Bud Selig on Studio 42 with Bob Costas

[Phhhl]

Baseball does not want to dwell on the past when it comes to steroids, and they have fixed everything. Twenty teams in the last five years have made the playoffs, so there is no problem with the economics of the game. Families should have enough money to go to the ballpark, even with grotesque monuments to the stupidity of man like the new Yankee stadium averging $75 a ticket. Pete Rose's "crime" was more severe than steroids because there was some sign on the wall when you walk into a major league clubhouse about gambling. Blah blah blah...

The guy sounds like a mafia lawyer in front of a congressional hearing trying to convince the world that the Corleone family are swimming in the wealth of the Olive Oil business.

Baseball is a madhouse, and this man is Nurse Ratched.

[Col_ IN Reds fan]

I have never been a fan of Bud Selig. We as fans lost a World Series under his watch. He makes a meaningless game mean home field for the winner.
He turned a blind eye to the growing drug problem to make his game more exciting. At this point I could care less if Pete Rose ever gets reinstated, Pete is responsible for that, but when McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens are never elected to the HOF ( they will probably say they had to shoot up to stay on a level playing field with all the other drug users in the game) , this will be yet another black eye on baseball during his watch.

[Red in Chicago]

I saw the interview this morning. Sure would like to see Costas take over for Bud once he decides to hit the trail.
Bud wants to write a book. I'm sure that will be a very interesting read

[Degenerate39]

I saw the interview this morning. Sure would like to see Costas take over for Bud once he decides to hit the trail.
Bud wants to write a book. I'm sure that will be a very interesting read

He'll side step his own questions

[Unassisted]

He'll side step his own questions

In Bud's mind, his success as commissioner is framed by two accomplishments: Increasing revenue to $6 billion/season and the addition of interleague play. The owners happily keep him in the job because of the first one and he believes that he singlehandedly increased fan interest because of the second. He probably also deserves some credit for encouraging digital media initiatives, which are one area where MLB is ahead of the other major sports, but it would be ludicrous for a man in his 70s to take all of the credit for that.

I guarantee you that all 3 of those topics will come up in this interview.

[cincinnati chili]

Bud comes off more sympathetic in the interview than I would have expected. The key moment for me, however, is when he explicitly takes pride in the fact that baseball is the only sport to have appointed an independent commission to investigate itself (steroids).

This is where I fundamentally disagree with him. Baseball would have been much better off if he had not cast a spotlight on the game's problems. A good marketer will bury a product's shortcomings and find a way to focus on attention on the product's positives. The Mitchell commission did exactly the opposite. After all the intrigue, we now have a cloud of suspicion over all the quasi-muscular players of the last 25 years, and only definite understandings about a handful of them.

He also resists adding replay for what I think are poorly supported reasons (pace of the game). But overall, I think he comes off as less of a boob in his seventies than he did in his 60's.

[Jpup]

I don't have a big problem with Bud, but he has not really improved the game IMO. I would get rid of most of his ideas including interleague play, home team advantage based off the All-Star game, the wild card, and instant replay. I hate them all.