Bud Selig is upset that people blame him for the steroid era:

"I don't want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn't care about it," Selig said. "That annoys the you-know-what out of me. You bet I'm sensitive to the criticism. The reason I'm so frustrated is, if you look at our whole body of work, I think we've come farther than anyone ever dreamed possible."

Bud blames the union for fighting him on the issue. It's a valid point, but Bud was in charge, and fair or not, the person in charge gets the blame. Maybe if Bud and the owners hadn't spent the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s trying to rid themselves of the union, they might have gained more cooperation when people started to realize that players were using PEDs.

TangoTiger makes the argument that Selig is overpaid. I disagree in the comments.

Just before the tech bubble burst in 2000, News Corp went on a buying spree, snapping up high-tech companies including the one for which I worked, STATS, Inc. These companies were combined into a new organization, News Digital Media, or something like that. Of all the companies New Corp bought, STATS was the only one which turned a profit. It was the only one that survived. Selig is getting paid for results, not for potential future profits.

Bud Selig made more money in 2007 than all but four MLB players. Sam Borden delivers the snark, but Selig earned it. MLB generates a huge stream of revenue, and over the last two CBA more of that is staying with the teams and less with the players. Major League Baseball is a very successful enterprise, and the leader of that should be rewarded. He's not the president of a failing bank, after all.

ShysterBall comments on the law firm used by Major League Baseball:

That aside, this reads like a sales brochure for Foley. Or for any other large firm, really. My experience working for such places tells me, however, that whenever lawyers talk to you about how they'll "think proactively" for you and serve as "facilitators" it really means that they'll continue billing you at a healthy clip when there aren't any deals on the table and there isn't much pending litigation. Personally speaking? I'd rather hire smart salaried people in-house to, in Braza's words, "think about the next thing I have coming down the road" and have my expensive, outside, hourly lawyers on stand-by for bigger problems.

It's always a buyer's market for legal services as long as you at least try to approach it as such. The days where you can just hire the biggest firm in town and delegate all of your thinking to them like Major League Baseball seems to have done with Foley is a thing of the past.

Update: He also catches Selig using a Yogi Berra quote that doesn't appear to have come from Yogi.

Update: It appears they found the quote!

Bud Selig buys an ad in the Houston Chronicle to explain why the game against the Cubs were moved to Milwaukee. Astros fans are reacting here.

Hat tip, BBTF.

MLB started fining managers for slow games.

We've Got Heart produces their first installment in their Women in Baseball Series. They interview Lucy Calautti, lobbyist for Major League Baseball.

Bud Selig a problem with his private plane. The plane landed safely, and no one was hurt luckily.

I do find it a bit amusing that Selig flies out of Mitchell Airport. I also wonder if people are going to start complaining about Bud wasting fuel by flying an energy hog private jet instead of a commercial airliner.

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I can save Major League Baseball $14 million a year. That's roughly $450,000 per team per year, enough to pay for one first year player. How do I accomplish this feat? I'll take the job of commissioner for a mere $1 million per year.

MLB, I await your call.

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The owners extended Bug Selig's contract through 2012.

The new pact arrives after more than two years of continued and strident insistence he would retire after his current contract expires in December 2009, a stance that include his telling SportsBusiness Journal in late 2006, "There's not a doubt in my mind that at the end of 2009 I'm retiring," citing in part a steady stream of offers to teach and write his memoirs.

My fear is he'll stay commissioner long enough that someone conquers death and we're stuck with Bud for eternity.

I understand why the owners like Bud. He made them a lot of money. To his credit, he's done a good job of surrounding himself with capable executives. I just have a long time distrust of Bud, and saying he's going to retire then staying on for three more years doesn't make that any better.

The owners don't want Bud Selig to retire.

Selig has said he plans to retire in two years, when he's 75, but some owners think they can persuade him to stay on.

"Believe me, we're going to certainly try," Reinsdorf said. "The job is not done yet. He shouldn't leave until he knows that he's accomplished all he wants to accomplish and there's somebody in place to pick up the ball and go the rest of the way."

People are living a long time, and Bud looks and sounds healthy. He easily good be commissioner for another ten years.

I wonder, however, who will be the next commissioner? Will they want another owner, given Bud's financial success? Or will they go back to a model in which the commissioner at least appears to be on the fans side? I would hope that the owners would finally give the players a say in selecting the person running baseball.

For those with Baseball Prospectus subscriptions, my latest column explores how to elect the next commissioner.

