Selig to get 2 year extension

[Banedon]

Per Olney.

 

So much for retirement.

[erik316wttn]

Joy.

[rocket]

awesome. hopefully he makes some more awesome changes before he does retire.

[TruffleShuffle]

i'm on record as believing that selig has generally done a very good job as baseball commissioner - his greatest failings being the handling of the steroid scandal, and the ham-handed attempt to contract a pair of clubs (including the twins, who never should have been on the chopping block). but the game has grown significantly under his watch, both in the usa and globally, the owners are profiting, the players are profiting, and there hasn't been a work stoppage in almost 20 years. the owners should just give him the tim wakefield package and make him commish-for-life until he dies, chooses to retire or becomes too senile to do the job any more. he should be elected to the hall of fame at some point.

 

that being said, he's an old man and hopefully they have a succession plan in place.

[Clem Fandango]

I hear Crane Kenny is lobbying

[ctcf]

i'm on record as believing that selig has generally done a very good job as baseball commissioner - his greatest failings being the handling of the steroid scandal, and the ham-handed attempt to contract a pair of clubs (including the twins, who never should have been on the chopping block). but the game has grown significantly under his watch, both in the usa and globally, the owners are profiting, the players are profiting, and there hasn't been a work stoppage in almost 20 years. the owners should just give him the tim wakefield package and make him commish-for-life until he dies, chooses to retire or becomes too senile to do the job any more. he should be elected to the hall of fame at some point.

 

that being said, he's an old man and hopefully they have a succession plan in place.

 

I've been a lot happier with the guy in recent years. I'm a big fan of the moving of the Astros to even up the leagues and extra wild card teams, even if the CBA does suck.

 

Still you left out his awesome tied all star game blunder. That was hilarious.

 

Don't really think he should get the "Tim Wakefield" treatment though.

[TruffleShuffle]

Still you left out his awesome tied all star game blunder. That was hilarious.

 

the all star game rule is pretty damn stupid but it's no less arbitrary than alternating HFA between leagues, and it probably does increase interest in the game from fans whose teams have a good shot at making the WS. most WS don't go seven games anyway, so i have a hard time getting that worked up about it.

[rocket]

if bud selig didn't look and sound like a gargoyle he'd probably be universally adored

[jersey cubs fan]

Still you left out his awesome tied all star game blunder. That was hilarious.

 

It was a quirky point in sports history but hardly a blunder that needs to be on anybody's resume. The ASG is a silly break from the season, the winner was pointless until everybody overreacted to the tie.

[ctcf]

if bud selig didn't look and sound like a gargoyle he'd probably be universally adored

 

I've always thought of him as more resembling Gollum.

[Banedon]

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2009/7/30/128934332687661416.jpg

[Rob]

I am not a Selig fan. For every good thing he does, he manages to do an equally dumb thing.

[jersey cubs fan]

I am not a Selig fan. For every good thing he does, he manages to do an equally dumb thing.

 

I don't think your ratio is accurate, and even if it were, the good things have been much better than the bad things have been bad.

[rocket]

he hasn't been perfect, but i can't see how someone can objectively say selig has been bad as a commsioner.

[bukie]

he hasn't been perfect, but i can't see how someone can objectively say selig has been bad as a commsioner.

Negatives:

 

- He presided over the only cancelled postseason in baseball history, the same year his wildcard playoff expansion was supposed to go into effect.

- He killed baseball in Montreal and let its owner just have another franchise for the heck of it.

- He's the owner of a team, which is a huge conflict of interest in mediation between owners and players.

[XZero771679666304]

I am not a Selig fan. For every good thing he does, he manages to do an equally dumb thing.

 

I don't think your ratio is accurate, and even if it were, the good things have been much better than the bad things have been bad.

 

 

I have to agree with this. While I don't care some of the things he's done, at the end of the day Selig's tenure as commissioner has been very good for baseball.

[XZero771679666304]

he hasn't been perfect, but i can't see how someone can objectively say selig has been bad as a commsioner.

Negatives:

 

- He presided over the only cancelled postseason in baseball history, the same year his wildcard playoff expansion was supposed to go into effect.

 

It's a bit disingenuous to mention this and not point out the 17+ years of unprecedented labor peace (in recent history, anyway) that has followed. MLB was contentious labor mess for a long, long time leading up to 1994 (including the 1994 strike, there were 8 work stoppages in the space of 22 years, and none since), and has been relatively harmonious since the end of that debacle.

 

You have to give Selig huge credit for that.

[Rob]

Selig's tenure has been good for the business of baseball, of that there is little doubt.

 

But as to baseball itself... interleague play, unbalanced schedules (especially with the absurd "rivalry" interleague series) and steps he's initiated towards the DH in the NL are all things that I do not care for. What can I say? I'm a traditionalist.

 

And for everything intelligent he's done like create MLBAM to make really cool stuff like Gameday and the PitchFX system readily available to mass consumption, you'll see real headscratchers like the blackout restrictions and the pulling down of every single clip on youtube.

 

He's not a total success. He's not a complete failure. But based on what I care about, my opinion of him leans more towards failure.

[bukie]

he hasn't been perfect, but i can't see how someone can objectively say selig has been bad as a commsioner.

Negatives:

 

- He presided over the only cancelled postseason in baseball history, the same year his wildcard playoff expansion was supposed to go into effect.

 

It's a bit disingenuous to mention this and not point out the 17+ years of unprecedented labor peace (in recent history, anyway) that has followed. MLB was contentious labor mess for a long, long time leading up to 1994 (including the 1994 strike, there were 8 work stoppages in the space of 22 years, and none since), and has been relatively harmonious since the end of that debacle.

