I am sooo glad that we now have a new MLB. Commissioner! While Mr Manfred has already discussed things like pitch clocks and banning defensive shifts....both if which I would disagree with...he cannot possibly be as bad...or screw up Major League Baseball as much as his predecessor was or did! Selig had the job for 20 years...either as head if the executive council, acting commissioner or commissioner....all the time declaring that he did not want the job or that it was just temporary! Sure! I can think of a few positives that came out of his time as commish...there has been nearly 20years if peace between the owners and the mlbpa...and of course under his watch so many of the new beautiful ballparks opened....in fact, now only the As share a stadium with an nfl team. But...in my opinion, the negatives far outweigh the positives with this dude.... First off...the commissioner is supposed to be INDEPENDENT! Someone who is not subject to undue influence by either the players or the owners. He WAS an owner....part of the good old boys network..in fact He, along with the other owners, following the resignation of Fay Vincent voted to restrict the commissioner authority to act in the best interests of baseball, then put himself in the job...so the idea that he was independent is laughable. Second, the commissioners office is designed to be baseballs problem solving mechanism..not the driving force behind changing the fundamental structure if the game....which he did. The structure of MLB changed more under his watch than at any other time in the history if the game. Some call it evolution.....but I say the line between evolution and mutation was breached! Let me just rant a but and list his crimes 1. He allowed Over expansion which has diluted the overall talent pool...after the rox and fish joined they should have left it be. 1.a the expansions were in large part to help the owners recoup their losses after the collusion scandal...giving 280 million in settlements to the players after getting caught conspiring to keep salaries low....which he was an accomplice to since he still was an owner at the time. 2. He essentially forced the 1994 strike, ending what was shaping up to be a GREAT overall season and canceling the World Series, by trying to jam a salary cap,down the unions throats. Yes, the union acted greedily, like all unions seem to do in contract negotiations, but Selig and the owners wanted again to get the union to help themselves out of the collusion debts by finding ways to keep labor costs low 3. Attempting to use replacement players in 1995... This was a stupid idea! Regardless of the opinion of using scab labor,The concept that fans would pay MLB ticket prices to see non MLB talent is utterly moronic! If you cant have real MLB baseball players, you dont play MLB baseball,,period. 4. Perpetuation of the PED hypocrisy. After the strike MLB attendance dropped 25 percent, and the owners were losing money....the situation was improving but slowly...then along came McGwire and Sosa and the 98 Maris record chase.....and suddenly people started paying attention to, and caring about, and paying money to MLB! And the teams started making money again. And they turned a deaf ear to the first questions and accusations about cheating by PED use. They KNEW...unless they were all complete idiots....which may be possible....but the idea that over 4 seasons, 3guys, who all had mysteriously bulked up like the Michelin tire guy would eclipse the 60 home run mark a combined 6 times....which had been done a grand total of twice in the preceding 90 years, was just a coincidence was ridiculous on its face. But the owners didnt give a damn, they were making money again...BUT...when the shit hit the fan and the reporters started really digging and Canseco wrote his tell all book and people started getting angry....Selig began his well rehearsed indignant press conferences, where he swore up and down how MLB and the ownership groups were OUTRAGED at the specter of cheating and vowed to clean up the game, when he didnt do anything about it when PED. Use essentially saved baseball! Late October/November baseball playoffs. The The additional playoff rounds are forcing the game later into the year. Im not including the 2001 season because the extension was because of the 9/11 postponements. In 2010, the giants won game 5 on November 1, had the series gone seven games we would have seen the first ever time that we knew the outcome of a national election before we knew the outcome of a World Series because the series would have ended nov 4. Lets not forget how fees king cold it was in Detroit in 2012....imagine other cold weather cities that dont have domed stadiums or retractable roofs.... When it was suggested that spring training and opening day be moved back a week...Selig dismissed the idea because the weather might create some issues on opening day in cold weather cities....So, Buddy, its wrong for the weather to affect home openers in Say, Minnesota or Chicago....BUT...its okay for the weather to affect the world freaking Series!?!? 