Bud Selig is Commissioner Emeritus Man!

So, former baseball commissioner Bud "Bud" Selig is now "commissioner emeritus" with an additional $6 million a year in retirement slush funds to do whatever he's supposed to do.

Well, he needs a costume, does he not?

I mean, it takes a superhero to hound Alex Rodriguez, while at the same time ignoring Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and others who also reportedly used steroids.

And to simultaneously ignore that your open-roids policy has also led to innuendo against Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza and others, innuendo seemingly unfounded.

But, don't cry for Bud-gentina.

He'll not be crying for any part of the mess he left behind.

Maybe he'll earn his $6 million by helping lobby Congress to let minor leaguers be treated like serfs, if he's not too busy still trying to selectively crack down on alleged roiders.

Speaking of minor-league serfs, Rany Jazayerli noted on Twitter:

For the $6M annual pension owners are giving Bud Selig, they could have given every minor leaguer in baseball a raise of about $300 a month.

Bingo.

Or maybe he's going to be trying to apple-polish his "legacy" and become the first commish since Bowie Kuhn to be elected to Cooperstown. After all, rescuing not damsels, but HOF legacies in distress? That's a job for Commissioner Emeritus Man™!

Is baseball "dying"? Keith Olbermann makes an arguable case post #1994strike

Olbermann, on the 20th anniversary of the 1994 players' strike in Major League Baseball, and the approaching replacement of Bud Melman Selig as commissioner has a great video about how, even though baseball seems to be a cash cow today, demographics plus marketing raise concerns for the future.



"The kids are disappearing," he says.

First, here's this part. Olbermann says that wunderkind Mike Trout ranks only No. 100 among top athletes among today's youngsters 12 and older. Chris Paul, not the most popular NBA player, though high up, is ahead of him at No. 86. O.J. Simpson, retired for 30 years, a civil suit loser for about 20, and a felon for better than half a decade, is just behind Trout at No. 105, he says. Babe Ruth, at No. 18, is far ahead of Trout, even if dead for 66 years. And, LeBron James, mentioned near the end, is far, far, far ahead of Trout. As Olbermann notes, unretired swimming star Michael Phelps (maybe it's the bong hits?) and soccer/world football star Lionel Messi also rank ahead of Trout.

Other points?

National baseball broadcasts, as opposed to regional sports network ones, are tanking. So much so that national NBA broadcasts are ahead of them.

Avid baseball fans, by age, are three years older than the national average. At the time of the strike, they were a year younger. Olbermann notes that NBA fans have aged, too, but less than the country as a whole.

Contra occasional troll-level NBC Sports blogger Craig Calcaterra, where I first saw this, and who regularly does a strawmanning "baseball is dying" post, Olbermann's on a fair amount of solid ground here.

His solutions?

Getting rid of interleague play might help national game of the week broadcasts. I'm not sure. But, I get his drift. Baseball has become too much like other sports. That larger point is right.

Calcaterra's sneer about worrying about depending too much on regional sports network money, which does not face full revenue sharing, is also right. It's true that the NBA, which has less than full revenue sharing, unlike the NFL, has small-market Milwaukee and semi-small market Sacramento and San Antonio. (If one semi-cheats and includes metro Austin, San Antonio isn't a small market at all.)

But baseball also has Pittsburgh and Kansas City. And Cincinnati and Cleveland. The last three, while all bigger than Milwaukee, which is in both sports, are all smaller than Sacto and San Antonio (without Austin). That said, the NBA's Salt Lake City and Oklahoma City are smaller yet.

However, because the NBA's national audience is better than baseball's, it addresses equality — and fandom — issues better.

Sadly, it's too late to eliminate interleague play, or other Selig follies.

We can, though, do too things.

Enforce rule 6.02, about keeping batters in the box, and 8.04, about time between pitches. Those alone would speed up games a lot, and can be done without nuttier independent minor league ideas.

So too, would the next best thing to killing interleague play — killing the DH. Do all of that, and even a Red Sox game, with David Ortiz either on the bench or else at 1B, shouldn't need to run more than 3 hours.

(For more on how Rob Manfred is NOT a slam dunk to replace Selig, read this NYT piece. Also note the "takedown" of Tom Werner in Olbermann's video. Trumping both plus Tim Brosnan? She's not African-American, but Kim Ng is a minority and a woman. And, per Olbermann and demographics, younger than any of the three finalists, too. Food for thought.)

