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

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Neutral Corner, Jan 22, 2015.

  1. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Under American law, workers have a right to strike (in most cases) and management has a right to lock out. Deal with it.

    If you want to criticize the motivations of either party in causing a work stoppage, have at it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2015
  2. EddieM

    EddieM Member

    As Cliff Corcoran mentioned in his SI piece last week, about $8 billion in public funds have been used to build stadiums since Selig took over. Not exactly a feather in his cap, if you ask me...
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I don't think that's exactly new ground. Not exclusive to MLB by any means either.

    My objection was to the idea that "no private funds" could be used to build a ballpark.
     
  4. EddieM

    EddieM Member

    No. I wish it were exclusive, but it is, as you suggest, perverse and widespread. See: the upcoming bill coming to Cobb County.

    Of course you're right that private funds have been used. I just personally wish the number was higher.
     
  5. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    His job as CEO for the baseball owners was to make sure the public funded as many ballparks as possible. He did an amazing job for them. We may not like it but Bud's job was to create value for the owners. He leaves a $9 billion industry.
     
  6. ThomsonONE

    ThomsonONE Member

    I've never understood the venom directed against Selig regarding steroids. What could he have done? Does anyone think Fehr and the PA would have agreed to any type of steroid testing at all? Blaming Selig for what you consider bad business decisions is valid, but on anything that involves the PA, Fehr was the one in charge, not Selig.
     
    old_tony likes this.
  7. As The Crow Flies

    As The Crow Flies Active Member

    Since this is baseball, there should be some sort of statistic like VORC for Selig: "Value Over Replacement Commissioner"

    As others have mentioned, Selig's biggest strength was building consensus among the owners. But for a lot of the other stuff, especially the game's financial success, it seems like just about anybody with decent business skills could have pulled that off. Every time Selig was faced with a difficult situation, ('94 strike, PEDs, etc.) he always came across as a spineless leader. Maybe that's what baseball wants/needs. It's just hard to get on board with him being the GOAT among baseball commissioners during a time when the league lost a World Series and watched as its popularity became dwarfed by the NFL.
     
  8. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    No freakin' way. MLB pursued a cable TV strategy starting in the late '80s and early '90s that was the source of mocking and derision for a good 15 years. All those stories about how the true fans can't get the games with their basic-cable subscription or their rabbit ears, and the annual doomsday predictions based on dropping World Series ratings -- all that time baseball was getting its fans used to paying for games. MLB essentially created the idea of regional sports networks, which cost more than anything but ESPN in a cable package.

    MLB has been absolute geniuses on the Internet too. (Remember when CBS started offering every March Madness game over the Internet? They did that by paying MLB for its platform and technology.)

    There isn't any industry, and there probably won't ever be, that is better at creating and monetizing content. Apple and Netflix monetize content as well, but they don't create it.

    The only way this makes sense is if you're of the simpleton mindset that national over-the-air TV ratings are the only thing that matters. By any other measure -- particularly revenue, where the leagues are usually within a rounding error -- they're doing better than their owners' wildest dreams.
     
  9. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    I will say this. Bud Selig was on my shit list after 1994-95. That was the darkest period in my life as a baseball fan, and I hold a lot of people in contempt because of stuff that happened in that era.

    That said, 20 years later who was the best of the four sport commissioners?

    Yes. Bud Selig.

    Twenty years of labor peace. Rapidly rising revenues. New initiatives to bring the game into the 21st century in terms of watching on computers, mobile devices, etc. There are so many revenue streams now with cable, internet, XM Radio, etc., that the overall game is healthy. Yes, he was slow to the party on roids and PEDs, but once there he attacked the issue with a vengeance in my opinion.

    No one's about to say the NFL ratings are going to fall off a cliff, but with all of the stuff about concussions, scandals, etc., baseball has a chance to regain some of that lost popularity. It will be interesting to see the direction Rob Manfred takes the game in now.
     
  10. ifilus

    ifilus Well-Known Member

  11. joe king

    joe king Active Member

    Well, since the replacement commissioner's first order of business was to discuss outlawing a common tactic that has been around for 70 years or so...
     
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