THURSDAY: MLB has announced the extension through 2014, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets.
WEDNESDAY: Selig's extension has been approved and will be announced tomorrow, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.
TUESDAY: Commissioner Bud Selig will be extended for at least two years this week at the owners' meetings, reports ESPN's Buster Olney. Selig became MLB's acting commissioner in 1992, and the title became official in 1998. He currently earns more than $22MM per year.
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nooooOo!
Rich owners love him especially corporate owners who can milk their teams dry. NY, Boston, LA teams thrive under Selig and or get 100 2nd chances as the case may be. Everyone else is on their own.
Selig caved to the owners and let the Braves get dumped on Liberty Media as a tax dodge. Now they are stuck as tertiary asset land on Liberty’s balance sheet. Ugh
Since when is Selig friendly to large market teams?
That is the biggest pile of manure spread here in years. Selig needs to take the way of his senate look a like Harry Reid (and act alike) and get booted from office. Neither is worth a wooden nickel.
Er, Harry Reid is still in office because the people of Nevada elected to keep him there. You may not like that whole democracy thing but it is what it is. As for Bud, I was hoping for some change I could believe in.
Without going into politics a lot here.. Exactly what was the $$$ difference spent between Harry and Angle?
I don’t think Selig had the backing of large market teams was the gist of my post here. Selig has gone with smaller market his entire tenure and done little to nothing to support the larger market teams, or hurt the game in it’s entirety.
What the game needs is a Bowie Kuhn type iron man and not spineless wimps, which Reid/Selig both fit the bill.
isn’t the newest cba a massive gut punch to small market teams, or did i skip a section?
I think many here simply do not recall (or were never around) when baseball had no welfare for teams and now expect teams to get handouts like currently exist..
Luxury taxes, teams like the Marlins, who i am even a fan of to even exist even though they draw fewer than 5k fans sometimes, the Athletics, Royals with abysmal support on both in the seats and TV deals..
Baseball needs attrition to fix itself, not handouts and forcing this new CBA by capping draft picks as one thing does nothing.
Now.. One of you rocket scientists tell me how teams like the Pirates who are trying to actually fix another abysmal team with no local and media support via the draft and now unable to spend 12-15m on the draft are supposed to go about using that talented team of scouting they had put into place, because tightwads like Houston (example) have been far to cheap to either put a winning team, or even pay any talent evaluators and were demanding a draft cap?
Tampa, Pittsburgh types are the major teams to be hurt in this new CBA, they cannot afford to sign the FA, whom large market teams can still sign..
Some people here just flabbergast me with what they do not know and understand, yet continue to fall for the same old rubbish time after time.. it is utterly beyond belief..
i could read 4 of those sentences, tops, but you said he doesn’t favor large market teams.
if the new cba Hurt small market teams, which we seem to agree that it does….who does it favor? L…. M….. T….
That is it!!!
NOBODY is really getting anything from it.
Just how are the large market teams getting help??
Boston/NYY cannot spend on the draft either and tell me.. You REALLY think the MLBPA is going to let the spineless lizard Selig put in place a REAL salary cap?
That is why he went for the only thing he did and in that way killed the small teams.. A draft cap.
The man is a certifiable dolt.
Draft cap helps small market teams because some players don’t become “undraftable” because of their expensive contract they’re looking for. Good scouts will always rule, as baseball talent is very hit or miss. The better you do your job, the better you’re going to get paid.
Yes and no. Small market teams like the Royals use the uncapped draft to their advantage by overpaying for kids who might otherwise go to college. The last few years the Royals have used that strategy to develop the best farm system in baseball.
While it can be said that “forcing” players to accept a designated amount will allow the small market teams to get anyone, the best players will simply skip accepting a slotted amount to be picked by a poor team like the Royals as the 5th pick, go to college, and hope to be selected 1st in three years.
Thought he was retiring?
he lead us on to believe that….what a dream killer
…why.
______________________
Wilpon’s set to receive more bailouts and continue their stranglehold on the Mets organization.
I was really hoping for him to go for this reason too. Please please please retire Selig and get the Wilpons the hell out of Queens….