Is Bud Selig the best baseball commish ever? Uhh, maybe?

Jayson Stark says its a clear yes.

Craig Calcaterra says only if you allow for caveats.

He notes most of the commissioners were fairly poor material. Of the top two who weren't, Bart Giamatti died in office after a short tenure and the owners eventually ran off Fay Vincent for being too independent.

He also notes Bud got in office by leading the palace coup against Fay, though acknowledging that eventually led to some degree of revenue sharing and other things.

I'm with Craig on this. I don't know for sure, but I think either Giamatti or Vincent might have handled the revenue sharing better.

As for Stark's "purist alert"? I'm not a fan at all of the second wild card. And, even though it helped the Cardinals in 2011, I'm not totally a fan of the first. (Bob Costas' idea is just the three division winners, with the best getting a first-round bye. I'd be OK with four teams from each league with one more expansion to 32 teams, which would have the side benefits of reducing the number of interleague games and getting rid of year-round interleague play.

Oh, yes, that's another non-purist thing I don't like.

As for his successor? I'd like to see something done with local-level TV revenue sharing. Not a lot, but a slice. In exchange, let's put in a poor man's floor as well as a lux tax ceiling, requiring every team in baseball to have a minimum salary level. You go below that, and you lose revenue sharing money. If you as an owner fall below it a second time, you get booted off any ownership committees.

At the same time, let's make a small portion of the lux tax also go to revenue sharing. Let 80 percent of so of it go to its other current obligations, but dump a few $$ in the revenue sharing tank.

As for the ghost in the machine? I think Selig has led MLB to the best policy, and policing, of any American team sport. But, could he have done more sooner? I also say yes.

And, I didn't even mention letting an All-Star Game end in a tie, then later deciding the ASG would be used to set home-field advantage in the World Series. On that one, if we have year-round interleague play, why not just use best record instead of the old alternating-years system?

As for all the new stadiums? Yes, they're beautiful. And with baseball attendance and other things, they're at least smaller economic whales than football stadiums.

That's of importance with how Baseball Public Enemy No. 1, Jeff Loria, hosed Miami-Dade County on new stadium costs. And how current Braves ownership may wind up doing the same with the willing connivance of the Cobb County Commissioners Court.

Per Craig, isn't this like choosing the best hockey player in Nicaraguaa?

Cooperstown Central: Were roids and PEDs the only reason for baseball's power surge?

As Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens and a host of other likely, or in some cases vaguely alleged, users of steroids, human growth hormone and whatever else might fall under the aegis of "performance enhancing drugs" await another shot at Cooperstown, we might ask how much roiding really was worth.

How much of an influence were steroids, on the batting side? I say batting because "chicks and Bud Selig dig the long ball," and batters don't have rotator cuffs and Tommy John ligaments to blow out.

I'd say they're worth 35 percent of the power explosion. The Costa Rican baseballs after Rawlings moved its factor from Haiti? Maybe about 17.5 percent. Maple bats another 17.5 percent. Bandbox ballparks, like Philly, Cincy, Denver (the power surge started pre-humidor) and Houston, 15 percent? Umps squeezing the strike zone 15 percent? That puts us at 100 percent.

That said, maybe I need to recalibrate. Baseball Prospectus makes an argument that expansion from 26 to 30 teams bumped the performance of top batters (and pitchers, too). And, per my PEDs+ equivalent of OPS+ and ERA+, provides some specific calibration guesstimates:

Since 1950, there have been seven seasons in which 17 or more players finished with at least six WARP. All seven came within five years after an expansion, even though fewer than half of all seasons since 1950 fit that condition. Excluding strike-shortened seasons of 1981, 1994, and 1995, an average of 15.5 players have posted at least six WARP in the five years after expansion, compared to 11.0 players in all other seasons.

When comparing performances from different eras, we don’t just compare each player’s raw stats, because we understand that those numbers come from different environments. Good analysis instead uses context-neutral statistics, comparing performance to that of an average or replacement-level player. But when “average” or “replacement level” changes—as in the case of expansion eras—should we not also consider that factor?

