By Matt Vachlon
Bud Selig has had his fair share of critics over the years and I’ll admit me calling for his ouster is not a novel concept.
But at some point you have to wonder how many lives this cat has.
In a year where the Milwaukee Brewers have decided to honor their former owner with a statue, Selig has continued to do what he does best:
Perpetually make Major League Baseball a laughingstock.
The man who has overseen such dazzling achievements as the 1994 player’s strike, the failure of the Montreal Expos and a steroid scandal that has tainted baseball’s record book forever has offered us two more gems so far in this early season: the possibility of floating divisions and, this past week, the adoption of more rules changes to the All-Star Game.
Hey Bud, I know you plan to retire in 2012, but do us all a favor and go away now!
Seriously, I could write a novel about the stupidity of each of these ideas, but for your sake I’ll try and stress only the most obvious flaws. In the case of floating realignment, baseball in steeped in tradition and part of that tradition comes from rivalries. That can’t continue when your divisional rivals change each season.
Then there’s the message that it sends. Shifting divisions based on a team’s outlook on winning should raise all kinds of competitive red flags. Is there really much of a difference between shifting divisions in order to play more popular opponents because you plan on being bad, and fixing a World Series?
While obviously a bit of a stretch, I think it’s a slippery slope. Fortunately, I don’t think this plan will come to fruition, but Selig’s 14-person “special committee for on-field matters” should be fired for even considering such a thing.
Sadly though, the abomination that the All-Star Game has become is very real.
As if having home-field advantage in the World Series determined by an exhibition game in July wasn’t stupid enough, Selig has outdone himself this time. In making the designated hitter a permanent fixture in every All-Star Game, no matter the venue, he has now assured that home-field advantage will be determined by exclusively playing by one league’s rules. If I were a fan of a National League team, I’d be outraged.
Also, expanded rosters wouldn’t be necessary if the game, and remember it counts, weren’t managed like a Little League contest. Currently, we have fans voting who starts for each team and each manager trying to make sure that everybody plays.
Bud’s solution to this problem: Let’s make up a special rule, for this game only, which says one position player can be designated as eligible to return to the game.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
Oh, and now starting pitchers that pitch on Sunday are ineligible. This rule would be fine if it weren’t for the magnitude of the game. If you’re a manager of a first-place team you might be tempted to not pitch All-Star starter in a critical Sunday matchup because you hope he can help secure you home-field advantage by participating in the All-Star Game. Laugh at this scenario if you want, but it is plausible.
Essentially, Selig implemented rules that would be perfect for an exhibition contest, except that he’s made the All-Star Game anything but that.
It’s Selig in a nutshell. He never quite gets things right.
Unless, of course, he decided to step down now.
He would get that one right.
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