The battle between Bud Selig and Jason Giambi heated up with a leak from the commissioner's office:

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is heading toward suspending Jason Giambi next week if the New York Yankees slugger does not cooperate with former senator George Mitchell's investigation on steroid use, according to a high-ranking MLB official.

The official, who talked with Selig but has not been granted permission to speak publicly because of ongoing talks, said Selig wants Giambi's decision by Tuesday.

I don't see the point of this. If anything, Selig should have taken Giambi's remarks as a starting point, and encouraged him and others to speak out more. Now it will just be another labor/management fight that might set back all the cooperation the sides achieved over the last few years. If you are a subscriber to Baseball Prospectus, see my latest column for how I would handle this.

Baseball needs to create an environment where the players can talk publicly and honestly about past steroid use so we can all discuss the subject with facts. Selig's leak does just the opposite.

If you're going to work for a sport's commissioner, you should work for MLB:

Baseball's central office paid $77.3 million in salaries and benefits to 231 employees, the report said. The NFL paid $41.5 million to 839 employees in 12 months ending March 31 last year and the NHL $13.9 million to 56 employees in the year ending June 30, 2005, when staff was reduced because of a lockout.

Bud received $14.5 million in 2005, although some of that was for expenses. It sounds like he's making more money as commissioner than as an owner! By the way, I don't have a problem with this at all. It just speaks to the success of the game.

Bud Selig left the door open to stay on as commissioner on Thursday:

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig hedged slightly on his retirement plans on Thursday, saying he intends to leave in 2009 but that he's learned "never to say never."

That's pretty much what happened last time. Selig was going to retire, but the owners convinced him to stay. I don't think it will take very much convincing.

Bud Selig spoke on ESPN Radio this morning, and a reader sends this summary:

While being stuck in a truly nightmarish traffic jam this morning, David, I had the opportunity to hear Bud Selig tell Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio that though the DirecTV deal is not yet done, still Mike would be surprised how very few people are effected by this loss of programming. Selig said that some committee incuding folks like Tom Werner had studied this potential deal and concluded it was the right thing to do. Should've known the Red Sox were involved in some way!:)And then of course, Bud went on to tell us again that there's lots of baseball available for viewing[just not the out-of-market team of your choice, cable subscribers]. He also said that when the deal is finally done, he or Bob DuPuy will come back on ESPN and discuss it fully with them. And of course, he was noncommittal on just about anything else mentioned. And he reiterated that we still have 3 more years of his "reign."

I would actually be surprised if Werner was in favor of this deal. I don't think John Kerry would come out against the contract if his supporters in the Red Sox organization were for it.

Jerry Crasnick examines possible candidates to replace Bud Selig when the current commissioner retires in 2009. That is, if he retires. Somehow, I get the feeling that before Bud dies he's going to suspend his brain in a life support tank and keep running the game.

Jon Heyman at SI.com pens a love letter to Bud Selig:

Stern and Tagliabue have been accepting bouquets and taking bows for years, but the reality of their sports may finally be catching up to them, too late in Tagliabue's case. With Selig, it's the opposite. He got slammed hard for a few years, and now it's his turn to receive well-deserved congratulations. The awards are coming in at such a rate that Red Sox chairman Tom Werner recently commented to Selig, "When does the victory tour end?''

When Selig was announcing the cancellation of the remainder of the 1994 season, no one could have envisioned this. Back then, some folks would have given anything for Selig to step aside. Now it's the opposite. Now the small-market commissioner can do no wrong. Selig's famous for getting unanimous votes to support all his baseball causes, and the support for him within the game is about that now. Outside the game, it's growing, too.

"In the '90s, when we were really trying to change things, a lot of things, particularly the economic landscape, it was painful,'' Selig said in an interview this week with SI.com. "With change, there frankly was a lot of frustration. Baseball is a social institution, and social institutions are especially resistant to change.''

I doubt I'll ever be a fan of Bud. The whole "let's break the union" gambit of the early 1990's which eventually ended in the 1994 World Series cancellation was wrong headed and unproductive. His lying about the inability to small market franchises to win when Oakland had hit upon the formula and Minnesota was about to showed me his lack of imagination.

I will credit Bud, however, with learning from his mistakes. Over a decade of relative labor peace brought fans back. Instead of trying to destroy the union, the teams learned to live with it and realize that both can survive just fine. Baseball also embraced the Internet, reversing the trend of rejecting new media (radio, TV) because they thought it would reduce attendance. Instead, these media create a bigger fan base. Good for Bud on that.

