The Chicago White Sox selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 Major League Baseball Draft on Saturday in Philadelphia.
Cholowsky has been an enormously praised prospect for a few years and was viewed as the clear favorite to be the top pick of the 2026 MLB Draft before the season even began.
So, much of the baseball world has been well aware of Cholowsky for a long while, and one would think that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred would be too. Or that he would at least practice how to pronounce the name before announcing it to the world during the draft.
But Manfred mispronounced Cholowsky’s name when announcing the first pick of the draft, which was shown nationally on NBC for the first time (for the first 10 picks).
THE PICK IS IN… pic.twitter.com/A28njITE9V
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) July 11, 2026
It’s pronounced chil-OW’-skee.
Manfred’s flub didn’t slip by MLB Draft viewers.
The good stuff. Congrats to the Cholowsky family.
(Rob mispronouncing Roch’s name when he’s been the presumptive top pick for a year+ is a 10/10 on the Can’t Happen Scale 😬) https://t.co/fYEFuyleoh
— Stephen Nelson (@StephenNelson) July 11, 2026
I am known to mispronounce names, but Rob Manfred just mispronounced Roch Cholowsky’s name when announcing him as the No. 1 pick.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) July 11, 2026
Either every single human being has been pronouncing Roch Cholowsky’s name wrong or Rob Manfred just absolutely butchered the 1st overall pick’s name.
— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) July 11, 2026
Huge blunder by the #MLB Commissoner. Can’t happen. Not a surprise Roch was the #1 pick. Manfred has to know how to say his name. https://t.co/ulzTVyKXq9
— Tim Cates (@timcates) July 11, 2026
Cholowsky was even asked by the media about Manfred’s blunder and said (via the Associated Press/KTLA), “I didn’t hear it get butchered. I heard Roch and kind of lost it.”
Still, that’s pretty embarrassing stuff from the league’s commissioner on the big stage.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.