To estimate the impact of expansion on stars’ statistics, we can compare the performance of the top players before and after expansion. In post-expansion seasons, the top 10 players in baseball have had an average WARP of 7.8; in all other years, their average is 7.4, a statistically significant difference. Using different cutoffs (eg., top five or top 20) yields similar estimates of about .4 wins per season.

Very interesting stuff.

I'm not holier than thou on the issue of steroids in baseball. My take is, how much did roiding, in my estimation, boost a particular suspect player's career. If I think I can reasonably factor that out, AND get some contrition, I will at least be open to voting a player into the Hall of Fame.

For example? Rafael Palmeiro is a "high borderline," still, with 350 HR, 450 2B, and a WAR around 55 or so. Raffy probably goes .360/.500/.860 on OBP/SLG/OPS. 1,500 runs and 1,700 RBIs. Of course, his oWAR might fall below 60. That's the hesitation point. Is Raffy a higher-grade Harold Baines without steroids? I wouldn't argue against that. But, he at least gets consideration. But, I lean no.

Mark McGwire? I estimate that he'd be down to 450 HRs, and would lose a ton of walks, and so lose OBP and lose massively on OPS and OPS+, reinforcing his one-dimensional nature, so a no. Knock his OBP down to .380, his slugging to .550 and then his OPS to .930. His runs fall to 1,100 and his RBIs to 1,300. About 450 HRs. NOT a HOF career. That's a high-grade Dave Kingman or not a lot better.

Other players? As far as prime suspects, and doing some "redacting"?

Sammy Sosa is not a steroid-subtracted HOFer. Gary Sheffield likely is not, either. On the pitching side? Andy Pettitte is not. What he is, if anything, is the current generation's slightly better ... wait for it ... Jack Morris. Actually, he's enough better than Black Jack that he has a halfway legit argument, World Series record aside, for being a HOFer. But I still lean no.

Anyway, if I had a vote? No guilt, no entry. Let's have confessions. Not just by the individuals. Bud Selig and Gene Orza and others from the union need to step to the plate, pun intended, and hit a clean one out of the park.

And, then, we can do something like with OPS+ and ERA+, and make our best guesstimates on how to "neutralize" for steroids.

In short, just as a website like Baseball-Reference makes sabermetric adjustments for different ballparks, different eras, and so forth, I would like more information so we can make a sabermetric adjustment for steroids and human growth hormone, and anything else that was in the "cream" and "clear" that Bonds got from  BALCO. No, it won't be a perfect adjustment, but, it would be some adjustment.

There's other reasons for the contrition. If Bonds, especially, fesses up to details, maybe we get improved testing. Maybe we get better ways of warning high school kids away from this.

Lyin Braun may finally get nailed, and A-Fraud; who else?

Lyin Braun, aka Juices Maccabee, names I give Ryan Braun because Milwaukee Brewers fans insist on calling him the Hebrew Hammer, may finally, speaking of hammers, get hammered for roiding by Bud Selig. As may A-Fraud, Alex Rodriguez.

Bud Selig is at bat, and now-shuttered Biogenesis "medical" clinic director Tony Bosch is in the on-deck circle:

Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation, two sources told "Outside the Lines," giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players.

One source familiar with the case said the commissioner's office might seek 100-game suspensions for Rodriguez, Braun and other players, the penalty for a second doping offense. The argument, the source said, is the players' connection to Bosch constitutes one offense, and previous statements to MLB officials denying any such connection or the use of PEDs constitute another.

Now, given that Biogenesis has been on the back burner for about a month, why did Bosch "roll" now?

Here's why, according to the story:

In a recent interview with ESPN, his only one since the scandal broke, Bosch said he knew nothing about performance-enhancing drugs and that media accounts of his alleged PED distribution amounted to "character assassination."

"I have been accused, tried and convicted in the media. And so I think [I] have been falsely accused throughout the media," he told ESPN's Pedro Gomez. "I've done nothing wrong."

But sources said Bosch has been feeling pressure from both the MLB lawsuit, which claims tortious interference, and a potential criminal investigation, and that he sees full cooperation with MLB as one of his only refuges. Several attorneys have said they don't think the lawsuit could survive a legal challenge, but Bosch likely would have to put up a costly fight in order to have the case dismissed. Several sources have told ESPN that Bosch is nearly broke, living alternately with family members and friends, and has tried unsuccessfully so far to revive his "wellness" business.

