The steroid king, and the inventor of tie games in baseball, his retirement is long, long, overdue.

He should be fired for ruining the game. This guy got paid 17 million last year for what. Over seeing the steroid problem, the fake home run chase & best thing he did. Determine who gets home field advantage for the World Series by the winner of a fan based all star game. Now that is quite the achievement. Might be his crowning glory.

Wonder if Pete Rose can live long enough for the new commissioner to rule him eligible for Cooperstown.

I sure hope so. Pete Rose deserves to be in the Hall of Fame without a doubt.

These are some dumb comments. Under Selig the game has enjoyed more revenue than ever, and this was after a strike that sent many fans packing. A strike due to the greedy players.

Selig has lied his way into immortality and presided over the destruction of all semblance of integrity in the game. Shame on him. He's been a disgrace to the game.

We still seem to expect our commissioners to live up to the ideologically constipated standards of Mountain Landis. The Landis hiring, which was meant to restore the integrity of the game, set the horizon of expectation for every commissioner through Faye Vincent, but Selig wasn't hired to perpetuate that horizon. He was hired to worry about the interests of the owners rather than the interests of the game per se. Just ask the voters in Milwaukee who went to the polls to shoot down a new stadium for the Used Car King and got one shoved down their throats anyway. If you were an owner you could hardly argue that he served his purpose. That's why revenue is up and integrity is in traction, and that's why the next commissioner will either be another owner or front office droid. If you were hoping for the next Bart Giamatti or maybe George Will, forget it.

Don't kid yourself. For all his dubious Ivy League charms, Giamatti was just as big a tool of the owners as Selig...and in an ideal world, Selig never would have been more than the owner of a second-division AL West team.

"And while the politicians sneered and slanged/I wept/For I had longed to see him hanged."

Ok, I really don't like Selig as commissioner but I really have never understood the "outrage" over the tie game in the all-star game.

Both teams were out of pitchers and bench players. If your teams pitcher had been forced to carry the game and hurt his arm and was lost to your team for the rest of the season you would complain that they should have ended the game.

It is an exhibition game. No more meaningful (before they went and tied it to the WS) than a spring training game. The original intent of the game was and still is to raise money for the pension fund.

Why would you care if it ended in a tie?

There has never been a good commissioner. Giamatti might have been but he died to early to tell.

Judge Landis was a racist that made certain the color barrier was not broken in his life time. It is sinful that the MVP award is named for him.

Pete Rose does not belong in the hall of fame. He bet on baseball games he was managing. If you are not smart enough to understand why that is worse than taking steroids then I can not help you, you need medical help I can not give you.

While I think Selig is a dingbat you can not argue about the success of the game under his tenure. Attendance up, revenue up.

As someone who knew Bart Giamatti - not well, mind you, but well enough to get a pretty strong impression of the man - when he was a professor of literature even before he was running Yale University, I can assure you that he was nobody's tool. Not the owners, not the trustees of Yale, not the Modern Language Association's, n-o-b-o-d-i-e-s. I wish I could say the same for his relationship to nicotine, though, or he'd probably still be with us. Anyone who has bothered to read the essays in his sublime Take Time for Paradise would probably have known better than to make such an apocryphal accusation in the first place. I don't think I've ever come across anyone with a more resonant love of the game of baseball, and for homo ludens, humanity as a lover of games, as well.

And Pete Rose wouldn't have lasted ten seconds under Landis, either. But Giamatti's sense of integrity - which was profound - dictated that he give Rose every fair and legal opportunity to establish his innocence. When he failed to do so, Giamatti did what he had to do - again, not out of vindictiveness against Rose, but to protect the integrity of the game. Contrast that with Selig's corrupt and cowardly silence about the chemical plague he clearly knew was infecting the game about as well as he knew that the performance enhancements they were causing were making the cash registers clang. So in a sense you're right - you can't ignore the increases in attendance and revenue. They're both testimony to his culpability in permitting and coddling the game's age of steroids.

Baseball has two huge problems right now. One is player greed. The other is the horrible umps. How is Selig going to fix those problems? I'd say this past postseason proved to the world that the umps stink and that didn't even get into how bad their strikezones are.

Again, not defending Selig at all, I really dislike him as a commissioner. One cannot lump steroids and other PED's in the same class as betting on the game.

Let me ask you this: if you were one of maybe 1000 people in the world that could do your job and if your employers had the revenue stream to pay you millions of dollars to do that job would you turn down that money?

Bud-Lite, good riddance. The days of a "commissioner" that isn't an owner, or hack for the owners, is over. The replacement will be bought and paid for by the owners. Hopefully they get what they deserve; a strike, lose of interest by the next generation, and due to their own greed, a complete financial bust in trying to get people to PAY to watch a game on TV. I used to "need" baseball. Not anymore.