Son of a @#$%!
fred wilpon is smiling …
But is his bankruptcy firm? You know, the one he just hired to “report on financial information”…
Nothing pleases Freddie more than having a favoritist Commish in his [empty] pocket!
Just when we thought we were finally rid of Bud….
Trust me, you don’t want to bring politics into this one.
Wasn’t he supposed to be retiring at some point in the next year or two? That’s why he pushed so hard for the extra wild card so quickly I thought.
I think they’re doing a sign-and-trade with Nippon Baseball League
Bud will usually do the right thing, eventually. It just seems to take him a long time to figure out what the right thing is.
Like dictating World Series home field advantage from the outcome of the All Star game? That was a brilliant idea (not). How about the team with the best record actually earning home field advantage Bud????
Which happened because of the fallout when he called the all star game a tie.
It was an all star game, it doesn’t count for anything (now it does I guess), it’s for the fans. He made a mountain out of a mole hill…
i agree you cant have a popularity contest determine who has home field advantage , boo on you bud
The really sad thing is the major things he can claim credit for have happened mostly because of something he did wrong:
1) The long running labor peace. Selig oversaw the 1994 labor negotiations that forced the courts to side with the players.
2) Cleaning up the drug issue. Selig continued the policy of turning a blind eye to that in the 90s.
I’m not a Selig apologist, in fact I can’t stand the guy, but please don’t just say Selig did wrong on the whole drug issue. It was the players(who should get the brunt of the blame) that continued to use; and apparently, some still do. Also, the owners themselves have much to do with turning a blind eye.
The commissioner works for the owners. Selig has hardly ever been Captain Courageous on this or any other issue facing the sport.
I think the argument for blaming Bud is that, as commissioner, he is the embodiment of “ownership,” or at least the interests of a majority of owners, rather than acting as a independent commissioner. Therefore, as representative or surrogate of the owners, he turned a blind eye and should shoulder a share of the blame.
Yea say what you want but baseball revenues have absolutely exploded under Selig.
That’s what I meant. Add to that list allowing the ownership situation with the Dodgers fester. I’m sure we could add many more. All of these things could have been addressed by the commissioner proactively but that has never been Selig’s style. But it’s also probably why Selig has been the commissioner for so long — he never pisses off the owners any more than is absolutely necessary to avert complete catastrophe.
He is so afraid of the player’s union that they keep what they want. Do piss the union off or they might take their ball and go home. All the big franchise are happy that he is staying and he could care less about the small market teams. Pitts was a great baseball city until they couldn’t keep up with the spending of the big market. I know I don’t want to waste my time spend a fortune to support my teams when they can compete for players like the big markets.
From what I see Bud Selig only does “the right thing” after he exhausts every other alternative.
Bud’s primary objective is to do what makes Bud [and his stuffed-shirt cronies] happy.
Bud is employed by his stuffed-shirt cronies. I don’t defend Selig but I understand that much at least. I blame him for failures of leadership at a time when baseball needed it the most. I hope the next commissioner isn’t so worried about keeping his job.
Probably because he does the wrong thing first.
Mostly no-thing first. Inaction is Selig’s hallmark.
At least I won’t have to read any more columns from the Detroit writers about how Dombrowski is going to succeed Selig . . .
later territorial rights
“We want a commissioner, not a belly itcher…”
uh oh.
Completely irrelevant and useless post.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
This is the same Bud who was found colluding against the players. (1994) The same Bud who again in 1994 with held 7.8 million payment due the players benefit and trust plan, hence the strike. Fay Vincent described Selig’s collusion as theft by Selig and Reinsdorf. He accused them of rigging free agent signings. He was the commissioner during the steroid era and loved the spike in attendance. Ownership wants him back? Wow!
Of course they do. He’s one of them for all intents an purposes. The owners are one of the few groups that have actually benefited from his tenure.
