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.

The post Rob Manfred butchers name of top pick in MLB Draft appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Roch Cholowsky was the No. 1 pick in the 2026 MLB draft on Saturday afternoon. Cholowsky and his family hosted a draft party at Trophy Bar in Chandler, Arizona and were seated in comfortable chairs in front of multiple television cameras, including one which belonged to MLB Network.

While the roar of the crowd drowned out commissioner Rob Manfred flubbing Cholowsky’s last name, you could still see the heartwarming reaction of his family. Or at least of his mom and sister. When the UCLA shortstop heard his name called, he smiled and then buried his face in his hands and cried while his mother and sister hugged him. Meanwhile his dad, former minor league baseball player Dan Cholowsky, sat there and didn’t move. He looked like he was just hoping everyone would quiet down so he didn’t miss anything important on the studio show.

In an alternate view below you can see the stoic reaction of dad is even more understated. If you isolate video of Mr. Cholowsky you wouldn’t be able to tell if his son had just been drafted No. 1 overall or someone forgot to put their answer in the form of a question on Jeopardy!

Eventually dad does give him a handshake a bro hug and obviously, he’s proud of his son, but it might be hard for him to be too impressed. Sure, his son was drafted No. 1, but dan was actually drafted in the first round twice. First in 1988 by the Cincinnati Reds and then again by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1991. He played eight seasons in the minors.

We’ll see how he does keeping his emotions in check when his son makes his MLB debut.