 

You have to give Selig huge credit for that.

It's not disingenuous to point out negatives in a post literally titled "Negatives".

[XZero771679666304]

Selig's tenure has been good for the business of baseball, of that there is little doubt.

 

But as to baseball itself... interleague play, unbalanced schedules (especially with the absurd "rivalry" interleague series) and steps he's initiated towards the DH in the NL are all things that I do not care for. What can I say? I'm a traditionalist.

 

And for everything intelligent he's done like create MLBAM to make really cool stuff like Gameday and the PitchFX system readily available to mass consumption, you'll see real headscratchers like the blackout restrictions and the pulling down of every single clip on youtube.

 

He's not a total success. He's not a complete failure. But based on what I care about, my opinion of him leans more towards failure.

 

If we're being honest, the business of baseball should be of paramount importance. If things had kept going the way they did from 1972 to 1994, god only knows what kind of dire shape the sport would be in right now.

 

I understand where you're coming from with your traditionalist preferences, but unfortunately I think the sport has had to "evolve" to stay competitive in our short attention span world. And I do think the DH either needs to go or become universal. I'd prefer the former to the latter, but I can see some logic in adopting in the NL.

 

And more playoff spots equals more meaningful games down the stretch and more people watching and talking about baseball. Interleague play has encouraged more people to watch to see matchups they wouldn't see otherwise.

 

There are things he has done that are frustratingly stupid, like the blackout restrictions, highlight gestapo, ASG deciding home field, etc.

 

But I think that if you enumerate (objectively) the things he's done, you'll find the positives far outweigh the negatives, though a few probably stick in your craw enough that they color your overall perception.

[XZero771679666304]

he hasn't been perfect, but i can't see how someone can objectively say selig has been bad as a commsioner.

Negatives:

 

- He presided over the only cancelled postseason in baseball history, the same year his wildcard playoff expansion was supposed to go into effect.

 

It's a bit disingenuous to mention this and not point out the 17+ years of unprecedented labor peace (in recent history, anyway) that has followed. MLB was contentious labor mess for a long, long time leading up to 1994 (including the 1994 strike, there were 8 work stoppages in the space of 22 years, and none since), and has been relatively harmonious since the end of that debacle.

 

You have to give Selig huge credit for that.

It's not disingenuous to point out negatives in a post literally titled "Negatives".

 

But that he presided over the 1994 strike is almost incidental. He inherited a hot, volatile mess (that wasn't really his), and has done a largely remarkable job repairing and rebuilding the sport.

 

I don't believe that most thinking people in any way ascribe blame to Selig for the 1994 strike, or that they associate it strongly (negatively) with him.

[bukie]

But that he presided over the 1994 strike is almost incidental. He inherited a hot, volatile mess (that wasn't really his), and has done a largely remarkable job repairing and rebuilding the sport.

 

I don't believe that most thinking people in any way ascribe blame to Selig for the 1994 strike, or that they associate it strongly with him.

 

See, now that is disingenuous.

 

In 1992, the owners forced the resignation of then-commissioner Fay Vincent. Vincent was quoted after his forced resignation: "The Union basically doesn’t trust the Ownership because collusion was a $280 million theft by Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents. They got caught. They paid $280 million to the players. And I think that’s polluted labor relations in baseball ever since it happened. I think it’s the reason Fehr has no trust in Selig."

 

Basically, on January 18, 1994, the owners wanted to set up a salary cap and revenue sharing for MLB ownership, which at that time required player approval. The very next day, the owners voted to allow full power to the commissioner for labor negotiations, who at that time was an owner acting as commissioner.

 

So, I'm not sure if you just weren't paying attention at the time, but Selig was hugely to blame for the labor stoppage and postseason cancellation.

[jersey cubs fan]

He's the owner of a team, which is a huge conflict of interest in mediation between owners and players.

 

A) He's not an owner and hasn't been one for a while.

 

B) The commissioner's job is not to mediate between players and owners.

 

 

The job of commissioners in US sports has evolved from the theoretical independant overseer to a direct representative of ownership of those franchises. The fact that he was an owner is a meaningless point, when you consider the whole point of his job is to help his fellow owners maintain stable value of their properties. If the fellow owners didn't mind having him lead them, then there is no conflict of interest.

[bukie]

He's the owner of a team, which is a huge conflict of interest in mediation between owners and players.

 

A) He's not an owner and hasn't been one for a while.

 

B) The commissioner's job is not to mediate between players and owners.

 

 

The job of commissioners in US sports has evolved from the theoretical independant overseer to a direct representative of ownership of those franchises. The fact that he was an owner is a meaningless point, when you consider the whole point of his job is to help his fellow owners maintain stable value of their properties. If the fellow owners didn't mind having him lead them, then there is no conflict of interest.

He (well, his family, Wendy was the active CEO) was the owner through 2004 before they finally sold off to Attansio. Even though he's not now, being the owner of a team and the commissioner for 10 years is, to me, still a huge conflict of interest. In 1994, the owners specifically appointed the commissioner to mediate between the players and owners in the labor negotiations, which is a huge reason of why they went south so quickly.

[jersey cubs fan]

He (well, his family, Wendy was the active CEO) was the owner through 2004 before they finally sold off to Attansio. Even though he's not now, being the owner of a team and the commissioner for 10 years is, to me, still a huge conflict of interest. In 1994, the owners specifically appointed the commissioner to mediate between the players and owners in the labor negotiations, which is a huge reason of why they went south so quickly.

 

I understand it's a conflict to you. But it's not a conflict of interest. His job is to negotiate on behalf of the owners. He's not an independant arbiter or judge, he's the owners' CEO/Lawyers/Chief Negotiator.