I just shudder to think of what will be left of our game, though, when the era he has precided over echoes back at us. He claims that baseball is more popular than ever by counting revenue. If baseball is so popular…then why does it seem to be SO unpopular. Why do we have to sell our children amusement parks at the baseball stadiums? Why are we forcing so many of our fans in front of the television because the cost of attending a game is so cost prohibitive? People are missing a GREAT LIVE GAME! You can’t see the outfield shift when the camera is locked on the pitcher from the CF camera…and you can’t smell the grass….or feel the heat from the sun as it breaks from the clouds during a day game.
Some day these loans to integrity are going to come calling…and we’ll be left with a lot of nothing.
I’m going to say this is terms of the city that I a proud fan of: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its funny how absolutely no one is in support of this guy.
So, of course you realize that Bud Selig is retiring in December, 2012. It is a sure thing, because the Mayan calender says so. It is the end of baseball as everyone knows it. Wait, just like politicians saying one thing and expecting the voting electorate to believe it, truth always has a way of being exposed and now the owners want to extend his rule a further two years. It is like trying to oust a dictator that simply says, yes, the people have free elections, but the only people allowed to vote are those that vote for me. lol
Woo hoo! Let’s bring the steroids era into a whole new decade, Bud!
Lot of Bud Selig haters…Don’t see why. Baseball hasn’t been too bad, steroids or not.
It would take more than a bad commissioner to actually make baseball unenjoyable.
“Lot of Bud Selig haters…Don’t see why. Baseball hasn’t been too bad, steroids or not. ”
Adding wild cards to a sport that didn’t need them. Adding interleague play to a sport that didn’t need it. Adding even more wild cards to a sport that already didn’t need the wild cards it has.
And moving the Astros to the American League.
well, those aren’t actually bad things, i like the wild cards
BUT, he was a sloth on most major issues (steroids, mccourts, wilpons, a’s colliseum) and ruined the hope of teams building through the draft by putting in all those penalties for going over slot, and there are a lot more that i can’t think of at the moment
Destroying the Expos and basically giving Loria the Marlins for nothing?
the wilpons will (unfortunately) be the last thing he “tackles.” ugh…
you forgot making mid summer classic popularity contest actually count for something besides honoring first half achievements
Most people enjoy the Wild Card and Inter League Play, baseball was the only sport that didn’t have them and it wasn’t better for it. Moving the Astros to the American League was nothing. I live here in Houston and hardly anyone cares about that at all.
I’d have to say that interleague has run it’s course in most circumstance. I was at a White Sox-Dodgers weekend day game at Comiskey last summer that only drew 15,000. Some of the interleague is more intriguing than others. But I doubt that most Astros fans care more because the Kansas City Royals are in town.
Your too old , let go.
Come on people, Bud Selig looks like a godsent compared to that spineless and lousy excuse for a commissioner they have in the NFL
And the NHL. It looks like labour problems are going to hit again soon.
Sure he bends over backward to keep the players union and evilempires happy
This is like bringing up a national election on a baseball message board. Makes no sense.
I’m not sure how you have a baseball commissioner who must act in the “best interest of baseball” when he’s beholden to team owners for his very job.
And the player’s union scares him
Why, Bud? You promised! Go home. Go fishing. Take a trip. Go away!
Better than Goodell..
Funny how Selig was the Commissioner during the Steroid Era and is NOW going to be kept on for another two years right when some of the BIGGEST name alleged steroid abusers are going to become eligible for the Hall Of Fame.
Is he being kept on so he can rail against those players and try and keep them from getting elected or is he being kept on so he can cheerlead for them so they have a better chance at getting elected?
I don’t think he will have any effect on whether or not they will get into the Hall.
Sheesh, ya’ll don’t get sarcasm.
We do when it’s not very poorly done.
I, honestly, do not understand the overwhelming dislike for this extension.
He’s a terrible commissioner, plain and simple…
Selig has a best interests of the game clause; in other words, he can broker anything between teams/owners.
If Selig wanted to, he could force the Wilpons to sell the Mets, now that they aren’t capable owners due to the financial problems. Instead, the Mets will continue to be terrible and twist in the wind.
And, the A’s/Giants territorial rights issue. If Selig wanted to, he could use his clause to force Giants ownership to reach a settlement on the San Jose territorial rights. Instead, it continues to drag on.
