I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the man who put off dealing with PEDs until Congress forced him to and still can’t make a decision about whether baseball should or shouldn’t use a Designated Hitter, yet again has failed to make a decision in the best interests of baseball.
Despite his previous vow to retire as Commissioner of Baseball at the end of his current contract, which expires after the upcoming season, Bud Selig has now apparently changed his mind and will have his contract extended an additional two years.
As this piece in the New York Daily News over the weekend pointed out, it’s hardly surprising that Selig would decide not to walk away from his $20 million a year gig (and some of you thought Joe Mauer wasn’t worth his contract!).
– JC
I don’t care much about Selig; maybe it is the Wisconsin connection or the car salesman background. I don’t know; but I am tipping my hat to him because MLB is the only of the 4 major sport leagues not to have labor disputes for 17 years. That last CBA was signed quickly last Fall with no down time to the sport. And that is a big thing compared to NFL and NBA this season from the fans’ perspective…
well that kills a bit of my optimism about the future of baseball enjoyment for awhile.. of course I didn’t believe that he would go when he said he would anyway but it is just having your lack of faith legitimized that is somewhat disappointing.
I have no affection, or even respect, for Bud Selig.
If you’re going to “credit” Selig for the relative labor peace, that’s fine. But then you also have to look at what the price for that labor peace has been. One big reason, I believe, is that unlike other leagues, the MLBPA has not had to fight off significant efforts to restrict player salaries. There’s no salary cap or even truly meaningful revenue sharing. Selig has been perfectly happy with a system that has allowed teams to hoard almost all of their own media rights, creating an environment where some teams have 2-3 times the revenue of others. Naturally, the players union is happy with that, as well. As long as neither the union nor the Commissioner care if half the teams in the league have virtually no chance of being competitive, why shouldn’t there be labor peace?
Bud Selig has been nothing but a puppet of the large market teams and the networks. As a result, he’s created an environment where the owners are so fragmented that it would be virtually impossible for them to agree on a replacement. Large revenue teams will want another puppet committed to the status quo while enough of the other teams will never agree to a Selig clone. So he stays by default.
The fact is that “Bud Lite” has put a “manure truck” full of money into the MLB owners pocketbooks. All of them including the Oakland A’s. The Pohlad’s have pocketed hundreds of million of $$$$$ under the leadership of Bud Lite.
a side note on Bud Lite. He gets his hair cut every Thursday and pays $150 each time. That’s all you need to know about Bud Lite. Ohhhhh and then there was that All Star Game that ended in a tie.