That said, I'm assuming the jail time clock for A-Roid doesn't start ticking until he comes off the DL. That means Hank Steinbrenner can officially be disappointed for the rest of this year, and possibly several weeks into 2014.

And, if the Hankster wants to shit more bricks, top player Robinson Cano has some connection, tenuous though it may be, to Biogenesis.

That said No. 2, besides our dynamic duo, at least the 20 or so names originally tied to Biogenesis could get suspended. Word is Bosch might have yet more names in his pocket.

And, is this why Melky Cabrera is now expressing regret for his roiding time with the Giants? Wow, how many more grovelings will we see in days ahead?

And, speaking of Cabrera, now with the Jays, Nelson Cruz is probably the other likely-to-be-suspended player most hurt by this. Like Cabrera a year ago, his presumed big free-agent payday will go down the drain.

That's going to be half the fun: The groveling, lies and mock indignation in days ahead.

Hammer away, Bud.

At the same time, how Bud got to this point, as noted above, is, I agree with this column and many others, pretty skeezy, but not anything new in the skeeziness department. Until baseball goes after the suppliers, not the users, we'll have wash, rinse, repeat.

Tim Brown at Yahoo offers the flip side of skeeziness, though. For the players involved, dealing with a pseudo-doctor running a pseudo-clinic out of a strip mall? What did you expect from such a guy? Unlike Victor Conte at BALCO, you knew he would roll on you once the pressure got tough.

But, there's another "scandal." As Jeff Passan notes, Braun, Rodriguez, Cabrera and Bartolo Colon, among others, are all repeat offenders.

The Biogenesis scandal that has ensnared baseball is more painful and embarrassing and harmful (than BALCO) because it happened in the supposed post-Steroid Era, when Major League Baseball's drug policy was supposed to eradicate PEDs from the game. 

So, is MLB's testing not good enough? Penalties not strong enough?

Probably a bit of all of the above. Passan says that if Bud approaches the issue as a problem to be managed, rather than a war to be won, we'll be better off.

Meanwhile, Jonah Keri's got a good backgrounder, including how this ties in with Bud's "legacy" and how the union could derail that.

And, to me, that's the most skeezy factor of all: Bud worried about his "legacy."

#ARod — busted at #Biogenesis? What about Lyin Ryan Braun?

That's what  lab employees from the alleged doping center are saying about Alex Rodriguez, according to sources. Supposedly employees from Biogenesis have told Major League Baseball that A-Fraud tried to buy documents from the lab that would implicate him.

First, does this surprise you? In any of several ways?

A-Rod thinks that he can throw enough money at the situation to take care of it. Also, unlike Barry Bonds, apparently, either there or elsewhere, he doesn't have anybody who will go to the mat for him.

That said, it's not just about A-Rod this time:

The two people said that the investigators were told by the ex-employees and others that documents said to be from the clinic had been put up for sale by various people and that Rodriguez had arranged for an intermediary to purchase at least some of them. 

That, in turn, led Major League Baseball to conclude that other players linked to the clinic would also attempt to buy documents to conceal incriminating evidence and accelerated baseball’s efforts to purchase as many documents as it could. 

Sounds like Biogenesis is the proverbial sinking ship with rats fleeing.

That said, why talk to MLB? Because it has no legal powers, unlike the feds, MLB can't get one lab employee to "roll" to save his or her hide, either.

But, Bud's got dinero:

Those ex-employees were paid for the time they spent talking with baseball’s investigators, the two people said, with the payments not believed to have exceeded several thousand dollars. Whether their statements alone are strong enough for baseball officials to proceed with disciplinary action against various players remains to be seen. 

That explains a lot.

But, back to the idea that A-Rod wasn't alone. Melky Cabrera? Bartolo Colon? Relatively small potatoes.

But, either because former Milwaukee Brewers owner, now commissioner, Bud "Bud" Selig wants to prove he's impartial, or else he's just pissed about that chain-of-evidence loophole, if there's even a hint that Ryan Braun tried to do the same with documents, his ass is grass.

The Hebrew Hammer will get hammered. Juices Maccabeus will strike out. Lyin Braun will be tripped up.