I agree with WallaceN. The game is all about money. Most fans, if you look at all 30 teams is pretty void of good players! Many should be in the minor league system, unfortunately brought up way too early because spots must be filled. There's very little in the way of fine talent, folks. What the new Commissioner must do is somehow find a way to simply not allow the few teams such as the Yankees to simply buy up whatever few great players are out there. The salaries are simply way beyond reason. Perhaps the fans' refusal to not "need" baseball as WallaceN stated above should be echoed much more. Stay home and don't buy tickets! Let MLB know that it won't be tolerated. We just go to 1 game a year now, simply boring.

I hope the League can appoint someone who is actually independent from Baseball. Selig being a former owner of the Brewers no doubt affected his choices and made him bias towards the owners.

Pete Rose does not and should never be in the HOF

Back in the day, the commissioner of Major League Baseball had one overriding mission: To look out for and ensure the best interests of the game. The commissioner was nominally supposed to be INDEPENDENT of the owners; this was the deal worked out with Congress for MLB to get its infamous anti-trust exemption (and hence render the players indentured servants for almost 75 years through the dreaded Reserve Clause). Anybody remember any of this?

Then, in 1992, the owners appointed a fellow OWNER, Selig, as "Acting Commissioner" to replace the last truly independent commissioner, Faye Vincent, because he was acting too, well, independent. The conflict of interest was blatant, but Bud's mission was clear: Hold the line and force the last great work stoppage, including the first cancellation of the World Series in history for a non-war related reason.

This almost wrecked the game, but baseball recovered through the unholy alliance of owners and players and the use of PED's. The owners looked the other way because the public liked offensive stats; the players (most, anyway) used because a few more HR's or RBI's meant millions more per year in salary.

Presiding over it all, one Bud Selig. In true MLB fashion, Selig will certainly be voted into the HOF, and perhaps have a trophy named after him (to the small market team with the highest revenues and lowest player payroll?).

Today, the game is what it is because, since 1992, no one has been looking out for the best interests of the GAME.

MLB, RIP

First off, Selig turned his back on the whole steroid issue LONG after it was an issue. Lyle Alzadeo, who spent his last years talking about how steroids destroyed his body, died in 1992!!! McGuire and Bonds didn't do anything that Reggie Jackson didn't do (oh yeah, Reggie bulked up on steroids years ago). Selig should have been celebrating the stars of the game, instead of the despicable way he treated Bonds. He dithered over what to do about steroids while looking down on those he suspected of using steroids. Long ago, he should have instituted a zero tolerance policy, and then maybe A-Rod, Palmeiro and Rocket wouldn't have used them either.

Second, if you're going to create eligibility rules after the fact, then you'd have to remove guys like Gaylord Perry who flaunted the way he cheated. Even wrote a book about it while he was still a player.

Third, by any measure of anybody who's ever played the game of baseball, Pete Rose has Hall Of Fame statistics (most hits 4,256; most games played 3,562, most at bats 14,053, and on and on). His gambling illness was no worse than Mickey Mantle's alcoholism. Both are serious medical conditions. But the fact is that Pete's records were well in the book long before he was a player manager. There is absolutely no question that as a player for the Reds and the Phils, Pete played to win. What he did as a manager was wrong. Most people inside baseball say Pete deserves to be in the HOF, but don't allow him a role in baseball.

Why wait Bud? Just go now because you are terrible at your job.
I think Pete Rose deserves to be in Hall of Fame. I don't blane the players for trying to get as much money as they can but its getting harder to justify paying the high ticket price to see a live game.......better just to stay at home and watch it on tv.

Selig isn't terrible at his job; he's good at doing the owners (especially small markets) bidding. Its that he's terrible for the GAME. I would also say "Go" now but his replacement isn't going to be any better.

He turned a blind eye to overt steroid use and has allowed the players union to run the game. Good riddance to this buffoon.

Goodbye, Bud. Hello, George W Bush.

Just remember how Selig wanted to do away with the American and National leagues and replace them with 5 divisions. That idea was shot down pretty fast. He only cared about money and nothing else. He will always be looked at as the steroids commissioner and nothing else.

The horror. The horror.

And again, the horror.

Ditto...we need a MAN as comissioner.
...and by the way...Pete Rose should be allowed back in baseball, and in the Hall of Fame...I am not endorsing what he did...what he did was wrong, there should be no betting at all...but he did NOT bet against his team, he bet FOR his team...there is a big difference from an integrity standpoint. It is still wrong, but taking performance enhancing drugs is much worse from an integrity standpoint. Bud Selig let this go on...he only did something when CONGRESS forced the issue, otherwise the home run title would be about 85 HRs for a season by now. I did not see Bud or any other 'righteous' clamoring against Big Mac or Sosa or Bonds when IT WAS KNOWN what they were doing was unethical.
Pete Rose is a man who played his heart out for his entire career. Yes, he made a big mistake, but who has not (including many in the Hall of Fame)? We need to think HARD about forgiving the man who did so much good for Baseball.

