Bud Selig. Greatest Comish Ever?

by Jed Taylor on Aug 7, 2006 6:10 AM CDT Comment 6 comments

Is Bud Selig the greatest commissioner of baseball ever? George Will apparently thinks so. Here is his quote from a Jerry Crasnick ESPN article asking if MLB is held to a higher standard than its professional brethern.

"One of the most remarkable aspects of sports journalism in the past 20 years is the bad press Bud Selig gets," Will said. "I've written this before and I'll say it again: He is immeasurably the greatest commissioner in baseball's history. He's the ninth, and the other eight don't come close."

The man who is nothing but a tool of ownership? The man who presided over the cancellation of the World Series? The man who declared the All-Star Game a tie? The man who both ran MLB and essentially owned one of its teams at the same time? The man who has given baseball both the Wild Card playoff berth and interleague play? This is the greatest commissioner in baseball's history?

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Bud

The man who has given baseball both the Wild Card playoff berth and interleague play?

You'd have to be pretty hard-line old school baseball not to see some validity, some kind of good, in those things.

That being said, the history of the office is a twisted one, and Bud is not one of the greats.

by drone1047 on Aug 7, 2006 8:42 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Wild Card, sure....

....but Interleague? No way. A decent idea that has been messed up in its execution and needs to be shelved for 25 years before its return. Oh yeah, and do it right next time.

In 10 years, the Cubs haven't been to Boston, for instance, and there's no single good reason each team hasn't played a home and home series with every other team yet.

I won't even begin to touch the Cards playing the Royals 6 times a year while we get the White Sox.

Also, he allowed theSteroid Era to dominate. He oversaw baseball giving up its historical moorings to its record for the sake of a few bucks, and the need to resuciatate the game he and everyone involved in damaged with the strike.

Besides the obvious - Go Irish.

by PopeFlick on Aug 7, 2006 11:34 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re

I also forgot to mention turning a blind eye to rampant steroid abuse while the Sammy & Mark show was banking major bucks for the business of MLB and helping it recover from the disasterous strike he oversaw.

I'd much rather see a completely balanced schedule with the top four teams going to the playoffs than a WC from unbalanced play. Even better would be four divisions. Or two, with the top two teams advancing.

As for interleague play - I can live with it, but (1) it needs to be scaled back - the Cubs don't need to play the Sux 6 times every year and (2) the DH absolutely must go - it's not real baseball.

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by Jed Taylor on Aug 7, 2006 8:51 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Baseball is a business

And Selig has helped create a remarkeable increase in revenues. That's the only thing about him that I consider "great". A non-owner commish probably wouldn't care as much about the owners bottom line, but Selig is what he is. I don't like him, I don't think he's a great commissioner and I wish the next guy that replaces him will be an outsider (yeah right) but he's been good for the business side of the game, and that's what it's all about to the men who pay his salary.

by pageian on Aug 7, 2006 11:28 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Re

Yes, Selig has been good for the business side of the game from the owners perspective. But as long as MLB insists on having its commissioner be nothing but the CEO for ownership, then MLB should be run like any other business and play by the same rules as any other business.

If it were up to me, I'd give MLB a choice. They can either appoint a fully indepedent commissioner whose job is to act in the best interest of the game or they can lose their anti-trust exemption. You'll notice that Selig said barely a peep about PEDs in baseball until Congress started talking about revoked the exemption. It was only then did Selig, no doubt at the behest of his employers, start making nice and saying MLB is going to do something about drugs.

The best commissioner operates as a philosopher-king and serves no interest except the game itself. As long as MLB is going to be the only business in the country with an anti-trust exemption, they should have to give something up to retain it.

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by Jed Taylor on Aug 7, 2006 7:38 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with you.

MLB is absolutely treating the commissioner's job as a CEO these days -- and there's good reason for that, given what baseball has become. But also given that, the anti-trust exemption should be revoked.

Read Andrew Zimbalist's new book "In The Best Interests Of Baseball?" -- it's a very good summary of how the office of commissioner has evolved over the years, as well as telling the story of how Bud Selig got to be who and where he is.

by Al on Aug 7, 2006 8:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs