Manfred Elected Commissioner by Committee Headed by DeWitt Jr.

Bill DeWitt Jr., the Chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals and elected chairman of the seven man succession chosen to elect a new commissioner, along with current commissioner Bud Selig, welcomed Rob Manfred as the tenth MLB Commissioner.

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Manfred received a unanimous vote, 30-0, and will take over for Selig next January. Manfred has been a high ranking executive in the MLB for many years and has served as MLB’s chief operating officer for the past year. The unanimous vote follows the first ballot Thursday morning in which Manfred received 23 of 30 votes, one shy of the needed vote.

Manfred, 55, has lead the last three labor negotiations between the MLB and player’s union and the 2002 joint drug agreement. Manfred’s reputation leads to the belief that he will take a strong stance in bettering baseball operations as a whole, as well as improving both youth interest and small market prosperity.

Opposing Manfred were Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and MLB executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan. Brosnan dropped out of the running just before voting began. The voting was the first contested commissioner election in 46 years.