Good: Introduced steroid testing, negotiated new CBA without a work stoppage for the first time ever, revenue sharing/luxury tax, WORLD CUP OF BASEBALL.
Push: Interleague play and the unbalanced schedule (which I like, because it makes you win against the people you’re trying to beat for the division.)
Bad: The Marlins-Expos-Red Sox saga, the 2002 ASG in his own park, the juicing of balls to improve attendance and ratings (McGwire-Sosa, Bonds) and further dilution of pitching by creating the D-Backs and Devil Dogs.
I don’t like the man. At ALL. But if I have to thank anyone for a WCoB, I guess it would be Bud.
MLB steroid testing requires that a player test positive for a fifth time before any mandatory discipline takes effect. Tests are scheduled so that any sentient being can avoid a positive. The joke is that “It isn’t a drug test, it’s an intelligence test.”
It was easy to get the players not to strike by simply giving them everything.
Revenue sharing/luxury tax? It only affects 1 team, and not measurably.
The “World Cup” is dead for 2005 at least, and probably forever.
I like the wild card. (Well, I like having eight teams in the postseason; I guess you could have four divisions, which would reintroduce playoff races, but there’s drawbacks to that, too.) And I like interleague play. And I like the fact that he’s basically told Pete Rose to go to hell. So he’s not all bad.
The fact is, however, that Selig is
A) Corrupt and dishonest, and
B) Presided over the largest attendance setback in the history of baseball, largely due to decisions he has made.
He’s fucked up the Montreal Expos situation eighty ways from Sunday, he fucked up in 1994, he fucks up by constantly trashing the state of the game. He lied to Congress, he breaks his own organization’s conflict of interest rules, and he’s kind of embarassing. It’s time for him to go.
He’s blamed for a lot of silly things… no offense, brianjedi, but the baseballs aren’t juiced and you can’t blame him for something that never happened, and expansion under his purview has just barely kept up with the expansion of the talent base; if they don’t expand again in the next ten years, the talent base per team in 2014 will actually be higher than it was in 1997. The DH is not his fault and really isn’t a big deal, and if players can make a fortune I think that’s great and good for them.
But Selig is as corrupt as all get-out, and I predict it will result in a disastrous scandal within his next term. I mean really, really, big, criminal type fraud sort of scandal. And cancelling the 1994 World Series outweighs everything good he’s ever done anyway.
Very little, actually. That’s why I said it ALMOST doesn’t matter. Still it was a quirk, that when the Cubbies played at home, it had to be a day game. It added character to the game and it provided the city of Chicago with a redemptive feature (sorely needed since the installation of, first that ugly Picasso horse sculpture, and later, the ugly Jean Miro something-or-other sculpture, and no I wasn’t the guy who threw a bucket of paint on it back in 1981). Take away the character-enhancing quirkiness of daytime-only baseball at Wrigley Field, and the only redeeming feature the city has left is Unca Cecil, and how long can he be expected to last, I ask you?
George Steinbrenner should be commissioner. At least he knows how to run a team. It seems a conflict of interest to be commissioner when your family runs one of the teams. Anyway, I’ve always considered Selig to be a skid mark on the underwear of life.
Interleague play- yuck. Screwing up the whole schedule JUST to get Yankees-Mets and Cubs-White Sox. 75% of the teams have no particular rival in the other league. Get back to one league scheduling.
Prolonging the misery of the Expos- yuck. Who would want to buy a ticket in Montreal now?
Sucking money from taxpayers- yuck. Can’t get a franchise now unless you can show that someone else is going to pay for your stadium.
All Star Game Winner Gets Home Field- yuck. Try as they might, FOX couldn’t find ONE player to interview in the two years this was in effect that gave a rat’s rear about it. Now if you’re a Cub fan, no home field for you in the World Series because some Astro pitcher had a bad night.
The All Star Tie- yuck. Have 50 man rosters with 25 pitchers if you need to. Even better, tell the stupid managers not to waste their pitchers! So some don’t get in the game. Boo hoo.
The Designated Hitter- yuck. This is an abomination unto the Lord, let us scrap it post haste.
Yeah? So? Every other league, AFAIK, has scheduled steroid tests so that the players can work around it.
As for the fifth time, who cares? As the NFL shows, you just need to make a show at steroid testing not actually have a system that is designed to prevent it.
Gave them everything? What was that? It was the PA that made the major concessions on their positions - not the owners. The owners got their luxury tax, which the players opposed, the owners got their increased revenue sharing, which the players opposed, the owners won on the 60/40, and the owners got their steroid testing even if it is watered down. In return, the players got a promise that contraction wouldn’t happen (even though it never would have anyway) and $100,000 bump in the minimum salary.
Nope. It also affects the Red Sox - that was part of the reason they couldn’t get A-Rod because his salary would be more than advertised since they are over the threshold already.
And revenue sharing affects a ton of teams. Not that a lot of them do more than just pocket it. But they are getting extra cash.
Doubtful. It will be around in 2006. The 2005 Cup was dead because the Japanese Leagues made some late objections about the schedule and they’re currently in negotiations with MLB to get that fixed.
Does that control for the fact that interleague games are invariably on summer weekends, where attendance is normally higher anyway? Because the last set of stats I saw that took that sort of thing into account showed that attendance for interleague play is generally no higher, and in many cases (Tampa Bay versus Milwaukee, yay!) is lower than it is for intraleague games played at comparable times.
At this point, Bud Selig could pass a rule stating that the Cubs would win the World Series for the next 4 years, but a lot people won’t ever like or respect him (and rightly so) because:
He presided over and played a big hand in the year with no World Series.
The Expos saga. They have no home, no fan base, and no chance. This team might as well be run by my dog for all the chance they have of being competitive due to his mismanagement of the situation.
