Baseball Musings: Evaluating the Commissioner

January 06, 2007

Evaluating the Commissioner

Jon Heyman at SI.com pens a love letter to Bud Selig:

Stern and Tagliabue have been accepting bouquets and taking bows for years, but the reality of their sports may finally be catching up to them, too late in Tagliabue's case. With Selig, it's the opposite. He got slammed hard for a few years, and now it's his turn to receive well-deserved congratulations. The awards are coming in at such a rate that Red Sox chairman Tom Werner recently commented to Selig, "When does the victory tour end?''
When Selig was announcing the cancellation of the remainder of the 1994 season, no one could have envisioned this. Back then, some folks would have given anything for Selig to step aside. Now it's the opposite. Now the small-market commissioner can do no wrong. Selig's famous for getting unanimous votes to support all his baseball causes, and the support for him within the game is about that now. Outside the game, it's growing, too.

"In the '90s, when we were really trying to change things, a lot of things, particularly the economic landscape, it was painful,'' Selig said in an interview this week with SI.com. "With change, there frankly was a lot of frustration. Baseball is a social institution, and social institutions are especially resistant to change.''

I doubt I'll ever be a fan of Bud. The whole "let's break the union" gambit of the early 1990's which eventually ended in the 1994 World Series cancellation was wrong headed and unproductive. His lying about the inability to small market franchises to win when Oakland had hit upon the formula and Minnesota was about to showed me his lack of imagination.

I will credit Bud, however, with learning from his mistakes. Over a decade of relative labor peace brought fans back. Instead of trying to destroy the union, the teams learned to live with it and realize that both can survive just fine. Baseball also embraced the Internet, reversing the trend of rejecting new media (radio, TV) because they thought it would reduce attendance. Instead, these media create a bigger fan base. Good for Bud on that.

So to me, Bud's record is mixed. Right now he's on a high, but the NBA and NFL went through their highs as well. Baseball might not have reached the low if Bud had convinced the owners that growth through labor peace was more important than breaking the union.

Posted by David Pinto at 10:14 AM | Commissioner | TrackBack (0)

Comments

In addition to the '94 debacle, I count the destruction of the Montreal franchise and attempted elimination of the Minnesota franchise as big strikes against Selig. To a much lesser degree, I don't like his attempt to make the All-Star game something more than an exhibition.

I agree that he has done a nice job working with the union to achieve labor peace. The other thing I applaud Selig for is his continued refusal to budge on the Rose issue -- I honestly figured he'd have caved by now and I'm glad I was wrong about that.

Posted by: Geoff Young at January 6, 2007 02:29 PM

Just to be clear, he HAS made the all-star game more than an exhibition, whether we care to admit it or not.

Posted by: Brett at January 6, 2007 02:40 PM

How much credit can we give Bud for turning a blind eye to steroids? Sure baseball was at it's lowest point in recent memorty in 1994-5 and Bud probably realized that the game needed a little more excitement (homers) in order to get back some fans that may have been disgusted by the strike.

I know it sounds crazy but every time David Wells runs his mouth about Bud Selig he seems to be making sense.

Posted by: tony at January 6, 2007 03:23 PM

Lol. david wells: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/08/30/appeal_is_upheld_wells_is_irate
shouldn't have refused to waive his no-trade to go to STl... he might have had his chance to tell the commish off to his face after winning the WS.

Posted by: sleepyCA at January 6, 2007 11:43 PM

re: David Stern v. Bud Selig

Let's face it--david stern got a pass over the Michael Jordan betting affair.

Michael Jordan got caught betting on basketball (I think we all know this now) and the commissioner, instead of banning him from the sport, condemned him to a year off playing minor league baseball (or was it two years off).

Pete Rose, for the same crime, was banned for life.

Jordan was allowed to return to basketball and win three more titles, and be a part owner of two more franchises. It's even rumored he likes to continue to wager from time to time.

And then you have all the fighting in the NBA, the illegitimate children, the Kobe Bryant rape case, need I say more.

I'm not saying steroids are bad, just that baseball players are not guilty of the same kinds of things as NBA players. They also generally are not walking tattoo parlor ads.

A dress code was a step in the right direction for the NBA, but a conduct code would be even better.

It's an outrage to some extent that Michael Jordan and David Stern got a pass over Jordan's gambling, but that Pete Rose, the greatest singles hitter ever, who eclipsed Ty Cobb's record, has to sit outside of baseball for 20 years when Jordan's suspension was only two years. Rose should have been suspended for five years and then allowed to come back.

If Selig is criticized at times, it's because he doesn't see the forest for the trees. He's unbelievably harsh towards Pete Rose; but he doesn't discipline guys like Mark McGwire, Palmieri, Sosa at all. All of the steroid guys should have a five year suspension period before they can be allowed Hall eligibility. that would be fair. And Rose should be rehabilitated.

The fans after all like Rose and his crime is no more than Jordan's.

--art kyriazis, philly

Posted by: art kyriazis at January 7, 2007 12:50 PM

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