Every franchise being solvent is in the best interests of all 30 teams.
I’m not going to get started on the wildcards/interleague.
Can’t speak for other fanbases, but I’ll tell you that to us in Queens this is terrible news. You hit it right on the head, “Instead, the Mets will continue to be terrible and twist in the wind.”
Hopes: deleted
In all honesty, there isn’t really much left for Bud to screw up that he hasn’t already.
Son of a _____
Will he ever retire?
what a sad day for baseball
Wild cards for everybody!!!!
I knew it – especially a year ago when he announced he would be retiring end of 2012 season and his wife commented ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’.
Weren’t the 15-team leagues and year round interleague play going to be his last legacy on the game?
I wonder what we’re gonna see in two years…
The game needs a Commissioner who first and foremost loves the game.
At one time it seems like Bob Costas was that person. Any better ideas than that today?
He even sold his own teams city down the drain. Mil alway had plenty of good fans but since bud took over they couldn’t keep up with the big boys except once a decade or so they would do good but then couldn’t keep their players because of the big boys buying all the good players.
well at least another two years of garbage
I have a very firm rule against wishing harm upon anyone. It simply isn’t a polite or civilized thing to do. That being said, there are still moments in time where such bad thoughts creep in and linger. This would be one of those times.
Wasn’t Selig finally gonna retire after the 2012 season. He needs to go away not remain the Commissioner
WHY????????????
Selig is a bum. Probably one of the worst Commissioners in the history of the game. He should be sitting in a home playing bingo in his diaper.
When asked why he signed the extension, Selig simply stated, “For baseball reasons.”
Too bad for the Cincinateral Reds, the Los Anglees Angles of Anaheim, and the Los Anglees Dodgers.
All hail the fuhrer.
As long as Selig gets to work on an organized international draft, I don’t really care. It’s not likely someone that much better is going to appear from the woodworks.
A high school graduate with a love of the game could do a better job than Selig.
aw man i was so looking forward to this
Bud S. needs to quit Now!! what a joke ! his ideas are so wrong,and don’t make any sense, like having two wild card teams ,why reward another 2nd place team a chance of getting a opportunity of winning when they didn’t earn it ! instead why not have 4 divsions ,and only first place winner’s battle it out ,like it should be ! The one thing that Bud S. did was run to Uncle Sam, to clean up his mess & that was the biggest mistake he ever made, and he will be remember for crying for help because he could not handle his own business !We all have to take care of our own home,and happens at home stay’s at home.Bud S. get your business in order.!
If I made $22 M/Yr I’d sure as hell be holding on as long as possible too.
I wonder what he does on a day to day basis. $22 mil is a lot of cash money
Bottom line- he presided over the era that made both the players and owners richer and richer. What have we as fans gotten in the deal? Lame duck owners, raising ticket prices and a whole lot of hypocrisy. My New Year’s Resolution for 2012 is to go to more minor league games.
I remember back in 1994, the USA Today Baseball Weekly as it was called, had an article about Bud Selig and how he would go to some diner every day for lunch and order some lunch that cost him $1.00. People started hassling him there so he had to stop going to there for the rest of the strike.
I bet that eats at him until this day.
I didn’t approve this!
I would just like to say how much I hate you Bud Selig. That is all.
Agree 100% Attwood.
Selig isn’t that great but people need to get with the times. Divisional baseball is great. Without divisional baseball and having a wild card the Marlins, D-Backs, and many other teams would have never made it into the playoffs if it was still like the old format and many of those teams would have never gotten a world series. Unless you’re a Yankee fan or of equivalent big market team baseball seasons would be boring because the chances of making it into the post season is slim to none. The 2011 Cardinals is the best example of this.
I honestly wouldn’t mind if they were to expand playoffs to NFL format.
First round
3 game series:
Wild Card vs Wild card
Wild Card vs Wild card
Divisional 5 game series:
*Best record team vs First round wild card winner
*Second best record team vs first round wild card winner
Championship Series 7 games:
Blank vs Blank
World Series 7 games.
12 teams get in and the ones with the best record get the benefits of playing with a advantage.
Either way, he’s 10 times better than David Stern.
