Selig the greatest commisioner in baseball history? Umm, no.

Bud Selig: The Greatest Commissioner in the History of Baseball | HardballTalk

 

Who is, then? I suppose Landis is the chalk pick, but after that it has just been one stooge after another. You're overestimating what any of the other commissioners actually did.

Selig's vision about cable and the Internet has made the game healthier than ever financially.

 

It's easy to make the claim when there's only been nine and the other eight have been:

Landis
Chandler
Frick
Eckert
Kuhn
Ueberroth
Giamatti
Vincent

The three prior to Bud served half as many years as he did combined and throw in Eckert and half of his competition for the title combined were in charge for 13 years, compared to Bud's 20 alone.

Rankings off the top of my head:

Selig
Landis
Chandler
Kuhn
Frick
Eckert
Giamatti
Ueberroth

 

Landis is second only to Abner Doubleday in the running for most overrated figure in baseball history.

 

Hey, but they both have cool names. I guess the growth of the game is what matters, and he did bring in some gutsy innovations given the baseball purists. But to say he tamed the PED scourge is a little odd, considering he was the commissioner almost that entire era. Still tough to say any of the others have done more. And the stretch of labor peace is a pretty big one too.

 

BDC, all that is mitigated by the pox that is continual interleague play. No more than nine games a season should be interleague games. Now get off my lawn.

 

Not sure I agree. Landis deserves credit for cleaning up what had become a tremendously corrupt sport when he was asked to become the first commissioner. PEDs are a minor blip compared to the way things were pre-1920. The Black Sox Scandal was just the tip of the iceberg as far as cheating and throwing games. After Landis banned the Black Sox for life, many of the game's biggest stars, including Ty Cobb, were in fear that their actions in the first two decades of the 20th century would come to light.

 

Need to keep in mind that Landis was a racist who perpetuated the color barrier. He also killed the Federal League by failing to rule in the league's anti-trust case against the established leagues. His "iron hand" handling of the Black Sox scandal is a cute narrative.

 

It is not a great list of leaders. Even sadder is if Selig were No. 1. The guy that brought in and ignored the PED era (but likes to claim how wonderful he is for the great testing now), the All-Star Game tie fiasco and "winning team" which followed it and no World Series in 1994. Let me repeat that last one, no World Series in 1994. Imagine season with no Super Bowl. "Lords of the Realm" really clued me in to what kind of guy he is. I also have from first-hand experience how thin-skinned he is. As someone who loves baseball, I won't miss him and am not looking forward to the day when he's in the Hall of Fame, because he will be.

 

Pretty hard to say he "brought in" the steroid era when the conventional wisdom (which is pretty much undisputed) is that it started in the mid to late '80s.

 

Also, fans don''t give two shits about the "steroid" era. It's the media who romanticized it and now look foolish who care the most. Bastardizing a useless all star game is also quite low on the care meter.