So to me, Bud's record is mixed. Right now he's on a high, but the NBA and NFL went through their highs as well. Baseball might not have reached the low if Bud had convinced the owners that growth through labor peace was more important than breaking the union.

Bud Selig announced he's retiring at the end of his current contract. Bud has a way of hanging around, although this is more definitive than last time:

And it looks like I'll be resetting my countdown clock:

Q: Are you considering retirement after the next CBA?

A: My response to a question was are you still having fun and I said I'm not sure I'd use "fun" to describe what I'm doing. But it's very challenging. I've done this all my adult life and my contact's up at the end of 2006, at which time I'll be 71 years old. I've said to a lot of people, "I promise you now we'll talk about it in the next year." And I'm open to staying but we'll see what happens. So I have two and a half years - longer than that, maybe.

Maury Brown at The Hardball Times wonders why family ownership was so important to Bud Selig in the selling of the Washington Nationals, and not so important in the selling of the Braves. Obviously, Bud watches Sesame Street with his children and knows there are lot of different kinds of families. :-)

Brought to you by David Wells. It seems the Boston left hander doesn't like Bud Selig:

"And he's entitled to that [opinion]. He pays a lot of money to these guys," Wells said. "If he needs to apologize to the fans, so be it. They get a lot of traffic down there in Tampa to see the Yankees. People want to see Derek Jeter. So if he wants to post a sign that says I apologize for [him] not being here, he owns the place. If Bud has a problem with it, tell him to go take it down himself. And then I'd re-post it again."

"This is just something where Bud is bored. He has no clue. He's clueless," Wells said. "If you say something derogatory toward Bud, he wants an apology. My question is, why is he even wasting his time on something like that? What's the purpose? Does he have to let people know that he's there? Tell him to come talk to me. I've had issues with him the last few years. He said, 'Oh, we need to talk.' He said, 'I'll take you to dinner when I come to Boston.' Has he done it? [Heck] no. He's a piece of [expletive]. And you can quote me on that."

Since Wells wasn't traded, maybe he's trying to get Selig to suspend him. Calling an umpire a piece of [expletive] gets you thrown out of a game. What does saying it about the commissioner get you?

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A Large Regular finds a reason to hold the owners meeting is in Arizona.

Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com raises some valid concerns about the length of the baseball season:

The commissioner wants it all — inter-league play and an unbalanced schedule, the WBC in March, an expanded postseason in October, all crammed into one overstuffed, eight-month package. Never mind the scheduling inequities or increased risk of injuries. At Bud's Diner, the buffet never ends.

Granted, the WBC will take place only every four years, but its mere addition to the schedule reinforces a basic truth about Major League Baseball, a dirty little secret that no one wants to acknowledge:

The season is too long.

Want vision? How about reducing the season from 162 games to 154, or even 140? The regular season in Japan consists of 138 games and the masses somehow endure. Give a little, get a little. But with MLB, there's no give.

A grueling six-month regular season is followed by an exhausting one-month postseason. Some players have adapted by using amphetamines to maintain their energy and steroids to boost their training capacity. Check out the disabled list at any point during the season: The players are stretched to their physical capacity and beyond.

There's no way the season is going to get any shorter. There is, of course, another way to reduce stress on players; expand the roster. I don't know when the roster was set in stone at 25 players, but I believe it's now too small. Teams keep growing their pitching staffs, reducing flexibility when it comes to position players. No one carries three catchers anymore. People like Rusty Staub, who stayed on teams as professional pinch hitters no longer exist in the NL (they go to the AL as DHs). Position players need to stay on the field more, because there are less players to replace them. Wouldn't it be great if the Reds could carry a defensive centerfielder to replace Griffey in blowouts? Mike Piazza could stay with the Mets as the top right-handed bat off the bench.

Here's an idea. People would like to see the DH go the way of the Dodo. One reason it hasn't is that DH is a high paying job, and the union doesn't want to see 14 high paying jobs disappear. Why not trade the DH for one or two more roster spots?

Maury Brown at The Hardball Times writes the first of a two part article examining the Major League Baseball Constitution.

A few comments in this post prompt a reader to start a new blog, Down With Bud, although the URL is http://theoforcommissioner.blogspot.com/. Stop by and wish the writer luck in his endeavor.

David Wells had choice words for the commissioner and others in the MLB organization today. Much as I like someone taking shots at Selig, Wells was just blowing off steam, spouting supposition as fact.