But, Bud's going to have to get stronger evidence; Lyin Braun's attorneys will surely rip into paid testimony.

Bad move, Bud Selig

Contra people like Yahoo's Steve Henson, everything about MLB Commissioner Bud Selig's expansion of the playoffs just seems wrong. The extra team, alone, seems to make baseball more and more "just another sport." The one-game play-in between teams 4 and 5, after the 162-game season, amkes it too arbitrary. (When previous play-ins have been done, I've always liked the NL doing a 2-of-3, vs. the AL single game system.)

I say, let's go back to two divisions per league and let both wildcards come from the same division. If you want to have four playoff teams, rather than even fewer, that's the best way. It also addresses "unbalanced schedule" issues. Or, do the Bob Costas idea, with three divisions, no wild card, and a first-round bye for the best division winner.

Here's somebody who totally agrees, and is scathing about Selig. Sheehan is right about baseball becoming more and more "just another sport."

No, no, no, #BudSelig! Don't ruin #MLB

While I'm grateful for the one wild card each of Major League Baseball's two leagues have, I do NOT want a second wild card. I also don't want all the other Bud Selig dreck that will go along with it.


I hate, hate, hate the idea of year-round interleague play, which two 15-team leagues will necessitate. I dislike lengthening the postseason, and halfway wonder if Bud will propose a neutral-site warm weather World Series location. If there is a second wild card, I detest a one-game play-in instead of a best-of-three series, even with evening out the leagues to 15 each.

Rather, there's two alternatives.

One is the Bob Costas idea, namely, getting rid of wild cards entirely and giving the best division winner a first-round bye.

The other is, keeping wild cards, but having two divisions in each league and two wild cards, both of whom could come from the same division. That would avoid the 15-team league parity issues, too.

Time for MLB to get serious about DWI

Ken Rosenthal nails this one.

Sadly, we shouldn't have Shin-Soo Choo already the sixth MLB player to be arrested this year for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.

The arrest and problems of Miguel Cabrera should have been a 120-decibel wake-up call to BOTH Commissioner Bud Selig AND the players' union to get more serious on this issue.

Bud's lack of seriousness, Rosenthal notes, goes back to doing nothing after St. Louis Cardinal manager Tony La Russa's arrest.

Jeff Passan's on the same page as Rosenthal, arguing baseball needs to start suspending players for this.

Let's play Swap-A-Commissioner

Oh, what fun this could be.

Here's how it could work.

David Stern moves from the NBA to the NFL. There, fleeing officiating that allegedly gets worse by the playoff series, with accusations of not just badness but favoritism toward or bias against certain teams, along with mid-level franchises like Sacramento moving because they can't compete financially, and a possible owner lockout or player strike ahead, he gets Roger Goodell's problems.

Those include, of course, an actual lockout, concerns over concussions and other injury issues, and a relatively young commissioner still trying to ride herd on some owners.

Stern, probably the most asshat of the big three sports (sit DOWN, NHL) commissioners, would probably love the opportunity to bitch-slap Jerry Jones and Peyton Manning at the same time.

Goodell, whose league has never faced questions about how well it tests for steroids, while many wonder if the concussion problems going all the way back to the 1970s have a steroid connection, gets to go run MLB in place of Bud Selig.

Bud has "faced" steroid issues in baseball ... by not facing them. By so incredibly not facing them that he didn't even mention Barry Bonds by name in a comment about Barry Bonds' trial! Goodell can learn lessons about stonewalling his own sport while relaxing with owners complacent from being chloroformed by a commish who is one of their own.

Selig, as punishment for his denialism, gets to move over to the NBA and try to run a league that's about ready to explode. Besides dodgy reffing and Mr. Donaghy of past infamy being convicted on issues related to game-fixing, you have the possibility of a second lockout or strike in less than 15 years, Sacramento being the third team relocation in five years, Stern's own stupidity in past placement of franchises in Charlotte (twice!), Vancouver (plus relocation to Memphis!) and bringing out five times as many conspiracy theories as Selig and Goodell combined.

