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BUD SELIG Owners unanimous |
Confident that Major League Baseball has turned the page on the steroid era and that the game will continue to prosper, owners voted unanimously yesterday to extend commissioner Bud Selig's contract through the 2012 season. The 73-year-old Selig had been scheduled to retire after the 2009 season.
Selig, who had talked openly about retiring, has received high marks from ownership during his 16-year tenure, which has included the implementation of interleague play and a wild-card playoff format. The game has also realized huge revenues, and the value of franchises has risen dramatically. But Selig also has been criticized for a slow response to the growing use of steroids, amphetamines, and human growth hormone during his tenure, though in the past three years MLB has implemented a strong drug policy.
"I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but there's much work to be done in many areas," Selig said.
Certainly, one of the positives has been the soothing of ill feelings with the Players Association; the current collective bargaining agreement was negotiated without many hitches. Selig and union executive director Donald Fehr this week testified before Congress concerning the steroid issue, and Congress gave Selig high marks for the way he's dealing with it and his appointment of George Mitchell to provide a thorough report on the matter.
Yet he had his detractors in Congress, including Representative Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, who called for Selig's resignation after the Mitchell Report was released last month.
"Certainly, a lack of leadership and oversight in MLB enabled these abuses to continue," Stearns said. "After 15 years of slow action, a new commissioner is needed to guide the league out of this era of drug abuse."
By the time Selig's new contract expires, he will have served longer than any commissioner except the first, Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-44).
Selig made his fortune as an owner of car dealerships and purchased the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. When he became acting commissioner in September 1992 after the owners fired Fay Vincent, it was thought he would have a short run. But he was appointed on an official basis in 1998 and divested himself of his Brewers interests (though his family ran the team until 2005).
Selig had his term extended five years in 2001 and again in '04.
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, who was the Padres' majority owner when Selig took over in 1992, said: "This was coming completely from the clubs. I just want to make it clear that this has all been coming from the clubs, who were unanimous in their desire to not only compliment the commissioner on his leadership, but also to ensure stability for a few more years moving forward. I know the commissioner wrestled with the decision to remain, but his devotion to the game during his tenure has been stellar."
While Selig said he indeed mulled retirement, it appears his recent quest to fight steroids and for baseball to develop a test for HGH reinvigorated him.
"I did wrestle with [retirement]," said Selig. "I spent a lot of time agonizing over it, mainly with myself. But [the owners] really convinced me. This is clearly it. I could say this without equivocation."
Selig told reporters in Scottsdale, Ariz., that he plans more changes in the next five years.
"By the time I leave, you won't recognize the sport," he said.
His last known salary was $14.5 million in 2005, and given the game's huge revenue increases (to more than $6 billion last year, projected to reach $6.5 billion in 2008), he might have received a raise in the interim.
Before he's through, he'll have presided over a new labor agreement because the current one expires after the 2011 season. Major television deals with ESPN, Fox, and Turner Broadcasting are in place through 2013.
"This is the perfect person at the perfect time," Oakland owner Lew Wolff said.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report; Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
