Ken Davidoff's baseball insider

It's amazing how the Brewers organization got healthy once the last stains of the Selig family were removed. Was Bud actively fouling up the organization to prove MLB's dire economic straits and to get the state to build a free stadium in order for him to cash out at a great profit?

I won't root for the Brewers until Bud is gone as Commissioner or dead..both would make me very happy

Ken, when I tried to post to your first blog of the day a message came back saying it was sent to the blog owner for his review, etc. I guess it's lost in cyberspace.

Anyway, I have to agree with your Sabathia trade anaylsis. The Brewers can afford the rental and the Indians get a very good prospect who can make an impact a lot sooner than a draft pick - if the pick ever made it at all. I don't think Sabathia would have put the Yankees over the top and they are just now starting to make headway restocking their farm system. So, I'm glad they sat this one out.

Bob, I agree on Fenway/Boston. The guy who was beaten lives in my hometown on LI. He's not a kid. I've been to many games in Fenway over the years and the charm of the small place makes up for the tight seats, sometimes tough angles, etc.

A-Rod has disappointed me. I always looked at him as thought he was a real pro in his approach, etc. But, in the last couple of years it disturbed me to read he was frequenting establishments that a grown man, married and a father at that, should not want to be in, let along a public figure who should know better. Being photographed last summer in several cities with someone other than his wife and now the whole Madonna thing - well, it can't make the Yankee brass happy and it doesn't make me happy. I found it interesting to read that it was Madonna's crew that was behind his return to the Yankees and his falling out with Boras. If this is true, I don't know what to believe.

It a great trade for the Brewers. The Brewers havn't made the playoffs since 1982 when they lost in the World Series to the Cardinals. The Brewers now have 2 ace pitchers in Sabathia and Ben Sheets. But they also have 2 pitchers who will be free agents at the end of the season where both are more likely to leave for big contracts. This is a win now move by the Brewers.
Bob, you really hate Bud Selig. Have you ever met Selig in person and talk to him?

I can't imagine what baseball ever did to deserve Bud Selig around its neck for the past 38 years. He was a terrible owner and is an even worse commissioner - right up there with Bowie Kuhn. He deserves more blame than anyone else for the 1994 strike and the World Series cancellation. As an owner, he was exceedingly greedy. If I had lived in Wisconsin when he got his stadium deal approved, I would have moved just so I didn't pay one tax dollar to support him. As Bob T. so abtly noted, Selig cashed out at a huge profit. He pocketed lots of revenue sharing/luxury tax $$$ rather than spend it on his lousy team and he is earning more than $14 million a year a commish. He also did nothing about PEDs in the game until he was forced by Congress. I know Ken likes Bud, but as for me, "Joe Average Fan," I think he stinks!

I've been able to meet Presidents easier than trying to arrange a meeting with anyone in MLB and/or get assistance. And the flip side is that I have been able to speak with Don Fehr numerous times.

Let me give an example. A friend discovered that someone was selling agent authorization forms on eBay. Mine was in the pile (written request for Bob Woolf to talk with John Schuerholz) and it clearly showed my social security number.

I contacted the Royals, I contacted Tom Ostertag in the MLB's attorney's office and contacted Steve Rogers at the MLBPA.

The MLBPA called me to say this had happened before and that there files were secure. The Royals counsel conducted his own search and found out that it was stolen from MLB's archives. MLB's counsel was wondering why the hell I had emailed him about the theft of documents from their own file storage.

Dead Bob?!?!? Isn't that a bit harsh?? I mean I know I just said the same thing about Johnny Cochrane but that was because he not only pur a murderer on the streets to kill again, but he gleefully did it and rubbed it in the Goldman and Brown's faces.

I think that's really a tad harsh to want Selig dead. I myself want him out of baseball completely because I think he's been a major force in ruining the sport (for me) but dead?

I don't think Bud Selig is ever leaving the commissioner's office on two feet. Forget about that nonsense that he will retire in 2012 when he latest contract is up. Like Landis, he will die in office. Incidentally, his $14.5 million salary was for the 12-month period ending Oct. 3, 2005. So, he's most likely making far more money now. Do you really think Selig cares about anyone other than himself? I don't.

