Bud Seling stepping down as MLB commissioner

[Landshark]

Just got a news report that he is planning to retire as MLB commissioner effective January 2015.  I wonder if the new comissioner will soften his stance on Pete Rose.

[CF DolFan]

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? Bud Selig Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Well at least for the 2016 season

[Fau Teixeira]

where does he rank in the list of best baseball commissioners ?

best ever ?

[Spider-Dan]

Bud Selig: great commissioner, or the greatest commissioner?

[Dave Gray]

Some guy on ESPN this morning was saying that it was important to get a young guy in there who is in touch with the public's view of some of these issues.  ...that another old guy (even Joe Torre, who is generally liked) isn't going to "get" the need for replay and is probably too much of a purist to evolve the game.

I am probably the worst person to have an opinion of this, but I think that baseball needs enormous overhaul -- many fewer games, replay, get rid of unwritten rules, stop catcher from getting bowled over at the plate, no more beaning batters for discipline, speed up the game in every way possible -- you can't go talk to your pitcher unless you're going to pull him, you can't get out of the batter's box once you enter it, etc.

[Phishfan]

^^^ How would you propose getting rid of unwritten rules since they aren't actually a rule that can be done away with?

[Sunstroke]

^^^ How would you propose getting rid of unwritten rules since they aren't actually a rule that can be done away with?

Well, duh...you use an uneraser.

[Landshark]

where does he rank in the list of best baseball commissioners ?

best ever ?

Bud Selig: great commissioner, or the greatest commissioner?

Are you kidding me?  On this guy's watch there was the following:

1. A strike that cancelled the World Series for the first time in 90 years and threatened to do so the following season

2. A near miss on another one eight years later.

3. An enormous scandal with steroids that rocked baseball to its core with all of the little subplots of each exposed individual

4. An All Star Game that had to be called a tie because they ran out of pitchers

[Fau Teixeira]

Are you kidding me?  On this guy's watch there was the following:

1. A strike that cancelled the World Series for the first time in 90 years and threatened to do so the following season

2. A near miss on another one eight years later.

3. An enormous scandal with steroids that rocked baseball to its core with all of the little subplots of each exposed individual

4. An All Star Game that had to be called a tie because they ran out of pitchers

how are baseball revenues currently compared to at the end of other commissioners' tenures ?
how's the current health of the game and labor situation compared to the end of other commissioners' tenures?

I think MLB just signed a 10 year labor deal quietly, with no hint of a labor dispute.
I'm fairly sure MLB revenues are way up.

come back at me with facts that matter about a commissioner's job performance  .. not a bunch of TMZ story-lines about stuff like "rocking the core of baseball" .. steroids was the best thing to happen to baseball since getting a monopoly excemption

[CF DolFan]

Steroids best thing to happen to baseball? That's making lemonade out of lemons to say the least. The Mark and Sammy hr race helped excite some people but the overall effect was it tainted most people's perception of the sport.

[Landshark]

how are baseball revenues currently compared to at the end of other commissioners' tenures ?
how's the current health of the game and labor situation compared to the end of other commissioners' tenures?

I think MLB just signed a 10 year labor deal quietly, with no hint of a labor dispute.
I'm fairly sure MLB revenues are way up.

Revenues aside, you can't just focus on that.  You have to look at overall performance.  Work stoppages and drug scandals don't look good at all. 

Steroids was the best thing to happen to baseball since getting a monopoly excemption

Fau, just do what the nice men in the white suits tell you to do.  They'll take good care of you.

[Spider-Dan]

I am probably the worst person to have an opinion of this, but I think that baseball needs enormous overhaul -- many fewer games, replay, get rid of unwritten rules, stop catcher from getting bowled over at the plate, no more beaning batters for discipline, speed up the game in every way possible -- you can't go talk to your pitcher unless you're going to pull him, you can't get out of the batter's box once you enter it, etc.

You're trying to make baseball into basketball.  It's not supposed to be fast-paced.

Baseball also has a rather unique position in that there is a HUGE reverence towards historical significance of statistics... much more than other sports.  In baseball, due to the way the game works, every play is neatly categorized and recorded, to be compared to any/every other play ever.  While I may not care for it, I respect it.

I do think that nearly everything revolving around beaning players (particularly: the fights) needs an overhaul.  I am perplexed as to why football and basketball have zero-tolerance fighting policies (and are still considered "thug-infested" in the event of an occasional brawl), yet baseball and hockey still consider fighting an accepted and necessary part of the sport.

[Spider-Dan]

Steroids best thing to happen to baseball? That's making lemonade out of lemons to say the least. The Mark and Sammy hr race helped excite some people but the overall effect was it tainted most people's perception of the sport.

Steroids didn't taint most people's perception of baseball until many years after steroids saved it.

Without steroids, baseball could very well have been duking it out with the NHL for time slots on OLN.

[Landshark]

Steroids didn't taint most people's perception of baseball until many years after steroids saved it.

That's like saying Bernie Madoff was a great man for donating millIons of dollars to charity only to find out later he made those millIons while running a Ponzi scheme

[Fau Teixeira]

That's like saying Bernie Madoff was a great man for donating millIons of dollars to charity only to find out later he made those millIons while running a Ponzi scheme

No. It isn't like that at all.