Other than realizing how good he has it in baseball, Selig would probably convince NBA players to see what in the way of PED usage they can get away with and how much owners could wink at that. Bud could also give the conference champion from the conference that won the All-Star Game playoff home court advantage. Or, the worst team from the conference that loses gets the No. 1 draft choice! Maybe, in a bit of sports karma, the NBA could even cancel its 2011-12 season. Or maybe Selig could inflict that on the NHL instead.

Pujols — D-Day plus 2

According to Yahoo's Jeff Passan, Albert Pujols did just what he needed to do in Jupiter, Fla. Thursday: Go on the PR offensive.

Passan seems to give him a good grade:

It’s not a side Pujols reveals often. He is notoriously focused and routine-oriented. Media means nothing to him. As free agency beckons, though, Pujols needs a conduit to deliver his message, especially since he will balance reaching for high dollars with staying in the good graces of St. Louis fans who naturally side with the team.

Meanwhile, Prince Albert seemed at his best at deflecting guesses on specific numbers tossed around before the deadline:

“That’s so funny,” Pujols said. “Me and my agent talk every other day about you guys throwing numbers out, assuming the Cardinals offered me this, Albert asking for 10 years. We just laugh about it, and I’m pretty sure the Cardinals are, too. You guys don’t have any clue. You’re way off about the numbers you’re throwing out there.”

That said, ESPN has a source confirm that the average salary, more than total years, was allegedly a big deal.

Pujols also spoke, indirectly, to Tony La Russa's claims he was a "tool" of the players union:

Pujols said neither he nor Lozano had been pressured by anyone, and said only five people knew the details of the talks: Him, his wife, Lozano, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak, and Cardinals chairman William DeWitt Jr.

More light on why the tight lips? Pujols specifically cited how recent talks between the New York Yankees and Derek Jeter spilled into public, with acrimony at times.

Yahoo offers its latest take on where he might go, if he leaves, too. As it mentions, I haven't counted the Dodgers in the mix before, because of ownership issues. But with Commissioner Bud "Bud" Selig pushing the McCourts to settle up on their divorce, maybe even jointly selling the team, who knows, nine months from now?

Bud needs to invoke 'good of baseball' clause in LA

As the McCourts' divorce trial reveals new levels of greed, financial chicanery and more, one of baseball's most storied, and most important, franchises is at risk of moral bankruptcy, if not financial insolvency.

Bowie Kuhn barred George Steinbrenner from day-to-day operation of the Yankees in the wake of the Dave Winfield dirt-digging fiasco.

So, if current commissioner Bud Selig wants to push it, I believe he could force the McCourts to sell the Dodgers.

He should.

Now, if Peter O'Malley could just line up a consortium of buyers.

Selig could re-enthrone Aaron and suspend A-Roid

Steroids are supposed to shrink a man’s cojones, so where and when did Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig grow a new pair over steroids issues?

Suspending Alex Rodriguez is purely a PR ploy, unless it’s for an extended length of time.

Re-titling Hank Aaron as the home run king? In a game where stats are king, a significant move.

That said, don’t expect action on this item unless Bonds is convicted in his perjury trial, IMO.

And, that said, on A-Roid, a suspension of sufficient length could keep HIM from passing not only Bonds, but Aaron.

That all said, since we’re talking about A-Rod and Bonds vs. Aaron:

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You think this year’s World Series weather is bad

The alleged “Fall Classic” could end as late as Nov. 5 next year.

And Bud “Just Call Me Bud” Selig says he plans to do nothing to change that.

What a schmuck.

No wonder baseball’s TV ratings continue to sink.

And, although the NFL didn’t run Sunday Night Football this year, will it do that next year, or will it say …

“We’re in November and races are heating up. The hell with MLB.”

Or, on Saturday night, will ABC not run a NCAA Top 25 matchup, like the one scheduled for this Saturday night between Texas and Texas Tech? Right.

Should the ‘National Pastime’ start in its country of origin?

Jay Mariotti is mad as hell about baseball starting its season in Japan and isn’t going to take it anymore.

The Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist sees this as yet another Bud Selig marketing idea gone awry.

Selig forever will be known as The Greedy Commissioner, the car salesman who sells out integrity and tradition for fat-cat owners who aren't satisfied enough with $6 billion-plus in 2007 revenues and want to sell some T-shirts in Japan. All I know is, if baseball still wants to be embraced as the national pastime and still wants us to regard Opening Day as sacred, the season cannot open halfway around the world.