"I've been tested three times this year, but it's obvious that there's guys getting away with doing it," Wells said during a pregame news conference. "And he's not doing a thing."

When Caminiti and Canseco first made their steroid allegations, I was willing to believe them if they named names. Canseco eventually did. If Wells is so interested in cleaning up the sport, let's hear from him who is cheating. Or his he going to be like his teammate Curt Schilling, who when put on the line said he never saw steroid abuse going on, that he was just exaggerating. If people are cheating, let's hear the evidence. If Wells is unwilling to back up his allegations, he should keep his mouth shut and let the system work.

Bud Selig wants tougher penalties for drug abuse. Despite the fact that the players have already conceeded to reopening the CBA, and that testing seems to be working, Selig appears to be bending to Congressional pressure. I thought baseball owners owned the politicians.

Selig is blowing a chance to extend the cooperation between players and management. This is clearly a ploy to make the players look like the bad guys if they refuse the deal. It's too bad. I thought some trust had been developed between the parties. This has a potential to drive a wedge between the two sides once again.

I do agree on the amphetamine ban, however. If Selig had just asked for that in the context of the current testing, I'd support that. But this is going too far. As I've written before, the chance of a false positive is too high to have that harsh a penalty for a first offense.

Bill Kelly alerts me to this story:

Owners on Thursday unanimously voted to extend the term of baseball commissioner Bud Selig for three years through 2009.

Selig took over as acting commissioner in September 1992 after Fay Vincent resigned. Selig agreed to a five-year contract in July 1998 and then received a new five-year deal in November, 2001.

The 70-year-old Selig had previously indicated that he was set to retire when his contract expired on December 31, 2006, but changed his mind after much coaxing by the owners.

Another lie by Selig. And the great commissioner still hasn't resolved the Expos situation How much money can you hold out for Bud? How about doing something right for the players and the community that's going to receive them?

The baseball TV network should be interesting. MLB has done a good job with the internet, and the two should mesh nicely.

Update: And what's with this "unanimously" crap? Have you ever seen Selig take a vote where he doesn't have 30 owners in the bag? I can't believe that every owner agrees 100% with what Selig does. But by compromising enough and hectoring enough to get everyone to say yes, Bud stifles criticism from within. I, for one, would like to hear that criticism.

(Picture taken from this site.)

Update: From some of the comments, it strikes me that it wasn't obvious that you have to click on the picture to find out why it's there. That said, a reader made the following comment.

I know that Selig isn't all that well liked, and some of his decisions have been pretty poor (like everything regarding the all star game), but baseball is doing better than it has in years. Old fans are returning, new fans are made, attendance is up... things seem good. Isn't some of that attributed to Selig's leadership?

Seriously, I'm curious. I've yet to have a friend give me a decent answer, perhaps you could give me one. Why is Selig so hated?

I've been asked this question before, and in this post laid out my arguments against Bud. One thing I didn't put in the positives at that time was baseball's embrace of the internet. Rather than shun the new technology as they did with radio and television, MLB has done a great job of being at the cutting edge, providing statistics, audio and video coverage of their games.

But when you boil it all down, my sense is that Selig is not the commissioner of the fans. Fay Vincent was. Fay put his job on the line to stop an unneeded work stoppage in 1990. Fay cared about the fans. Since Vicent was deposed, there's been no one in MLB who a fan can trust, no one who holds his or her interest above all else.

In the above link, I suggest that we need a new way of selecting the commissioner, with input from the players and fans. It's my belief that we need a partnership between owners and players, and one way to get that is to have the two parties split the cost of the commissioner's office and each have a say in selecting the commissioner. The fans should have a say as well. Maybe then we'll have someone who works in the best interest of baseball, rather than in the best interest of the owners.

Dayn Perry writes on the possibility of Bud serving another term as commissioner.

John Moores responds to the Washington Post's three part series on moving baseball to Washington with high praise for Bud Selig.

Matt Barr sends this link to Fay Vincent's commencement address at Canisius College. He speaks of learning from failure, and has this to say about his time as commissioner:

Failure of Persuasion: Sadly, my tenure as baseball commissioner ended in failure. I failed because I couldn’t persuade the owners or the players to avoid war. The owners were determined to try to break the union and the players union refused to recognize its role in helping to build and improve the institution of baseball.

My failure resulted, in part, in a five-year series of battles that produced very little change. That warfare hurt the game in ways that have harmed all baseball constituents.