Bob, do you having anything to do with the IBL? What do you think of it? I see Selig is on its board.

Will someone please tell Jerry Manuel Tatis is one of his players because you lknow he has memory failure he admitted to about some players Tatis's bench performance is far better than Marlon or the other guys except Easely. C'mon Jerry wake up and play the game right.

Selig must be in his 70s so by time 2012 comes around he could be kaput, if not maybe the other owners "will twist his arm" again like they did this time to keep him in office. I can't see G.W. Bush being ready to be baseball commissioner by then anyhow.
Once upon a time when I was a kid, Milwaukee was one of the best major league baseball cities, and they held the record for full season attendance, about 2.8 million. Then the Braves left for Atlanta. I can't see why the Brewers, if they can draw over 3 million this season, can't try and keep Sheets or Sabathia. If they win anything at all this year, they could easily draw 35-40,000 per game next season and that will cover the salary.

Bud will turn 74 this month. Milwaukee is 12th in MLB in attendance this year at 1,447,368 in 41 dates. They are averaging 35,301 at home or a capacity rate of 83.3 percent.

The Yankees are No. 1 at 2,466,390 (47 dates) or 52,476 per game for a 91.3 capacity rate. The Mets are No. 2 at 1,962,101 (39 dates) or 50,310 per game or a capacity rate of 87.6 percent.

Bob, Jim, clearly you guys are pro players union and anti-owners. But you have to admitt, Bud Selig is the most melign commissioner in sports. He gets more negative press than any commissioner in sports. I'm not trying to defend Selig, but he does get as much negative press as Gerorge W. Bush, the president of the United States. Roger Goodell, David Stern and Gary Bettman have gotten negative press, but not as much as Selig.

I don't think Selig is the most maligned commissioner, but he should be! I'm not so much pro player's union than distainful of the owners, who are greedy and who demand taxpayer dollars to make hundreds of millions more. Selig is a terrible commissioner. Let's not forget how he attained the office. He was a horrible owner who was a leader in the $280 million collusion scheme (according to Fay Vincent) and an awful commissioner who presided over a ridiculous strike, cancellation of the World Series and even a tie All Star game. He a joke.

RG -= My desire to see Bud Selig depart knows no bounds, but of course I do not wish him physical harm - it was a mite harsh. But I fear we'll have to carry him out of the office on a astretcher when he finally gives up the job. However, I do think of him during "Animal House" when they discuss Dean Wormer and Niedemeyer.

Dennis - the reason Bud gets grief is that MLB writers actually are free to criticize baseball. Basketball and football writers are gutless and afraid of loss of access due to the control freaks names Stern and Goodell that run their leagues. Some baseball writers are still anti-union and do not chgosse to cover the economic issues related to the sport - in that case I am anti-management as they are playing games with the numbers. (See the Newsday article last week on tax exempy bonds and how the Yanks are trying to access the market in a suspicious way).

Honest criticism of steroids would have investigated college kids who gain 80 lbs. of muscle in 3 years and weight training enhancers in the NFL. Bud used the steroid issue to win a collective bargaining debate in 2002, and only acted when PR forced him to move.

Jim - the MLB people and US board members of the IBL departed last year, Selig included. I dealt with the youth leagues in Israel 2 years ago when I did some clinics with Elliott Maddox. They are trying again, with Dan Duquette in charge.

Bob who do you dispise more? Bud or Billy Crystal? J/k

I agree Bud will never give this up. Why should he? He loves the power, the money and wants to re-write his legacy. He reminds me of Luis Castillo. Signed to a ridiculous contract that he didn't deserve in the first place!

For me, Clueless Bud will always be remembered first for the strike, second for inserting the Wild Card (which I know everyone loves but me) and thirdly the tie All-Star game. I don't blame him at all for the steroids. We ALL knew it was going on and none of us did anything. It's not our job to do anything, but I'm not going to blame Bud for that.

Bud should get a tremendous amount of blame for steroids being in the game. He was the COMMISSIONER and he should have done something. But,as I have written, the owners liked the stats being put up by players and Bud doesn't want to offend the owners. Remember that baseball was really hurting after the strike so the industry looked the other way when the balls started flying out of the park, etc. I blame Bud for steroids. He is the Steroids Commissioner.