It is our sport and our holiday, not to be rented out any more than the Brits would allow the Premier League to launch in East Rutherford, N.J. Opening Day always has been a vital part of our sports romance, the raising of an emotional curtain between winter and spring, especially in places like Chicago where the winters are endless hell. …

The NFL played a real game in London last season, but never, ever would those owners launch a season anywhere but in an American stadium. Not to sound like a xenophobe, but Opening Day should not be 13 time zones away from one team's town and 16 from the other's. It's just un-American.

And, he’s probably right. Not just about this above, but the stupidity of trying to go to Europe. Since the retirement of Bert Blyleven (can we please, for doorknob’s sake, get this man his rightful spot in the Hall of Fame?) how many European players have there been in MLB? Beyond that, most Europeans probably do see baseball as bastardized cricket. And, in the UK at least, fans can watch the unbastardized version of that sport.

Unlike the NFL, which can more easily afford to play regular season games overseas, with its weekly schedule, or the NBA, which may eventually adopt David Stern’s idea of an entire division of European teams, Major League Baseball really has little to gain from this.

Japan has two established MLB-equivalent professional leagues of its own. The only marketing MLB can really do is vis-à-vis Japanese players on MLB teams, and that could be done with a postseason barnstorming tour, a la the 1920s.

Bud Selig: What steroids? Somebody will tell me someday

The Budmeister has decided his duties as MLB commish don’t include reading Barry Bonds’ grand jury testimony, instead of trusting the summations of MLB lawyers.

Meanwhile, Selig continues to read through the Mitchell Report with the same “all due deliberation” Brown vs. Board of Education speed that NFL commish Roger Goodell is exercising in trying to line up a meeting with potential Spygate snitch Matt Walsh:

Selig also said he hasn't decided what he will do about players mentioned in the Mitchell report on drugs and continues to review them on a case-by-case basis.

“I haven’t made any decisions on that yet,” Selig said. “We are working to finish off all of Sen. Mitchell’s recommendations, which will really tighten the program up and somehow I'm hoping one of these days that I can escape a press conference without any questions on this.”

“One of these days”? What an effing laugher, Bud! Is “one of these days” a day in the next decade, or further out?

I have an idea.

Let’s make Bud and Roger switch leagues for a month. I bet, without having to engage in in PR foot-in-mouth, the two of them might actually fix some problems in each other’s league.

Selig’s “list of 104” shows his complicity in steroid mess

As Yahoo’s Josh Peter points out, the old Budster, as MLB commissioner, knew a lot more about steroid use a lot earlier than he’d like to admit:

While Mark McGwire was playing the clumsy Cardinal at the 2005 Congressional hearings, commissioner Bud Selig proved an artful dodger, managing to avoid disclosing that Major League Baseball had seen a list of 104 players who federal authorities believed had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. …

In early 2004, after records were seized that federal authorities believed could identify which players had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the so-called “survey testing” in 2003, MLB and the players’ union cut a deal: MLB postponed any testing of the 104 players until the union notified them that they had tested positive in 2003 and were vulnerable to government search warrants. …

After the 2005 Congressional hearings, MLB had yet another opportunity to disclose it had seen the list of 104 players who federal authorities believed had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. (The number differed from MLB's contention that up to 83 players had tested positive because federal authorities used stricter standards for positives than MLB, according to a source familiar with the results.)

Baseball was less than forthcoming with lawmakers in September 2005, when a congressional committee launched an investigation into whether first baseman Rafael Palmeiro had committed perjury at hearings in March of the same year. The image of Palmeiro pointing his finger at congressmen and forcefully denying under oath that he had taken steroids was startling; so was the news only six weeks later that he tested positive for stanozolol.

That said, when does the NFL get put under the Congressional klieg lights? Ignoring the fact that Congress has more important work to do than monitor professional sports this tightly, why isn’t steroid use in the NFL getting scrutiny?

Bud Selig, come on down

And talk more about steroids yourself, rather than trying to bludgeon Jason Giambi.

When you said in 1994 it was maybe time to talk about them “again” already four years before the MacGwire-Sosa home run chase, it’s obvious you’re lying through your teeth with other claims that you really didn’t know they were a problem.