And I am sorry, very much so, that I failed. I wish I had possessed the skills that were necessary to avoid what took place.

And so, while people tend to be gentle with me on the topic, the fact is I failed. But I am consoled that the fans have stuck with me and most have thanked me for what I tried to do. If I failed, at least I tried to do what I thought was right.

We'd be so much better off if he had succeeded. He also quotes the shortest commencement speech of all time:

And so I end with a reference to my great hero, Mr. Churchill who at the very end of his life was honored at Oxford by being asked to speak at the commencement there. And he gave the shortest speech of his life and, I believe, the shortest commencement speech ever.

After he was praised effusively in the introduction and after the thunderous applause had finally dimmed, he stood silently before the expectant audience. He stood a long time, not saying a word. The audience waited, expectantly for the supreme orator of our age to begin. And it waited. And it waited.

Finally, in that voice that continues to resonate down to our generation, he bellowed out,
“Never, Never, Never, Never, Never …give up.” And he sat down!

Bud Selig, in a move that stunned the baseball world, reinstated Pete Rose today and named him commissioner of baseball:

"Baseball is at a very important crossroads," Selig explained. "With the steroids scandal looming large, I thought Pete would be the best man for the job. Who better to catch cheaters than the greatest cheater since Hal Chase?"

Rose took the podium and seemed a bit confused.

"I thought they wanted me to catch cheetahs," said Rose. "Give me enough Greenies and I'll be happy to chase those pussies. They'll find out why I'm called Charlie Hustle!"

Rose was then overheard calling his bookie to place a bet on the Cheetah.

Update: Doug Pappas seems to think Bud is staying on forever.

Why is Selig sitting in the stands listening to the Fox feed on headphones? Were they planning on interviewing him? Or does he do that all game so he can monitor what they are saying in the booth? If Buck and McCarver say something he doesn't like, does he call Fox right away and complain? It looks a little strange. He's commissioner; why not just enjoy the game?

Idiots Who write about Sports agree that there should not be a cap on buying and selling contracts. They may be idiots, but they're no fools. :-) (Thanks to John Cleese for that one.)

Jose from Spain writes in regards to this post on Selig preventing a $3 million transfer from the Yankees to the Reds:

Selling players is a great way of transfering cash between teams, and Bud should do a way with a limit that was put in place to spite Finley.

This is totally correct. Here in Europe transfers of soccer players between clubs are always done through money. Real Madrid buys Beckham off Man U for 25 million. Barcelona buys Ronaldinho off Paris Saint Germain for 30 million. Then the team goes and uses the money for what it sees fit, usually to buy itself two or three smaller players. Transfers almost never involve other players, sometimes you hear of a team offering one of its players in the deal "to cheapen the transfer", but it's all together very rare. Money rules.

I must say I was very intrigued at the beginning when I saw that baseball players moved through teams by trades or free agency and never by pure sale, until I learned of the $1 million restriction. I was very surprised by that. Here in European soccer, small teams are encouraged to have a good farm system because if they groom good players they can sell them for a huge profit to a cash-rich powerful team. I don't see why that couldn't work in baseball.

There was a time when things did work like this. The minor leagues were not always vassels of the major league teams. The minor league teams could often make money by selling their best players to the majors. Even major league teams did this. Connie Mack was famous for building up a winner in Philadelphia, then selling the players when they became too expensive for him to support. Of course, the most famous sale may be of Babe Ruth to the NY Yankees for $100,000.

One problems with sales has been that the owners haven't always put the money back into the club. Some argue this was true with the sale of Babe Ruth, others do not agree. It all came to a head in the 1970's, when faced with losing players to free agency, Charlie Finley put together deals to sell some of his best players to NY and Boston for millions of dollars. Finley realized that he was going to lose players to free agency, and he was going to need cash to rebuild. But commissioner Bowie Kuhn hated Finley, and invoked his powers in the best interest of baseball to nix the deal. Kuhn also put a cap on how much you could get for selling a player, which was recently raised to $1 million. However, I would argue that there should be no cap, and that the market should decide what the cap is. According to Jose, that's what happens in Europe.

Peter Gammons has an article on ESPN.com about Bud Selig interfering in the Yankees-Reds deal for Aaron Boone.

