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

Selig was acting commish in 1992. It might have started in late '80s but it flourished in '90s under his reign - and he did nothing about it. I would admit ASG is lower on the care center, but I don't know anyone who doesn't think tying the WS home field to that game is ridiculous. And I note 1994 was not mentioned. He's horrible. But then again, the others weren't exactly shining beacons of light, either.

 

I wouldn't say they don't give two shits. I think most fans wish it hadn't happened but understand that it did. The media part, you're obviously spot-on.

 

I would say the vast majority don't care.

 

First reaction to Selig being best commissioner is to shake my head and laugh, but then I look at the entire history of the commissioner's office and I can't really find anyone who was better. Admittedly, it's not exactly a race of thoroughbreds there.

Landis is the one who is usually mentioned as the best, and him cleaning up after Black Sox deserves credit, but I can't get past the fact he was more than happy to maintain the institutional racism in the sport. I know, product of the times and all, but Landis could have gotten the color line broken if he wanted to.

Otherwise, who else is even considered as the best? Chandler deserves credit for giving the OK for Jackie Robinson's signing, but not much else. Ueberroth or Giamatti might have been able to leave a bigger legacy if they spent more time on the job. Bowie Kuhn? Please!

 

Ueberroth, who presided over collusion, was among the worst. Kuhn was a joke. Fay Vincent was probably the most likable.

 

Bud served the longest and brought stability to the underclass, much to the chagrin of the wealthiest.

He is baseball's FDR.

 

The most amazing thing about Bud was his ability to bring that group of owners to consensus.

 

I'll give him credit for MLB.TV although something tells me that wasn't his idea per se.

But, geeze, the blackout maps are just ridiculous and the A's/Giants situation should have been resolved years ago one way or the other and the Rays shouldn't be playing in Tropicana.

And it was during his watch that the highest paid players went from $3 million a year to $33 million a year.

And didn't I read a while back that MLB has a "no private funds" policy for new stadiums or did I make that up? (or confuse it with another league?)

 

You say players going from $3 million to $33 million like it's a bad thing.

"No private funds"? Huh? No, that doesn't exist. The Giants built their stadium with no public money and the Cardinals got a small percentage.

 

I am no fan of Bud's, but I've never understood why he took all the grief over the All-Star game tie. What was he supposed to do?

I blame Torre and Brenly, who managed like it was a Little League game and everyone had to get at least one at bat and two innings in the field.

 

I think Bud's greatest accomplishment was that he saw that the 1994 strike and its ending at the hands of Judge Sonia Sotomayor meant that efforts to break the Players' Association were a lost cause and that he somehow got his fellow owners to agree. The fact the strike cost them a billion bucks for openers plus residual damage probably greater than that helped. After that, figuring out ways to sell a popular product wasn't so hard. His greatest failure? Easy, his mealy mouthed hypocrisy on PEDs after turning a very blind eye in the '90s.

 

Selig let Peter Angelos screw the Nationals for eternity. Fuck Bud