The All Star game tie. Way to have a contingency plan ready Bud. Rosters have been tight for years, games have been close before. Did this possibility never occur to you? The managers bear some blame, but you are ultimately responsible for letting this travesty happen.
Retraction talk. You pick teams for contraction that are playoff worthy all while ignoring the pathetic excuse for a team that resides in Milwaukee due to you and your families poor management. You bungle the process so badly that everyone finds out what teams are on the block, which would in theory hamper their ability to sell tickets, merchandise, and win games. And, you have been repeatedly proven incorrect that small market teams can’t win.
Congress. You looked like a fool up there trying to show that teams were losing money faster than an addict in Vegas when it was pretty easily known that the losses were due to accounting practices rather than actual results.
So, yes, he has done some good things. But, a lot of those good things are tinged with bad and the purely bad ones are so mind-numbingly awful that he would have to figure out a way to revive the greats of baseball’s past for me to cut him any slack.
I don’t mean to nitpick, but it seems quite obvious to me that MOST teams have a rivalry in the other league that can be exploited:
Yankees-Mets
Cubs-White Sox
Blue Jays-Expos (until the Expos are moved in 2029, if then)
Cardinals-Royals
Marlins-Devil Rays
Astros-Rangers
Giants-Athletics
Dodgers-Angels
Phillies-Orioles
That right there is 18 out of 30 teams with an obvious geographic rival; you also have an Indians-Reds cross-state rivalry, which may or may not interest Ohioans. Mets-Red Sox is a possibility that has all kinds of hilarious implications; Boston fans are so bitter and full of hate that they’ll hate the Mets in place of the Yankees just because they have the letters N and Y on their caps, plus of course the wonderful 1986 World Series. Red Sox-Phillies series do extremely well. And on that theme, you have Yankees vs. Anyone, since everyone considers the Yankees a rival, so there’s 3-4 more National League teams who get a fun interleague matchup. I know you just plucked 75% out of the air, but if you actually sit down and look at it, interleague play creates an interesting matchup for two thirds or more of the teams.
Personally, I like interleague play. It’s cool to be able to go see the Jays get beaten by teams they never used to play.
If you’re a Cub fan, no home field for you in the World Series because you’re a fan of the Cubs.
This is another argument I don’t see as being terribly important. Yes, it’s a wholly arbitrary way to decide home field advantage. But then, so is “We’ll give the National League home field advantage if the year ends in an odd number.”
Blue Jays- Expos takes a distant back seat to the Maple Leafs-Canadiens in that part of the world.
Cardinals-Royals Well maybe, but they don’t have the history that some of the others do. They did meet in one World Series but I’d have to ask people from Missouri if that’s a big deal.
Marlins-Devil Rays Same state but two teams with very little history. Give it another 20 years and you might have something.
Dodgers-Angels Maybe but I bet Dodger fans would rather play the Giants or Yankees.
There may be a lot of natural geographic rivals, but few in my opinion justify the bother of tolerating such matchups as Twins-Marlins or Rangers-Brewers.
What they should do: Every team plays two interleague series per year. One vs. a natural rival, if they have one. The other series against a team on a rotating schedule.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that the wild card is a good thing must not be a Red Sox fan. The only way I could stomach going back to the old playoff system is if they would kindly move us over to the AL Central division. Let us switch place with the Twins, they can come in second place every year.
As a DC resident I hate Angelos and Selig for their intransigence in the face of an obvious choice. I should have grown up rooting for the Senators, not the Orioles. Once I was old enough to realize how badly DC was getting screwed I made damn sure the Orioles hade no place in my affections.
Hear, hear. As a Dodger fan from 1962 until I lost interest in the game, I’m here to tell you that the only TRUE baseball rivalry is that between the Dodgers and the Giants Boo. Hiss…Boo some more. Some godless heathens during the late seventies were pretending that the Dodgers and the Reds constituted a rivalry, but I remember God smiting them back n 1980.
The Angels weren’t even on my radar. They still aren’t, despite the fact tht I live within eight miles of Angel Stadium. American League and all that.
I hate interleague play as well, but will continue to call for an even more radical re-organization of the leagues than Bud Selig called for:
No AL. No NL. Two New League: Eastern and Western / 2 Divisions each.
Eastern League / Northern Division: Toronto, Montreal, Boston, NY Yanks, NY Mets, Philly & Baltimore. Eastern League / South Central Division: Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Florida & Tampa Bay.
Western League / Midwest Southern Division: Milwaukee, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota, Kansas City, St. Louis, Texas & Houston. Western League / West Coast Division: Seattle, Colorado, San Francisco, Oakland, Anaheim, LA, San Diego & Arizona.
You get your cross town rivalries and can ditch all those useless west-coast trip games that no one watches on the east coast.
However, what does seem odd about your alignment is that you have 14 teams in the East and 16 in the West, even though the majority of people and fans live east of the Mississippi. I would move the Expos to Washington, then wait five years and expand back to Montreal and Brooklyn, and then organize it thus:
EAST-NORTHERN:
Toronto
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Boston
Montreal
Detroit
Cleveland
Brooklyn
EAST-SOUTHERN:
Baltimore
Washington
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Cincinnati
Florida
Tampa Bay
Pittsburgh
I’d have the West set up the same as yours.
Each team would play 14 games against divisional opponents, 8 against extradivisional opponents, a total of 162. If you wanted it more balanced you could go to 12 and 10, which is 164.
Two wild cards. Sorry, but I like three playoff rounds. However, the wild cards (which can come from either division) don’t get home games in the fist round. Best three outta five, all in the division champion’s home park.
I got it, I disagreed with your comment that it would make Steinbrenner Satan’s second in command, because 1) who cares about a marketing plug in a song, and 2) does anyone eat that crap anymore anyhow?