That afternoon, Finley had extracted $2 million from the Boston Red Sox for Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers, and $1.5 million from the New York Yankees for Vida Blue. In Boston -- courtesy of then-general manager Dick O'Connell's notes, provided by the Yawkey Foundation -- the Red Sox had tried several combinations of trades involving players and money ranging from a 5-for-5 involving some of Boston's potential free agents (including reigning MVP/Rookie of the year Fred Lynn) to a 3-for-2 that would have sent $2 million, catcher Andy Merchant, outfielder Rick Miller and pitcher Jim Willoughby for Rudi and Fingers.

"Finley says forget the damn players," O'Connell noted on June 14.

That night 27 years ago flashed across Selig's mind when he heard at 12:30 a.m. ET on Thursday that the Reds had shipped Aaron Boone and Gabe White to the Yankees for Brandon Claussen and $3 million. He talked to Sandy Alderson and told him that he would not approve it.

Alderson called Selig at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday to tell him that both the Yankees and Reds asked that he reconsider. "No way," Selig said. "There's no way that they're going to exceed the $1 million limit."

Selig did agree to talk to Reds owner Carl Lindner and Yankees president Randy Levine. "They made their cases, but I made mine in pretty strong terms," says Selig. "I told them that they'd have to restructure the deals with prospects and do it with Sandy. They weren't happy about it, and I probably used some choice language, but this is all part of a competitive balance problem that this industry faces."

Okay, the Yankees were going to transfer three million dollars to a small market team, and that money can pay for a lot of young players. Why is that worse than prospects? My guess is the Reds, like Charlie Finley three decades ago, needed the money more than the players. Selling players is a great way of transfering cash between teams, and Bud should do a way with a limit that was put in place to spite Finely.

I don't know how I missed this excellent Rob Neyer take down of Bud Selig, but here it is.

I do disagree with Rob on one thing, however:

"... I feel very comfortable with where we are," Selig recently told Sean McAdam. "The season is a journey. The NFL weights its schedule, and ours is almost identical."

Yes, the season is a journey. And for many years, it was a long journey that did a pretty fair job of rewarding the best teams at the end of the journey. But beginning with the introduction of divisional play in 1969, and then accelerating rapidly with the introduction of interleague play, wild cards, and teams essentially making their own schedules in the late 1990s, baseball has substantially changed the nature of the journey, with luck playing a bigger part than ever before in who's rewarded.

But it's OK, because that's how the NFL does things.

In this post, I suggest a weighted schedule as a way reducing introducing parity, so you don't have the Tigers losing 110 games. It's another thing, like revenue sharing, that might help kick start some poor franchises and let them bring fans back.

But it's not what I really want. What I want is the majors to go back to 24 teams, and instead of contracting teams, create a super minor league. I detail that proposal here.

The commissioner's in town. Larry Beinfest is going to have to go to the principal's office for not following the rules. Instead of having a sham interview session in which he gets to reject Willie Randolph, Beinfest just went out and hired who he wanted to be manager of the Marlins. Now, it may cost him $2,000,000 for bypassing Bud.

Please. Why waste the time of minority candidates if they aren't going to be hired? This is a mid-season firing, so you want to replace the manager quickly. I wish they had hired Randolph, instead of another failed manager. It's good that the commissioner's office is encouraging minority hiring. But Bud, you don't own the teams. You don't own baseball. You're already running the game like you ran the Brewers, and the fans aren't coming back. Maybe you should stay out of team decisions!

Or, instead of the sham interview process with fines for breaking the rules, if you really want teams to hire minorities, why not reward each team that hires a minority GM or manager $1,000,000? Put your money where your mouth is, Mr. Commissioner, and you'll see real change in the management of baseball.

Ron Rapoport of the Chicago Sun-Times notes the down-side of an All-Star game that confers home-field advantage for the World Series:

How could a revamped All-Star Game lead to problems? Say Joe Torre is managing the American League team and the Yankees have a series coming up with the Red Sox immediately afterward.

He leaves Pedro Martinez, who is scheduled to start against the Yankees in two days, in the game for three innings during which the National League betters tee off on him and he throws dozens of pitches. He sends Derek Lowe, who also will pitch in the upcoming series against his team, out for two tough innings. He leaves Ramiro Mendoza, who has excelled as Boston's new closer, in for the final three innings as the game goes into extra innings. Red Sox fans go ballistic. Selig orders an investigation. The All-Star Game once again becomes his own personal albatross.

Torre is too much of a gentleman ever to do such a thing, of course (although I have been thinking about Billy Martin in this context), but do we really want the All-Star Game to be viewed through this sort of prism?

He also compares Selig unfavorably to Paul Tagliabue.