This Bud's for who?

The controversies continue for baseball's commissioner

In the curious appreciation of Bud Selig, commissioner: So far as we can tell, all of his fellow owners, those who elevated him to his position of grandeur, are positively beguiled by him. Nobody else thinks he's worth a tinker's dam.

In fact, for a long while, Selig was generally thought of as an affable cipher who was probably manipulated by more forceful owners. After all, baseball has propped up such front men before. Of one commissioner it was famously said, "an empty cab pulled up to the curb and out stepped Ford Frick." Another, Gen. William Eckert, was everywhere referred to as "the unknown soldier."

But it has become difficult lately to dismiss Selig as an innocent. His fingerprints were all over the sale of the Boston Red Sox to the consortium he favored. He unilaterally cut off labor negotiations last summer and then sprung his plan to eliminate two franchises without so much as giving the union a by-your-leave. Recently it was revealed that Selig, during the time he owned the Brewers, took out a loan from Twins owner Carl Pohlad, which is clearly against the rules Selig is supposed to commission.

Finally, and most suspiciously, Selig pushed for the elimination of that Minnesota franchise, which would not only mean a windfall buyout to the Twins owner -- Selig's former creditor -- but which would also open up the upper midwest, thereby bringing new fans and TV revenue to the Brewers, which Selig's family still owns. Not since King David sent Uriah the Hittite into the front lines to be killed, thereby allowing the widow Bathsheba to fall into David's embrace, has a planned contraction appeared so convenient.

Very quickly, Selig has, in some minds, gone from stooge to Machiavelli. But wherever in between the real man lies, the fact is Selig does not present himself well. He appears disheveled, rather like the absent-minded professor, and his speech is flat and disjointed. To be sure, this is hardly a golden age of oratory. None of the other sports commissioners gracefully command the language either, but a commissioner is the tribune of his sport, and public appearances do matter greatly.

Both the NFL and NBA have risen in the sports firmament largely because the owners in those sports have dared to choose more dynamic leaders who have built public esteem upon the pedestal of internal power. There was something I found terribly sad and insulting when Selig testified before Congress not long ago, claiming financial distress for his sport, and he was immediately assaulted for, in effect, Enron-izing the balance sheets.

No, I don't know the numbers. And I do know that any baseball commissioner today has a more trying job because the union is so strong and unforgiving. But when the commissioner is treated so shabbily by Congress, and the press hints that he is guilty of chicanery, then the whole sport suffers. I doubt that baseball will ever be able to put its troubles behind until the owners choose a well-known figure of authority and presence who can respectfully command the public trust.

Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His new novel, The Other Adonis (Sourcebooks Landmark), is available now at bookstores everywhere.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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