Totally agree. Also, look at DB's comment on "Lyle Alzadeo, who spent his last years talking about how steroids destroyed his body, died in 1992!!!"....why didn't Bud do anything to stop it in Baseball...it is Selig's INACTION on the Steroid issue that has harmed Baseball...one could agrue that that inaction is an INTEGRITY issue. Why was there inaction? One word - GREED. The same reason there is no SALARY CAP in Baseball (the only major sport in America with this dubious distinction). Is Bud being questioned on integrity? If not, why not?
Can you say every team has ANY (forgot about equal) chance of making the playoffs? Do KC or Pittsburgh or Cleveland have the same (or any) chance as the Red Sox or Yankees or Angels or Phillies ... do they have ANY chance? ... is there an underlying reason why every good player on the KC, Pitt and Cleveland teams will ultimately be traded a year before they become free agents?...and how much does it now cost a Dad to bring his son to a MLB game?
As a BASEBALL fan, I really hope Joe Mauer stays with the TWINS, although I cannot blame him if he signs with the Red Sox or Yans for more money than the Twins can afford to pay him. I blame the man who let this scenario evolve (where the rich teams get all the superstars) and did nothing to prevent the unlevel playing field among teams. The Luxury Tax may have been a step in the right direction, but tell me why he did not stand up to the Players Union and demand a Salary Cap...if he had that Dad and his son in mind, instead of $$$, he would have....but he did not....very unethical.

au contraire...he SHOULD...Pete's gambling problem was a medical condition just as Mickey Mantle's alcoholism was. Last time I looked, The Mick was still in the Hall of Fame, as he deserves to be....and so should 'Charlie Hustle'.

Does this mean we will be replacing 'baseball caps' with '10 gallon hats'?...but it may not be all that bad ... maybe he will speed up the game by letting the relief pitchers ride in on a horse from the bullpen...YeeHaw!

Reggie? Are you STUPID? Reggie was doing steroids in the 1960's and 1970's? Are you stupid?

There is a specific rule in baseball that prohibits betting on the game. There is also a specific rule in the HOF that prohibits anyone banned from baseball from inclusion in the HOF.
Again, if you are not smart enough to understand how betting on a game is worse than substance abuse I can not help you. If you can not understand how doctoring a baseball is not the same as betting on a game I can not help you.

While you condemn Selig and praise Landis you conveniently forget that it was gambling that forced baseball to create the commissioners office to begin with. Landis banned the players in the Black Sox scandal even though they had been acquitted in a court of law. A gutsy move and one that he should be praised for.

Landis would have banned Rose. Any commissioner would have and should have banned him and no commissioner should overturn the ban without an honest expression of regret on the part of Rose as opposed to his efforts to sell books.
This stupid desire to point and say HE MUST HAVE DONE STEROIDS even though the player played well before steroids are believed to have entered the game, even though that player started his career before steroids entered even the body building world is inane and speaks to the ignorance of the person making the statement.

Oh, so now we can't identify previous steroid users? I would like to have tested Babe Ruth's urine. I bet he was taking steroids too. Sixty home runs? Give me a break. I bet you that Gherig's ALS, Campanella's paralysis and Ryne Duren's liver failure were all cover ups for steroids!

And as far as your being "unable to help" those who equate steroid use with betting, I can't seem to find any instances of them asking for it in the first place. Point is, there are more ways than one to damage the integrity of a sport (or an individual, or a group of individuals), and more ways than one to wink at the damage. I think your point is that betting is a more destructive behavior because it strikes at the heart of the question of "who won," which, if it cannot be answered fairly, makes the entire contest pointless to watch. I don't disagree. But when you have games being decided by chemical augmentation - when some former 98-pound weakling crushes a grand slam in the ninth inning while his biceps are bulging with cybernetic enhancement, off some guy who had the simple integrity to match no more than his will, natural conditioning and native strength against the batter's teratogenic arms, how much different, really, is that in terms of whether the game was won fairly or not? If there's a difference, it's merely a difference in degree.

Baseball's rule on gambling specifically says that anyone who bets on a game in which the better has a duty to perform will be banned for life. Regardless if Rose bet on his own team (which I don't believe for moment), he had a duty to perform. Rose violated the rule so he should never be allowed in the HOF. Although he belongs in the HOF based on his stats, he does not deserve it because he bet on the game.

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This pain in the Azz can leave now as far as I am concerned. Give him his pay but get rid if the do nothing suit. Can't wait for his
departure

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