5. The NFL-ization of MLB I know Im coming off like a cranky 48 year old geezer here, but am I wrong in thinking there was nothing wrong with Major League Baseball before 1992? If it aint broke dont fix it....thats my philosophy. Why?,Why did Selig feel the need to force changes onto the game, other than the obvious reason that it makes the owners more money! Baseball was unique to all other team sports, and that to me is a part of the appeal, so why in Gods name would you want to make baseball more like football? I hate wild cards in baseball....the giants in 02 and last season notwithstanding. In my lifetime the total number of MLB playoff teams has gone from 2 to 4 to 8 and now to 10, and it wouldnt surprise me if they try and shoehorn a couple more in somehow, Bob Costas called the 1993 season the last great pennant race, referring to the fight between the giants and braves. The wild card would I. His opinion, and has in my opinion, diluted the excitement of a lot of pennant races, when the results are that both teams make the post season anyway....i cant help but wonder...if the giants had not had the possibility of a wild card Beth still as an option, would the play in the las six dodger games been any different?A race can and should have only one winner. And now with 2 wildcard teams, we now have the very real possibility that a team can finish third in their division and still win the World Series. Costas suggested, and I agree, that the three division format should have only the. three division winners in the post season, with a first round bye and automatic LCS berth to the team with the best record in each league. I hate inter league. It has completely eroded all the mystique that the World Series and to a lesser extent the allstar game had. The leagues were always separate entities....and the addition of the DH in the AL ( booooo) made the difference more vivid. In my opinion, the 3 World Series...v Texas, Detroit, and Kansas City....should have been the first time these teams had EVER played each other in a non-exhibition game.... There is strong evidence that this has also been at least partly responsible for the decline in baseballs television audience for NATIONAL broadcasts......the playoffs, espn game of the week etc. now a growing percentage of fans will only watch a game their team is playing in....only hardcore fans like myself consistently watch games between teams other than their own. And guess when this trend began....YUP right about the time Mr. Selig took the reins? The jury is out in my mind on instant replay.... I get the notion of wanting to get calls correct.,,as much as I cant stand St. Louis, there is zero question that they had a World Series title taken away by a BLATANT blown call from umpire Don Denkinger.... But I dont like the way managers walk out to stall for time while their people review the video to see if a call should be challenged...but I definitly hate...HARE HATE HATE the fact that it has taken away manager umpire arguments in a lot of cases. I loved manager vs umpire meltdowns....especially the rants of borderline psychos like Billy Martin and Earl Weaver... We may be getting more calls right...but at what cost...baseball has lost a big part of its character and soul....partially sterilized in the name of getting every call right. So I am not sure where I stand on that....I would only allow it in the post season, but thats just my opinion. Im not angry or bitter about the changes...I accept that things are the way they are, but like I said before, there is. A difference between evolution and mutation. Baseball was fine , no GREAT, before Selig saw fit to try and change it. Ive said it before and Ill say it again, I want a former PLAYER to be in the commissioners chair! Someone who understands the game, because theyve actually PLAYED the game. Someone who understands that the little details matter, and someone who doesnt always put the almighty dollar as the highest priority when making decisions. Make Hank Aaron the commissioner....or Cal Ripken, or Nolan Ryan, or any number of other former players who could and would serve the game well. But that will never happen....these rich and powerful people who purchase franchises...and are the stewards of the game, will always make sure it is one of them...or at the very least someone who thinks like them and focus on Baseball as business, rather than baseball as tradition, pastime, vital piece of our national culture. What will commissioner Manfred do as commissioner....what legacy will he leave when he leaves the job.....I dont know....but I do know this, it will take a special kind of stupid to hurt the game as much as Mr Selig has. Rant Off
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 22:27:27 +0000
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