Yesterday Allan Huber "Bud" Selig announced that he would resign as commissioner of the Major Baseball League (MBL), an entity that he does not even know exists, effective January 2015.
What? 2015? You mean he'll be hanging around through two more winter meetings and all of next season? Say it ain't so.
A commissioner is selected and paid by the team owners, so the commissioner's loyalty and fiduciary responsibility is to them, not the players and certainly not the fans. As such it makes sense for the owners to pick one of their own to represent them as they finally did for the first time with Selig who owned the Milwaukee team. Using that relationship, one could make a slim case that Selig has been successful. The owners, especially Selig personally, have made money while he has been commissioner.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013 Bud Selig has been a disaster as commissioner.
Thursday, August 23, 2012 Great White Father
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 Collapse is coming.
Monday, August 5, 2013 Worse offense: steroids or hitting batters in the head ... twice.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013 Vigilantism: so is it OK or not? Selig procrastinates.
Some alternate titles I considered for this post:
Buddy, we hardly knew ye.
Bye Bye Buddy.
I come to bury Bud, not to praise him.
Bud, you're a moron.
You'll hear and read the usual drivel about the wild card, inter-"league" play, steroid policy, review, blah, blah, blah. Nothing that seemed good during the Selig administration happened because of him and that would not have happened anyway. Some stuff, like the second wild card and review of plays Selig opposed. Read my posts listed above.
Vigilantism is alive and well under Selig. The NFL commissioner takes strong action against vigilantism and other unfair acts of violence. The NFL commissioner tried to protect the players from themselves and punishes bad conduct on the field, such as taunting. Selig is oblivious. The NFL has a drug policy but does not dwell on it. Selig is obsessed with his. We all assume that NFL players use performance enhancing drugs (PED). Selig abetted by the simpleton media applies a different standard to home run hitters, who made lots of money for Selig and his fellow owners.
The policy that sums up what a clown Selig has been is that the all star game decides home field advantage in the seventh game of the finals of the tournament.
Selig did reward the owners in the biggest story of the season, which the mainstream media, of course, missed by a mile: the players turning on one another as exemplified in the Alex Rodriguez suspension. That dynamic will have a profound impact on future negotiations between the owners and players.
So next week the fun begins. No, not the tournament. Selig v. Rodriguez arbitration hearing. Selig demonstrated his personal animosity towards Rodriguez in both the timing and severity of the punishment. Rodriguez works and hustles at least as hard as any player. He had just finished long and difficult rehabilitation from his second hip surgery and was about ready to play for the first time since October 2012 when Selig rushed to judgement and suspended Rodriguez in August for the remainder of the 2013 season and all of the 2014 season: 211 games. The standard for a first time offender was 50 games. Selig was acting as if he had 'roid rage.
Selig extended a baseball tradition different from the other sports: denigrating the product, the players. People who maintain the field and distribute tickets are employees. The players are the product. No baseball players, no baseball game. Baseball needs players, not owners. Selig represents and protects owners.
By far my most viewed post:
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 More on possible steroid use by Nolan Ryan.
Nolan Ryan is now an executive of the Texas team. Bud has enabled the steroid zealots.
After 21 years and two teams switching "leagues", teams in the same division still do not play the same schedule. That's pretty basic stuff and and a whole lot more about the integrity of the game than chasing steroid users.
How to fix Selig's mess? Implement the suggestions I specified this year for my:
Friday, June 8, 2012 Constitutional amendments for team sports.
Oh, and make me commissioner.
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