Um the Cardinals as a wildcard knocked out a much smaller-market team that happened to be in their division in 2011, and they are historically the winningest in their division. That is pretty much the opposite of the point you’re trying to make. Just saying.
He’s screwed up the All Star Game, he’s screwed up the draft, I’m afraid of what he’s going to destroy between now and 2014. (I do like the new Wild Cards… I could care less that the Astros are in the American League).
Bud’s next job must have fell through. Apparently Satan wouldn’t give up his throne and retire this year.
I’ve been against Bud for a long time and the fact that he remains as baseball’s main man isn’t surprising. The owners love him because he does everything he can to be on their side.
However, lets not forget he’s done some good things for the interest of the game. Those of you shouting about traditional baseball and all that need to realize that baseball does need to change to stay relevant and keep making money. The new playoffs, unbalanced schedules and interleague are to draw more fans.
Wildcard teams, think about it, if we just went the route of an NL and AL, played everyone and then the top two teams record-wise went to the world series, once the Yankees and Red Sox broke away, whats to keep Rangers fans, even though their team has a winning record but is 10 games out of first, coming to games?
Wildcard teams also help, it creates more exciting races so your fringe teams can make it in, keeping the fans interested longer in their team as long as they still have a shot to make it to the post season.
Interleague play is the same thing. It ensures that two times a year you get to play your cross town or inner state rivals. If you get more people in an area interested in the same game instead of dividing it up between two, tickets will sell. I loved going to the Reds/Indians series when I was living in Ohio. It was a friendly rivalry and even though both teams were bad a the time, the stadium was almost always full.
There is a place for tradition and a place for growth. I think the NL should always bat the pitcher and the AL should always have a DH. I think All-Star games should be who the best players are, let the fans vote but their vote only counts as ONE vote along side the writers and coaches etc.
One change I think needs drastically overlooked is their blackout policy. Why can’t I pay MLB to show me the Reds in Charlotte, NC just because they have a network deal here (8 hours away from Cincy) that MIGHT show the Reds 30 times a year when they don’t feel like showing the Braves, Red Sox, Orioles or Nationals games? Make the game more accessible to the fans.
Change is good, we can keep tradition alive but still allow change for the better of the game. If you really want to be pure traditionalists then we have to go back and remove all colored people from baseball and only play games during the day, when we’re all at work. I don’t think any of us want that.
Sorry for the long rant but I’m ticked that Bud is still commish and also frustrated with reading some of the posts about “this isn’t how baseball should be.” As long as they aren’t make games 12 innings (or 6 for that matter), making steroids mandatory and stuff like that it’ll remain the game we all love, just making it easier for more people to love it longer.
You left out collusion in 1994 when Fay Vincent called Selig and Reinsdorf thieves.
Like I said, I’m not a fan of Bud and its not secrete he’s the owners’ commish.
I like your views on change in baseball. My issue is that in the long run there is potential to change the baseball product so much that it no longer appeals to anyone. Baseball needs to try and lead the pack in professional sports and not try and mimic other professional sports. Baseball has always been a game of innovation. If an attempt is going to be made to create a new market for the game that alters the integity of the game on the field…then MLB seriously needs to question if they aren’t building a deck of cards.
Baseball has many things that are almost solely pure to it as an American sport. MLB needs to capitalize on that aspect. When so many other professional sports are marginalizing the fan base….baseball needs to go the opposite and creative direction and embrace the fans back. I’m waiting to see if MLB can grow a pair and take major risks.
I’m personally blacked out of 7 MLB teams. Only 2 of them actually broadcast locally at all. What that actually means is that there are almost half the games on a given night that I cannot see due to this archaic policy. It boggles my mind why if you have a product to sell…you don’t SELL it. I have MLBtv…..and they won’t even sell the blacked out games to me.
God help us all.
I think MLB gave Bud Selig two years contract extension so during this two years. all 29 teams who voted yes to give him a contract extension will get as many bud light as they want to
How many signatures are required to recall Bud Selig?
29-1? and so many people dislike him, it makes me proud to be a padres fan. At least we keep it real if we do nothing else…