Friday, January 23, 2004
Bud to Remain Commissioner Indefinitely!
Great news in Hal Bodley's USA Today column today: Bud will remain Commissioner after his term expires at the end of 2006!
As Bodley writes, "None of those in baseball's inner circle believed him when he vowed last year not to seek an extension," and with his Brewers now up for sale Bud has nothing else to live for. We baseball fans can be thankful for that!
Great news in Hal Bodley's USA Today column today: Bud will remain Commissioner after his term expires at the end of 2006!
As Bodley writes, "None of those in baseball's inner circle believed him when he vowed last year not to seek an extension," and with his Brewers now up for sale Bud has nothing else to live for. We baseball fans can be thankful for that!
Friday, November 12, 2003
Nasty, Suspicious Legislators Don't Trust
Bud
Wisconsin legislators who don't appreciate all the work Bud has put into saving the Brewers for Milwaukee are calling for the state to audit the club's books.
What is this, Russia? The Brewers are a PRIVATE BUSINESS! Just because the government built them a stadium doesn't give showboating, publicity-hound "representatives" the right to poke around the team's finances or cast unwarranted aspersions on the integrity of the First Family of Milwaukee Baseball! Shut up already and get back to your jobs!
Wisconsin legislators who don't appreciate all the work Bud has put into saving the Brewers for Milwaukee are calling for the state to audit the club's books.
What is this, Russia? The Brewers are a PRIVATE BUSINESS! Just because the government built them a stadium doesn't give showboating, publicity-hound "representatives" the right to poke around the team's finances or cast unwarranted aspersions on the integrity of the First Family of Milwaukee Baseball! Shut up already and get back to your jobs!
Friday, September 5, 2003
Canuck Frog Tricks Bud
Only Bud's even temper averted an international incident last week after a Canadian disc jockey -- a FRENCH Canadian disc jockey -- tricked Bud into believing that he was talking to Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
The vile prankster kept the Commissioner on the phone for more than ten minutes, soliciting all kinds of private and confidential opinions. As soon as we find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, we should send our troops for a little "stopover" north of the U.S. border on their way home. Those Canadians need to be taught a lesson!
Only Bud's even temper averted an international incident last week after a Canadian disc jockey -- a FRENCH Canadian disc jockey -- tricked Bud into believing that he was talking to Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
The vile prankster kept the Commissioner on the phone for more than ten minutes, soliciting all kinds of private and confidential opinions. As soon as we find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, we should send our troops for a little "stopover" north of the U.S. border on their way home. Those Canadians need to be taught a lesson!
Thursday, April 24, 2003
Oh No! Bud
to Retire in 2006!
Read it and weep:
"So now here we are," Selig told a group from Associated Press Sports Editors on Thursday. "I have another 3½, 3¾ years. I expect to do it. Thankfully for me, at that point that would be enough.
"For a guy who took it in Sept. 9, 1992, and I told my wife it was two-to-four months -- 14 years later ... I think that will be enough. There's no question, because there are other things I really would like to do."
Asked again if this was his final term, Selig responded; "Oh, there's no question."
I won't believe it until I see it. Let's start a petition to ask Bud to stay!
Read it and weep:
"So now here we are," Selig told a group from Associated Press Sports Editors on Thursday. "I have another 3½, 3¾ years. I expect to do it. Thankfully for me, at that point that would be enough.
"For a guy who took it in Sept. 9, 1992, and I told my wife it was two-to-four months -- 14 years later ... I think that will be enough. There's no question, because there are other things I really would like to do."
Asked again if this was his final term, Selig responded; "Oh, there's no question."
I won't believe it until I see it. Let's start a petition to ask Bud to stay!
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Selig Addresses World Congress of Sports
While Bud is often eloquent before Congress, he saves his best work for his peers. Here he is addressing a trade association of sports executives:
"There is no doubt in my mind that baseball is the greatest game ever invented. Its result is not determined by the expiration of a set amount of time. It is not a simulated war game in which two sides battle mightily over turf; nor is it a mad dash from one end of a field or court to the other in the pursuit of an accumulation of goals. In territorially based games, there are two goals or nets or baskets. In baseball, there is only one place where a score is counted: home plate, where play begins and also where play may come to an end."
"Baseball has always served as a bridge that binds the generations. The ballpark is a venue at which fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, grandparents and grandchildren can congregate and share their experiences. How many of you still remember the first time you walked into a ballpark on the hand of a parent or grandparent and first experienced that great expanse of green? The experience has been depicted in films and described in books and magazine articles. The experience is one of our game's greatest strengths and one of its most powerful and enduring features. We must continue to build on the mythology that surrounds it. Nothing is more important than bringing kids to the game. Kids are our lifeblood; they are the future of the game."
Indeed!
While Bud is often eloquent before Congress, he saves his best work for his peers. Here he is addressing a trade association of sports executives:
"There is no doubt in my mind that baseball is the greatest game ever invented. Its result is not determined by the expiration of a set amount of time. It is not a simulated war game in which two sides battle mightily over turf; nor is it a mad dash from one end of a field or court to the other in the pursuit of an accumulation of goals. In territorially based games, there are two goals or nets or baskets. In baseball, there is only one place where a score is counted: home plate, where play begins and also where play may come to an end."
"Baseball has always served as a bridge that binds the generations. The ballpark is a venue at which fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, grandparents and grandchildren can congregate and share their experiences. How many of you still remember the first time you walked into a ballpark on the hand of a parent or grandparent and first experienced that great expanse of green? The experience has been depicted in films and described in books and magazine articles. The experience is one of our game's greatest strengths and one of its most powerful and enduring features. We must continue to build on the mythology that surrounds it. Nothing is more important than bringing kids to the game. Kids are our lifeblood; they are the future of the game."
Indeed!
