This Bud's For You
By Jake Duhaime
Jul 10, 2006, 11:42
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| It ain't easy being commish. |
I think that Bud Selig is Hall of Fame worthy….
(I’ll pause because I know most of you just puked all over your laptops.)
Surely, there are plenty of reasons why he shouldn’t be enshrined in Cooperstown. He was the man ultimately responsible for canceling the 1994 World Series. He still carries the “owners puppet” mantra with him, especially among the players. And lest we not forget the downfall of the Brewers and the debacle that was the 2002 All-Star Game.
But I can’t blame Selig for what happened in 1994. Owners in small-market cities already recognized the game’s growing economic disparity. And the players were just trying to protect what they already had, and perhaps avoid the dreaded salary cap.
Heck, the same thing happened during the recent NHL lockout, except at that point, economic disparity in the NHL had already reared its ugly head. The Red Wings and Avalanche signed every halfway decent player on the market. The Rangers overpaid for every stiff (except for Marty LaPointe). The Penguins sat marred in bankruptcy. Two Canadian teams (Quebec and Winnipeg) eventually moved and the rest seemingly teetered on the brink.
Thankfully, Gary Bettman never had to deal with the MLBPA, arguably the strongest union in America. While the NHLPA eventually caved and accepted a hard cap, salary rollbacks and maximum contracts, the MLBPA stood strong during the ’94 strike, forcing owners to use replacement players during 1995 spring training before settling weeks later.
The end result? The Yankees’ payroll the past few years has hovered around the $200 million dollar mark. Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Derek Jeter will all make more this season than the Marlins’ entire 25-man roster.
Instead of rapidly overhauling the economic structure of the game like the NHL has, Major League Baseball has taken baby steps towards economic parity. In 2002, facing the possibility of another in-season strike, Selig helped broker an 11th-hour deal with the MLBPA on a new collective bargaining agreement that has slowly opened the door for increased revenue sharing. It was the first time in 30 years that owners and the MLBPA were able to reach a deal without a work stoppage.
While that deal hasn’t curbed the spending habits of George Steinbrenner, it has allowed small to mid-market teams to make a splash on the free-agent market, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays, who signed B.J. Ryan and A.J. Burnett to long-term deals last winter and traded for 2002 World Series MVP Troy Glaus. The new deal has also allowed teams like Oakland to keep home grown talent like Eric Chavez by the Bay for the foreseeable future.
Competitive balance will continue to improve with the signing of a new CBA, hopefully coming this December. (The current deal expires on 12/19.) Typically the expiration of a CBA strikes fear in sports fans who have come to expect labor stoppages in recent years. Yet, thanks to Selig, there seems to be labor peace this time around. There’s a quiet confidence around the game that a new deal will be reached by the December deadline, or the current deal will be extended for yet another season.
Selig’s tenure has been about more than competitive balance. It’s been a tenure of Wild Cards and Division Series. Not only has the expanded playoff format added a plethora of playoff memories (Griffey in ’95, Pedro in ’99, Jeter in ’01) but it kept more teams in pennant races throughout the months of August and September, which keeps interest and packs ballparks in cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland, which would be pretty much be out of playoff contention under the old format.
How important has the Wild Card been? Think about it for a second. Without the Wild Card, imagine how sick we’d be of the Braves and Yankees? The Yanks haven’t lost the AL East since 1997. The Braves haven’t lost a division title since 1990.
If there wasn’t a Wild Card it would be 87 futile years and counting in Boston. The Red Sox haven’t won a division title since 1995. They’ve been to the playoffs as the Wild Card five times under the expanded format. They’ve won a World title and made three trips to the League Championship Series because of it.
And what about the Marlins? They’ve won two titles in the last decade, both thanks to the Wild Card.
We have Bud to thank for Interleague Play, a concept designed to pack ballparks and create new rivalries. It’s hard to argue with the Yankees and Mets, especially in 2000, where bad blood between Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza spewed over to the World Series. It’s hard to argue with the White Sox and Cubbies meeting six-times a season, especially this season with the South Siders, typically Chicago’s ugly baseball stepsister, defending the World title that the neighbors to the north dearly covet.
Let’s not forget television either. Many in the television industry believed that FOX vastly overpaid when it agreed to MLB’s TV rights package seven years ago. But the last few epic postseasons have proved profitable for the network, both ratings wise and the ability to promote its prime-time lineup during seemingly every commercial break. (Fact: Game 7 of the 2001 World Series was the highest rated MLB game since Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.)
Between TV, the Wild Card, Interleague play... a little bit of labor peace… and some growing economic stability, there’s certainly a case for Selig. I think we might need to see how the whole steroids thing plays out before reserving a space for his plaque, but it’s time he get some just credit for the job he’s done at the helm. He’s certainly deserving of come credit amongst the endless criticism he seems to receive.
Jake Duhaime is a regular contributor for Atomic Sports Media, covering the NCAA women's Final Four and the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com.
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