Photo Credit: ESPN
Hello,
Allan H. "Bud" Selig will finally be stepping down after 16 years of service to professional baseball. Let's take a look at what he did in that 22 year time period (counting the 6 years he was the de facto commissioner of baseball back in 1992 after Fay Vincent was thrown out. Oh yeah, he's getting picked in Baltimore so that pretty much means Baltimore is your '16 host for the ASG and Washington in '17.
Good stuff he's done:
1. 1995 made the World Series that much more difficult to get to with the addition of the Wild Card and a another bracket: The American League and National League Division Series. It really should've been implemented back after the 1981 strike.
2. 2001 saw the postponement of many games because of the terrorist strikes in NYC and Washington DC. Doing that was for security reasons and also to pay tribute to those who lost their lives. This was a far cry from what the NFL did after Pete Rozelle did not postpone games after JFK's death.
3. Changes to the All-star game following the 2002 7-7 tie which left fans booing. While there is the extra incentive... I really think that the MLB needs to make more changes to make a bit more suitable. This recent ASG in Minneapolis, Minnesota was actually quite boring to say the least.
4. Coming down hard on steroids which has seen a huge decline in homeruns though.
5. Adding instant replay which may have ran up game times but has fixed a lot of close calls.
Bad stuff he's done:
1. Really messed up during his tenure as de facto commissioner to resolve the baseball strike
2. Got way too involved with the Dodgers ownership dispute which cost him a good chunk of his reputation.
3. Put a former senator who had ties to the Red Sox in charge of the report on steroids which listed 0 Red Sox players, thereby saving David Ortiz's butt.
4. Attempting to contract teams... That was a big no no. He wanted to contract Minnesota because he wanted a bigger fan base for his then fledgling Brewers.
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Per Wikipedia, Bud Selig has overseen the following changes in Major League Baseball:
4. Attempting to contract teams... That was a big no no. He wanted to contract Minnesota because he wanted a bigger fan base for his then fledgling Brewers.
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Per Wikipedia, Bud Selig has overseen the following changes in Major League Baseball:
- Realignment of teams into three divisions per league, and the introduction of playoff wild card teams (1994)
- Interleague play (1997)
- Two additional franchises: the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, now the Tampa Bay Rays (1998)
- Transfer of the Milwaukee Brewers from the American League to the National League (1998)
- Abolition of the American and National league offices and presidencies, and inclusion of all umpiring crews into a common pool for AL and NL games, instead of having separate pools per league (2000)
- Unbalanced schedule (2001)[36]
- Home field advantage in the World Series granted to the winner of the All Star Game in the same season (2003)
- Transfer of Montreal Expos franchise to Washington, D.C., becoming the Washington Nationals (2004)
- Dedicating April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day (2004)
- Stricter Major League Baseball performance-enhancing drug testing policy (2005)
- World Baseball Classic (2006)
- Introduction of instant replay in the event of a disputed home run call (2008)
- Addition of a second wild card playoff team in each league (2012)
- Transfer of the Houston Astros to the American League (2013), as a condition of the sale of the team to Jim Crane, resulting in each league having the same number of teams (15) and interleague play throughout the season
- Expanded instant replay (2014) and the institution of the manager challenge system
During Selig's terms as Executive Council Chairman (from 1992–1998) and Commissioner, new stadiums have opened in Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, Detroit,Houston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Arlington, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., New York City (Flushing, Queens and the Bronx), Minneapolis, and Miami.
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We now need a new commissioner more than ever and here's what I would like to see out of the new commissioner
A commissioner:
1. Who will equally represent Major League Baseball as a whole, not favoring any teams (Giamatti: Red Sox, Vincent: Indians, and Selig: Brewers)
2. Someone who implements a salary cap in response to the continuing extreme spiraling salaries. We need a salary cap more than ever to restore competitive balance and drive salaries down somewhat. These payrolls of $200M are getting outrageous and it's driving ticket prices up. Let's begin with a salary cap of at least $130,000,000 and go from there.
3. The use of a pitch clock and limiting the number of mound visits. The South Atlantic Baseball league has it and it's sped up the pace of games beautifully. People pay to see a good game yes, however, the pace of the game has gotten so bad that we seriously need to fix that.
4. Ownership is becoming a major question mark right now. It's time for the commissioner of baseball to take care of important BASEBALL matters instead of sticking his nose in things where he shouldn't be (AKA: L.A. Dodgers Ownership dispute).
5. Starting some sort of scholarship fund for little league baseball. All the teams and players should be given a nice purse for college scholarships maybe $3,000-$6,000 per kid. Maybe this will get more children off the streets and focused on sports and athletic funds. Challenge kids to get off the streets, away from gangs, and into sports and doing the right things.
6. If no cap, then at least a floor, no team belongs having less than a $20 million payroll and one player making more than the entire team. The Astros at one point had a payroll of less than $10,000,000 whereas players were making more than them combined. They still managed to make over $250,000,000 in revenues which just sets up big things for them later in future seasons.
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Selig in my opinion gets a D for effort and for his time as commissioner he hasn't done anything major to really help fix the game's financial situation. Not a thing. We are seeing escalating salaries that have become a first hand problem that needs to be addressed. NFL, NBA, NHL all have salary caps and it's time that the MLB drop open market, get on board, and restore competitive balance in baseball.
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Thank you. Farewell Selig, you were just another brick in the wall and still ruined the game of baseball. Someone please fix it.
A commissioner:
1. Who will equally represent Major League Baseball as a whole, not favoring any teams (Giamatti: Red Sox, Vincent: Indians, and Selig: Brewers)
2. Someone who implements a salary cap in response to the continuing extreme spiraling salaries. We need a salary cap more than ever to restore competitive balance and drive salaries down somewhat. These payrolls of $200M are getting outrageous and it's driving ticket prices up. Let's begin with a salary cap of at least $130,000,000 and go from there.
3. The use of a pitch clock and limiting the number of mound visits. The South Atlantic Baseball league has it and it's sped up the pace of games beautifully. People pay to see a good game yes, however, the pace of the game has gotten so bad that we seriously need to fix that.
4. Ownership is becoming a major question mark right now. It's time for the commissioner of baseball to take care of important BASEBALL matters instead of sticking his nose in things where he shouldn't be (AKA: L.A. Dodgers Ownership dispute).
5. Starting some sort of scholarship fund for little league baseball. All the teams and players should be given a nice purse for college scholarships maybe $3,000-$6,000 per kid. Maybe this will get more children off the streets and focused on sports and athletic funds. Challenge kids to get off the streets, away from gangs, and into sports and doing the right things.
6. If no cap, then at least a floor, no team belongs having less than a $20 million payroll and one player making more than the entire team. The Astros at one point had a payroll of less than $10,000,000 whereas players were making more than them combined. They still managed to make over $250,000,000 in revenues which just sets up big things for them later in future seasons.
---
Selig in my opinion gets a D for effort and for his time as commissioner he hasn't done anything major to really help fix the game's financial situation. Not a thing. We are seeing escalating salaries that have become a first hand problem that needs to be addressed. NFL, NBA, NHL all have salary caps and it's time that the MLB drop open market, get on board, and restore competitive balance in baseball.
---
Thank you. Farewell Selig, you were just another brick in the wall and still ruined the game of baseball. Someone please fix it.
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