This otherwise unreadable article in the Boston Globe Magazine did give me one thing to think about:

In April, Forbes magazine published a series in which it claimed that Major League Baseball had made $75 million last year. Of course, the commissioner of baseball responded to this particular outburst of optimism - with which he had a difference of opinion of a mere $307 million - by dismissing the reporting of the staid old financial publication, comparing it to a "supermarket tabloid."

...

Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, asked him a question that nobody likes to hear in any formal proceeding, and she asked it three times: ``Are you aware, sir, that you're under oath?''
Selig was testifying about his stated plan to eliminate two Major League teams in response to what he maintains is a looming fiscal catastrophe, while the committee wanted to talk about the antitrust exemption. The commissioner claimed, once again, that the 30 baseball owners lost a combined $232 million last year. Asked for specifics, Selig hedged. The committee members looked at him as if he were a space alien. ``He completely stupefied people,'' recalls one committee staffer.

WorldCom, Enron, Tyco and other coporate frauds have made publice investors very wary of the numbers being touted by all corporations. I don't know what the fallout will be, but my guess is that companies that want to keep their stock prices above $1 will become more and more transparent as to where money is coming and going. This will be especially true if executives start going to jail. I have no doubt that someone at WorldCom will be tried for fraud. Which brings us to Bud.

Selig has testified that baseball lost $232 million in 2001. Baseball's not a public company, so he really doesn't have to make the finances public. But he's testified under oath before Congress as to baseball's losses. What if he's cooking the books, as Forbes seems to be implying? If that's true, did Bud commit perjury? That seems to be what Rep. Waters' question was getting at. Maybe this is the way to get rid of Selig. Like getting Al Capone for tax evasion. Maybe, in the wake of Enron and WorldCom we should write our Congressmen and ask them to see if Selig committed perjury. Get them to supeona MLB records. (I wonder if Andersen was their accountant?) Then maybe they could work a deal where Selig leaves baseball or goes to jail. That would be a just reward.