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Selig getting job done
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Also by Greg Schmitz:
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A lot has happened in sports, both locally and nationally, since we rang in the new year.
In Madison, the Badger football team lost their bowl game, while the men’s basketball team started the Big Ten season 6-0 before losing at Purdue over the weekend.
Nationally, we’ve seen the Roger Clemens saga and the heads of baseball brought before Congress for the second time in three years.
In the NFL the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl with their undefeated record, and we had to hear all last week — and probably the rest of this week as well — about Tom Brady’s ankle, or as ESPN called it, “Bootgate.”
However, with all that has gone on in sports over the last month, one thing has largely flown under the radar. Shortly after Bud Selig appeared with former Sen. George Mitchell and Players Association head Donald Fehr in front of Congress, the baseball owners voted to extend Selig’s contract through 2012.
While it may not have received as much attention as other events, extending Selig’s contract is a good thing for baseball, even though many probably disagree with that statement. Yes, Selig has made some bad moves over his 16-year run, but he has made many more good ones.
Of course, his tenure didn’t get off to the best start when the players went on strike in 1994, forcing him to cancel the World Series for the first time since 1904. Baseball took a huge hit from that strike, but since then Selig has guided the sport to its longest period of peace in its history. He also led baseball through the first peaceful negotiations in 2002, avoiding a work stoppage for the first time since 1970 when the collective bargaining agreement was signed only a few hours before the deadline.
Selig also held on to the Milwaukee Brewers too long. He should have sold the team the minute he became the permanent commissioner in 1998. While his daughter was running the team, the fact that he still had ownership stake in the team was a conflict of interest. Also, I don’t think it is any coincidence that the Brewers’ last winning season before this past season was in 1992, the year Selig became the acting commissioner.
Nevertheless, Selig has also done a lot of good for baseball. Selig has increased revenue by almost 400 percent, seen the attendance record broken year after year and introduced interleague play. He also implemented revenue sharing, which is the closest thing baseball probably will ever see to a salary cap.
However, the greatest thing the Selig has done for baseball is creating three divisions in each league and introducing the wild card in 1994. While some say the wild card reduces the importance of winning the division and the excitement of the pennant races, I think it only makes September more exciting. Now there are eight races to follow instead of four, and if a team starts to run away with a division, good teams can still be excited about the possibility of going to the playoffs with the wild card.
No matter what Selig has done for the sport though, he will most likely always be remembered for being the top dog during the steroid era. Now I’m not going to say Selig shouldn’t take any of the blame for the steroid era, but he shouldn’t take all, or even most of it. In front of Congress, he did the right thing by personally accepting responsibility for the steroid era, but Fehr and the Players Association need to also accept some of the blame.
In trying to get steroid testing implemented, Selig was going up against the strongest union, not just in sports, but in the whole country. He had tried to get testing in baseball earlier, but the union and Fehr would not budge until Congress basically forced them to. And since that time, Selig was also able to reopen the CBA in the middle of a contract to toughen the testing and penalties. He is starting to take baseball out of the steroid era and deserves the chance to see this process through.
If nothing else good comes from Selig’s extension, at least it will prevent President Bush from going from the White House to the commissioner’s office, which he before showed interest in as his post-presidency job.
Greg Schmitz is a senior majoring in communication arts. If you don’t think Selig deserved the extension, let him know at gschmitz@badgerherald.com.
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how can you defend selig?! he’s a criminal. he ALLOWED the player’s union; he wasn’t a product of it. he ruined the integrity of baseball and now it’s a complete mess. he deserves no sympathy from any of us!
players union to get so strong*
He should have gotten rid of the brewers the moment he got the commisioners job permenently. He turned his back on the steroid issue because all the home runs brought asses back into baseball parks. He represents the teams and the owners and had no balls to step up to Donald Fehr and the players union. The wild card and expansion to 3 divisions was good though.