Selig: Legacy Of a Complete Fraud

OK. I know we're all quasi-tired of articles trying to dissect what's wrong with the sport we all love.

However, there hasn't been enough of a microscope put on the top issue, the bow on the current Pandora's box we call Major League Baseball.

That top issue is Allan H. "Bud" Selig—the Commissioner.

The office of the Commissioner has seen some legendary figures, from Landis to Giamatti, in its history. The office has needed every inch these men could give.

After all, no sport uses the word "integrity" nearly as often as Major League Baseball, and the Commissioner is supposed to be the living example of that "integrity".

It's a crying shame that I have to put quotations around the word "integrity", but I just can't form the association—baseball, integrity, integrity, baseball—without the quotes.

The two words just do not go together any more, and while players, management and, you bet, fans, share the burden together, this whole mess ultimately has to get laid at the Commissioner's doorstep.

A Commissioner's title is always capitalized—Commissioner—just like the President is supposed to be. It drives me berserk when Wolf Blitzer calls Barack "Mister" Obama—it's President Obama, you arrogant ass—whether you like the man, agree with his policies, support him or not—and regardless of which side of the aisle you vote.

However, just like Blitzer & Co., I find myself wanting to strip Selig of the title "Commissioner" and start calling him "Mister" Selig - just to make a point.

Let's face it; (with apologies to Fay Vincent) once Bart Giamatti died, baseball's thinly-veiled seamy underbelly burst, and all the demons that human nature could create ran rampant.

Owners undercut Vincent until he was a lame duck, without even a feather to wave in surrender, and put their own guy in place, claiming that Vincent was "too soft" on the players.

Meanwhile, Bud "The Dolt" Selig (aided and abetted by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, amid others) was busy colluding against MLB's free agents. Idiot Bud couldn't even do that right. He, Reinsdorf and the others got caught with their hands in their own cookie jars, and were forced to repay $280 million—that's two hundred and eighty million dollars—in penalties to the players.

The funny thing was that even MLB owners didn't want to give Selig the job full-time—they tagged him "interim" (which gave Mr. Selig a chance to wring his hands and sob that he would just keep the job until someone better could be found).

Can you blame them? The Dolt cost them $280 million—and thoroughly poisoned the well. If you were part of MLB's Players' Union, would you ever trust the guy?

That was back in 1992.

Whoops. So much for "interim".

When it comes to Selig, it's a toss-up as to whose lip curls more; Selig's (his natural expression combines stooge-ish moron with a solid helping of chronic colonically irritation) or mine (whenever discussing King Bud, I can't help it, up goes the lip).

Baseball wants respect, yet it "elects" Shemp to be its leader. He's not even good enough to be Curly, Larry or Moe, and he certainly doesn't act like a Commissioner, does he?

It's a good thing he's not running for election, because, outside of MLB's "we want a puppet" boardroom, he's unelectable.

He's a former owner. MLB should pass a rule requiring the Commissioner to be free of ownership for life —never has been, is not, or ever will be an owner of a baseball team—PERIOD.

He's decidedly the worst public speaker possible, stumbling, slurring, and incapable of holding a news conference (or testifying before Congress) without constant prompting and constant consultation—"Eh? What's that? What should I say now?"

(Well, check the photo above. Think a President not named W is ever going to be caught in that position?)

Selig is the Ron Paul of the baseball world; a kook, filled with stupid ideas that he thinks are radical, full to the hilt with conflict of interest and a bumbler to boot; at least Paul managed to get Bruno to make fun of him.

Bud's just not worth the time, and that's the spear at the tip of the problem.

How the HELL can we ever get our sport to be taken seriously with the Head Of The Ignoramuses purporting to lead us?

Selig is just "not Presidential", a phrase used to condemn candidates from Paul to Rudy Giuliani. What's that mean? It means that nobody believes them when they talk.

You can't believe a guy who boasts the resume that Selig does. The man's history, everything he's ever done, runs one hundred and eighty degrees to the concept we fans yell about, and value, the most - integrity.

With him "at the helm" (and who are we kidding? we know that the owners pull Selig's collective strings), Baseball—capital "B"—cannot cure what ails it.

Everything from the All-Star Game tie (in Milwaukee, no less) to the current "steroid leak" (more like a coming flood) can not only be laid at Selig's door, but directly attributed to the fact that, forced to speak on his own, he's a bungler at best—and part of an ongoing criminal enterprise at worst, colluding to suppress salaries and keep the small-market teams poor.

It's not conjecture.

It's been proven—$280 million worth.

The best thing Mister Selig could do for his "legacy" now is to step down. Unfortunately, either he's too blind to see that history will view him as the Worst Commissioner Ever, or he's being led down the garden path by a group of owners snickering at him behind his back, and letting him take the fall for their sins.

I preach, continually, as loud as I can and from the very top of my mountain, that fans are responsible for the game.

Continuing in that vein, we need an organized and documented MLB fans' union. Membership would be one dollar per year, which would yield enough funding to allow referenda on any and all issues...

...and I bet that one of the first shots fired would be right across the bow of the Office Of The Commissioner Of Baseball.

Rudy G, anyone?

At least he's believable.