Friday, May 17, 2002
6 to 8 Clubs Could Fold!
During a meeting with editors of the Los Angeles Times, Bud warned that without major changes to baseball's economics, "I would say 6-to-8 [teams] can't exist another year, another year and a half. We're talking about the immediate future. There's a lot of clubs that simply can't survive the status quo."
That would show those nasty, greedy players who blocked Bud's attempt to streamline baseball's operations by contracting the Twins and Expos! They'll lose even more jobs. Then they'll come crying back to Bud, begging for another chance, but it will be too late. If they're too stupid to believe Bud, let them find real jobs!!!!!
During a meeting with editors of the Los Angeles Times, Bud warned that without major changes to baseball's economics, "I would say 6-to-8 [teams] can't exist another year, another year and a half. We're talking about the immediate future. There's a lot of clubs that simply can't survive the status quo."
That would show those nasty, greedy players who blocked Bud's attempt to streamline baseball's operations by contracting the Twins and Expos! They'll lose even more jobs. Then they'll come crying back to Bud, begging for another chance, but it will be too late. If they're too stupid to believe Bud, let them find real jobs!!!!!
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Bud Gets Three Year Contract Extension!
Even though his contract as Commissioner still has two years left to run, the owners unanimously voted today to extend Bud's contract through 2006! George Steinbrenner gave us the good news:
"We recognize that our sport is at a crossroads and it is absolutely imperative now more than ever that we have stability and leadership, both of which Bud Selig offers us more than anyone else I can think of. He certainly understands this game and can lead our ownership to move in a direction that is based on fiscal integrity."
Congratulations, Bud -- and many more! Judge Landis served until he was 78 years old...there's no reason why you can't, too!
Even though his contract as Commissioner still has two years left to run, the owners unanimously voted today to extend Bud's contract through 2006! George Steinbrenner gave us the good news:
"We recognize that our sport is at a crossroads and it is absolutely imperative now more than ever that we have stability and leadership, both of which Bud Selig offers us more than anyone else I can think of. He certainly understands this game and can lead our ownership to move in a direction that is based on fiscal integrity."
Congratulations, Bud -- and many more! Judge Landis served until he was 78 years old...there's no reason why you can't, too!
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Bud, Wendy and Laurel Rebut Conflict of Interest
Charges
Bud has made clear that he's not going to bow down before phony charges of conflict of interest leveled by the sore losers of Minnesota:
"St. Louis is closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee is. Are the Red Sox going to benefit if Montreal is contracted? No. I don't think the Brewers would gain, either. It's so outrageous and not worthy of comment."
The Brewers President and CEO echoed her father: "Anyone who has a grain of understanding about this business realizes how absurd this is." Indeed!
This follows Brewers vice president Laurel Prieb's impassioned defense of his father-in-law in the November 5 Minneapolis Star Tribune:
"For anybody who truly knows the commissioner, and knows his passion for the game of baseball and for the job that he has to do, and the trust he has of all the owners, they know he's always doing what's in the best interest of the game. Anyone who knows him wouldn't question [the possibility of a conflict of interest]."
Bud has made clear that he's not going to bow down before phony charges of conflict of interest leveled by the sore losers of Minnesota:
"St. Louis is closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee is. Are the Red Sox going to benefit if Montreal is contracted? No. I don't think the Brewers would gain, either. It's so outrageous and not worthy of comment."
The Brewers President and CEO echoed her father: "Anyone who has a grain of understanding about this business realizes how absurd this is." Indeed!
This follows Brewers vice president Laurel Prieb's impassioned defense of his father-in-law in the November 5 Minneapolis Star Tribune:
"For anybody who truly knows the commissioner, and knows his passion for the game of baseball and for the job that he has to do, and the trust he has of all the owners, they know he's always doing what's in the best interest of the game. Anyone who knows him wouldn't question [the possibility of a conflict of interest]."
Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Sadly, the Twins and Expos Must Go
Today Commissioner Selig, a true fan of the game, took an action which I'm sure will hurt him more than it will hurt the "fans" in the affected cities who allowed their home teams to deteriorate to this point. Having exhausted all other options, MLB is now forced to contract the Expos and Twins. As Bud said:
"The teams to be contracted have a long record of failing to generate enough revenues to operate a viable major league franchise."
You know he's right. Minnesota has no hope of ever fielding a winning team again, and Montreal is equally doomed to perennial loserdom. But Bud recognizes that these problems aren't the fault of the owners in these cities:
"The problems facing the potentially affected teams will not be resolved by either changing ownership or changing location. Merely transferring existing problems to another ownership group or another city would only exacerbate the problem, not resolve it."
Carl Pohlad's a billionaire. If he can't make money from the Twins, no one can. And if the Expos can't survive in Montreal, what chance would they have in Washington, D.C.? There's a reason the owners have come to say, "In Bud We Trust."
Today Commissioner Selig, a true fan of the game, took an action which I'm sure will hurt him more than it will hurt the "fans" in the affected cities who allowed their home teams to deteriorate to this point. Having exhausted all other options, MLB is now forced to contract the Expos and Twins. As Bud said:
"The teams to be contracted have a long record of failing to generate enough revenues to operate a viable major league franchise."
You know he's right. Minnesota has no hope of ever fielding a winning team again, and Montreal is equally doomed to perennial loserdom. But Bud recognizes that these problems aren't the fault of the owners in these cities:
"The problems facing the potentially affected teams will not be resolved by either changing ownership or changing location. Merely transferring existing problems to another ownership group or another city would only exacerbate the problem, not resolve it."
Carl Pohlad's a billionaire. If he can't make money from the Twins, no one can. And if the Expos can't survive in Montreal, what chance would they have in Washington, D.C.? There's a reason the owners have come to say, "In Bud We Trust."
