Strong stuff from Peter Gammons, who considers "the perception of mistrust with the Commissioner's Office" the game's biggest problem, and calls for change.
This past October we saw how good baseball can be, but it needs someone or something to blast it forward into the 21st century.
You'll be disappointed if you wanted more rumours about trades and free agents; this column is a "state of the game" lament, including the steroid issue and the spectre of collusion, directed at Bud and his credibility. Gammons calls it "a resounding embarrassment to baseball" that Wisconsin legislators and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are calling for audits of the local team's books.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Selig doesn't own the Brewers (wink, wink). No one can blame Selig for his annoyance with his image and public perception, but part of leadership is a balance of perception and reality; see Churchill, Reagan and J.F. Kennedy. And Selig does not exactly stand out in front of the game he loves a dashing, dynamic presence. The public perception is that he isn't a legitimate commissioner because he is an owner, and while no commissioner is really independent, the interim nature of his rise created perception problems. Then throw in the fact that the Brewers have been an abject disaster for a decade. Now these questions, raised by taxpayers who paid for Selig's park and legislators that he lobbied and it is necessary for all questions to be cleared up posthaste for it not to taint the man who is bringing Pete Rose back into the game.
Second, there is the Montreal issue, which might rival Rose's betting on Reds games as their manager for scandalous implications. Jayson Stark's piece detailing all the conflicts of this situation -- from the fact that the 29 other clubs who own the Expos have to be privy to any offers made to Vladimir Guerrero or anyone else, to the clear implication that the owners of the wild-card contenders did not want any further September expenses, which in turn helped their own teams in the race, raise issues that may not go away.
Gammons doesn't suggest that everything wrong with baseball is all Selig's fault; he shares some of the blame with the 28 owners and the MLBPA. I agree that both sides should work less in their own self-interests and more to improve the game, but I don't think that process can begin while one man, supposedly not involved with either team, makes a mess of two franchises.
Selig should resign and pay attention to the Brewers before the city turns on him. The next Commissioner should be a baseball fan, not an owner or a labour lawyer. The position requires strong mediation skills, respect from both sides and fluency with the media -- is Bill Clinton interested?
This past October we saw how good baseball can be, but it needs someone or something to blast it forward into the 21st century.
You'll be disappointed if you wanted more rumours about trades and free agents; this column is a "state of the game" lament, including the steroid issue and the spectre of collusion, directed at Bud and his credibility. Gammons calls it "a resounding embarrassment to baseball" that Wisconsin legislators and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are calling for audits of the local team's books.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Selig doesn't own the Brewers (wink, wink). No one can blame Selig for his annoyance with his image and public perception, but part of leadership is a balance of perception and reality; see Churchill, Reagan and J.F. Kennedy. And Selig does not exactly stand out in front of the game he loves a dashing, dynamic presence. The public perception is that he isn't a legitimate commissioner because he is an owner, and while no commissioner is really independent, the interim nature of his rise created perception problems. Then throw in the fact that the Brewers have been an abject disaster for a decade. Now these questions, raised by taxpayers who paid for Selig's park and legislators that he lobbied and it is necessary for all questions to be cleared up posthaste for it not to taint the man who is bringing Pete Rose back into the game.
Second, there is the Montreal issue, which might rival Rose's betting on Reds games as their manager for scandalous implications. Jayson Stark's piece detailing all the conflicts of this situation -- from the fact that the 29 other clubs who own the Expos have to be privy to any offers made to Vladimir Guerrero or anyone else, to the clear implication that the owners of the wild-card contenders did not want any further September expenses, which in turn helped their own teams in the race, raise issues that may not go away.
Gammons doesn't suggest that everything wrong with baseball is all Selig's fault; he shares some of the blame with the 28 owners and the MLBPA. I agree that both sides should work less in their own self-interests and more to improve the game, but I don't think that process can begin while one man, supposedly not involved with either team, makes a mess of two franchises.
Selig should resign and pay attention to the Brewers before the city turns on him. The next Commissioner should be a baseball fan, not an owner or a labour lawyer. The position requires strong mediation skills, respect from both sides and fluency with the media -- is Bill Clinton interested?