Bob T., I was in error when I wrote that Selig was on the board of the IBL. He was on an advisory committee. The IBL appears to be having a good year. I was on its website a couple of times today.

RG - like some have stated on this site Selig and Crystal are SOFT and OVERRATED.

Jim - Re: IBL = the problem is that there are only 3 fields that are at least high school quality - Kibbutz Gezer, Yarkon and Sportek (I didn't see that one when I was there)

Is Selig Luis Castillo - or Chauncey Gardner? Discuss among yourselves!

I hate when Bob shows his age and starts naming people I never heard of. I'll stick to Luis Castillo.

Gary Bettman is the most maligned commissioner in sports and for good reason, he nearly has destroyed the NHL and he is incompetent. Even Selig hasn't reached those liabilities. As bad as Selig is, I rate him no worse than #2 behind NFL Commissioner as far as keeping his sport on the right track. Everybody gives David Stern mad props for what he has done for the NBA, but what did he do? He became commissioner when Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson created tremendous interest in a dying sport, ruled over it throughout Michael Jordan, then with none of that left has ruined the NBA, took it off broadcast TV (for the most part), had a major strike, has to deal with corruption within the officials and bad press for his thug players, yet all he does is smile and say how great things are. The only cities that would like teams are considered minor league cities for every other sport--Ok City, Memphis, Las Vegas, Sacramento--no other sport moves from large media areas to smaller ones like the NBA does.
What makes the NFL commissioners #1??--they broke the union and he makes the league money hands over fist and the sport is more popular today than ever.

Sandy - I'd agree with you about Gary Bettman and the NHL, but frankly no one really cares, as witnessed by TV ratings (and yes, I watched the entire OT game).

Richie G - the reference was to the movie "Being There", where Peter Sellers character spouts comments about gardening and people think that he is somrwhoe a deep intellect - like the Lord of Milwaukee.

Now that quoted R.E.M., we have to continue to keep him off the kitsch cultural diet of his youth.

LOL. I'm a big "Being There" fan, Bob. I saw it in college.

Jim, you blame the steriods era all on Selig and not on the players union? Come on. The Players union basically did nothing to at least get a policy in place. They allow basically all their members to juice up wtihout doing anything about it. The union only cares about the money. They don't care about the health of thie players down the line.
Fay Vincent did just as bad a job as Selig as commissioner.

Dennis - please stop the "union did nothing" rants. Did you read "Lords of the Realm" by John Helyar yet as I recommended?

Both the Union and Selig and the fans and the media and the players themselves did anything about the steroids.

I used to care about the NHL. Then along came Bettman. Maybe he is worse than Selig. Good point.

Dennis, I find it hard to respond to posts such as your last one. I say this nicely: You appear to not understand why a union exists and what its function is. The players union did negotiate a drug policy and it was abrogated. Bob Tufts has explained this to you several times. You also stated the union allowed its members to juice up without doing anything about it. But, the union has no legal power over its members. It can't drug test them. It can't make them do anything.

The players have contracts with one of the 30 clubs. They are covered by a CBA. You don't seem to know much about Fay Vincent and certainly know little about Selig. To compare Vincent and Selig in the same sentence is ludicrous. Vincent was hated by the owners, hence his ouster. Bud kisses their rear ends - hence his obscene salary. Please read Lords of the Realm. Then get back to us.

I have read the book reviews and the excerpts of the book "Lords of the Realm" by John Helyar. Basically the book tells the story of how baseball has evolved as a business. It also tells you how the Players union led by Marvin Miller came to power.
Jim, you said that I don't know much about Fay Vincent. Well I know he try to move the Cubs form the NL East to the NL West, which draw angry from everybody. At that time there was no Wild Card and it was 4 divisions.
By the way it looks like Wrigley Field will be the site of the next outdoor NHL Winter Classic. Yankee Stadium is spare from hosting it, which will make some Yankees fans happen. Cubs fans wouldn't be thrill to see a hockey game play at Wrigley Field.