Posted on 09/26/2013 3:03:41 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig, who changed the face of Major League Baseball while leading the sport into an era of unprecedented popularity and prosperity, will formally step down from the office when his current term expires on January 24, 2015. The announcement was made Thursday.
"It remains my great privilege to serve the game I have loved throughout my life," Selig said. "Baseball is the greatest game ever invented, and I look forward to continuing its extraordinary growth and addressing several significant issues during the remainder of my term.
"I am grateful to the owners throughout Major League Baseball for their unwavering support and for allowing me to lead this great institution. I thank our players, who give me unlimited enthusiasm about the future of our game. Together we have taken this sport to new heights and have positioned our national pastime to thrive for generations to come. Most of all, I would like to thank our fans, who are the heart and soul of our game."
(Excerpt) Read more at mlb.mlb.com ...
Wisconsin baseball commissioner retires...
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Though to allow an All-Star game to end in a tie may be unforgivable.
Good riddance. Mr. Political Correctness. Mr. Steroids Era. Mr. Midnight World Series Games in 40-Degree Weather in Late October.
Thank God!
Winner of the All Star game determines home field advantage for the World Series? Stuuuuuuupid! Maybe the worst decision in the history of professinal sports!
Guy’s a jackass. He even looks the part.
Gonna be an interesting 12 months on sports. Stern retiring in Feb then Selig gone the following Jan. Like all commissioners there were good moves and bad. Trying to give the all-star game meaning by making home field depend on it would be extremely high on his bad list.
He allowed the game to “modernize” by looking the other way when players such as Barry Bonds and Mark Mcgwire were clearly on the juice. It put fans back into the stands after the baseball strike in 1994-1995.
2015? Maybe baseball will get lucky and he will die before that. Let’s hope the next commissioner will not be an owner
“Maybe the worst decision in the history of professinal sports!”
Not even close to being as bad as the one game playoff for wild card
Why do you disagree with that decision?? I think it makes the game more meaningful.
It’s idiotic. The All Star game has no relation as to which team earns the right to have home field advantage in the World Series.
Only fair, and incentive based system is to have best record dictate home field.
To reward, or punish the pennant winners for what a mish-mosh of players from all teams do or do not in July is ridiculous.
For heaven's sake, some teams may have only ONE all-star, but the team stinks.
And if that one guy helps win the all-star game, why should the entire NL or AL get a benefit?
Jimmy Wynn was the lone "all-star" for the Atlanta Braves in 1975.
Back when the Braves were terrible.
Jimmy cracked corn,,,,,,,,
Hire Condi Rice!
He’s been a pox on baseball ever since he swiped the Seattle Pilots in 1970.
Inter-league play should never have happened. The all-star game winner getting home field advantage in the world series is a joke. Steroids and his failure to do anything about PEDs in the game until he was forced to are his true legacy. He is constantly screwing with the traditions of baseball in a never ending chase for the almighty dollar.
If he wanted to add another team to the American League why did he not take his beloved Brewers and put them back where they began (other than Seattle)?
He cannot be gone soon enough for me.
My very thought — but doesn’t she want the NFL?
I agree with you about the steroids...but the inter-league play and the All-Star game having consequences I think is good.
Here are some more atrocities Selig's regime has foisted upon the long suffering fan, not previously posted to the best of my knowledge:
(1) Skyrocketing ticket prices, including, for the first time, premium ticket pricing for supposedly "better" games on the schedule.
(2) Opening Day not in Washington or Cincinnati, but in Tokyo and (next year) Australia!
(3) Second and third place teams winning "World Series Championships." (NOT "World Championships," because that phrase might offend the sensibilities of the Japanese or Dominicans, etc.)
(4) Incredibly long games averaging about three hours, even with little hitting, largely due to prolonged times between innings to get in more TV commercials, as directed by Selig and henchmen. The length of games problem is also intensified by the appearance of singers or other entertainers on the field between innings, which Selig seems to enjoy.
(5) Ever increasing numbers of foreigners on the field, making it more difficult for American fans to identify with and identify players.
(5) Ever increasing movement of players from one team to another and across leagues, at levels previously associated with "bush leagues," making it more difficult for fans to identify and identify with players and decreasing loyalties between players and teams and fans.
(6) Perpetual leaks from Selig operatives in New York to sports news media about players about to move to another team - some of which turn out to be false and, regardless, undermine the players' concentration on their play on the field.
(7) The great strike of 1994, extending into 1995.
(8) The "World Baseball Classic," a total waste of time which takes players away from their spring training and exposes them needlessly to injury.
(9) Getting rid of National and American Leagues, which had existed for over 100 years, and seizing total control under his centralized authority, thus practically eliminating any interleague rivalry.
(10) Paternity leave for players. (Players who are interested in helping their teams win should be able to figure out how to have their babies born during the off season, rather than hurting their teams by leaving them just to see the newborn baby. That's an insult to the fan who buys the ticket to see a team compete at as full strength as possible.)
(11) Announced attendances at games are frequently inflated to give the false impression of more fan interest than actually exists.
(12) Decreasing general quality of umpiring, due in part to reluctance to get rid of the over-the-hill set, setting up a clamor for instant replay review of umpire calls.
(13) Allowing obvious conflicts of interest, among owners and among players. Selig himself was a walking, talking conflict of interest when he was at the same time an owner and a commissioner for many years.
(14) And latest but not least, his plan to review just about all close calls on the field by video tape, not at the ballpark like in the NFL, but from his ivory tower in NYC.
Yet to top it all off, Selig has shown what an egotist he is by taking great joy the erection of a statue to himself, just like many a dictator down through history.
"Prosperity" I can buy. That's mostly a function of corporate welfare (TV network money and corporate suites at the stadium) and more teams around than ever.
But "popularity"? There was a time when baseball led all others easily as the most popular spectator sport in America, and a majority of kids growing up played it on some level. No more. Kids seem more interested in football and basketball, and less baseball is played at the youth level. That's an important reason why MLB looks more and more overseas to find its players. Eventually, too many foreign players will hurt MLB with its fan base.
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