,” Evan said. “The reason why the Manfred runner will never go away…is that everybody wants to go home. It’s true. CC Sabathia, who was just being honest, was on the air and was asked about this rule, and said, ‘We don’t get paid for overtime, let’s get this game over with.’
“CC, I say this with peace and love. You were never getting into these games! You don’t even play in these games! CC Sabathia said, ‘We just want to go home.’”
Evan is admittedly not like other baseball fans, in that he will happily sit and watch 15 innings and be locked in until it finally comes to an end, while the Manfred runner has been put in place to keep games from reaching four hour marks, to keep bullpens from being spent after one game, and so on.
Evan understands the desire for the rule to stay in the sport, but couldn’t get behind Sabathia’s argument for it.
“It was a brutally honest answer; he’s speaking for baseball players,” Evan said. “But this is the thing that always drove me nuts. I got millionaire baseball players and millionaire managers saying, ‘I don’t know how to manage too many arms in bullpen, so let’s just end game.’
“‘I wanna go back to my beautiful, luxurious hotel. I want to go to the bar, go to a restaurant. I don’t want to be at a baseball game anymore, that I’m paid handsomely to be at.’ This drives me nuts!”
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