Commissioner Bud Selig continues to sidestep questions about Dodgers ownership situation
Despite being told that fans in Los Angeles would probably want to hear him address the Dodgers’ increasingly unstable ownership situation, Commissioner Bud Selig maintained his long-standing silence on the matter during his visit to Camelback Ranch on Sunday.
“I’m not going to say anything today,” Selig said. “It’s a situation that I’ve monitored and am monitoring very closely and I think any comment from me at this point is inappropriate.”
Asked if he felt responsible for the Dodgers’ predicament considering that he endorsed the team’s sale to owner Frank McCourt, Selig replied, “Well, Fox sold the club to him and we did approve it, but that’s a normal process. I don’t really have any other comment.”
Selig was good-natured, offering lighthearted responses to follow-up questions.
At one point, Selig was asked by reporters from Chicago if he considered White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen a problem.
“Given the problems I have today, Ozzie’s No. 794,” he said.
What about catcher A.J. Pierzynski?
“795,” Selig said.
What about the Dodgers?
“That’s a different story,” he said, drawing laughs from the semi-circle of reporters standing in front of him.
Later, Selig mentioned he was teaching classes at Marquette University, including one on sports law.
Asked if he would invite McCourt to be a guest lecturer, Selig responded, “We’re going to move on to another subject. Anybody have any more logical questions?”
So inviting McCourt to speak would be illogical?
“Logic, to me, is maybe one that I enjoy,” Selig said. “How’s that?”
-- Dylan Hernandez in Phoenix
Photo: Bud Selig during an interview at a Diamondbacks-Brewers game on March 12. Credit: Chris Morrison / US Presswire
History will not be kind to Bud. His legacy will reflect what he didn't do vs what he did. Selig's self-aggrandizement has immobilized him as the McCourtian cancer begins to spread throughout the vast major league baseball network. Refusing to risk removing the cancer Bud has emerged as an evil force in baseball. His will be an ugly demise and his successor will reveal many many ugly truths.
Posted by: Skyharbor | 03/20/2011 at 03:24 PM
What do you expect out of this PERSON? He endorses frankie and jamey but puts the kibosh on a guy like Mark Cuban. It would kill him if the Dodgers were actually owned by someone like George Steinbrenner ( I get down on my knees every day and pray for this to happen). buddy boy don`t want another team like th Yanks or Red Sox. A high tide raises all ships and if that happens, the profit margin gets thinner for the ownership club. How great it would be to see some superstar free agents play for some team other than the Yanks. As it is buddy is probably going to expand the playoffs and then expand MLB. It`s thin enough already. Lots of luck if you think tis PERSON is going to do anything that doesn`t have money involved, lots of money for the exclusive mlb ownership club.
Posted by: Jim McVeigh | 03/20/2011 at 03:40 PM
Stupid is as stupid does.
Posted by: Mrs. Selig | 03/20/2011 at 04:04 PM
skyharbor is spot-on in assessing selig will be remembered as much or more for what he didn't do.
but it was the territory he accepted, going from the owner the rest of the owners liked enough to be interim commissioner forever before officially being commish. And he's had numerous chances to take stands, and failed miserably. Those moments have been in private and later revealed public, they've been public, they've even involved politicians. They've been numerous - and too many times, 20/20 hindsight shows him making moves that are bad for the game. Moves that have moved the game we love to places from which it will not return to where it once was. Many topics there, from playoffs to expansion to steroids with many more stops inside and beyond those boundaries.
Bud knows the one true bottom line about baseball, the line that saves him from all he does or does not do. Baseball fans are plentiful, always have been, always will be, and they are as forgiving as any. Baseball fans have a loyalty that brings them back, time and again. Sure, some go away, forever; but for each one of those, there are more born to baseball lovers every day.
Yes, you're reading another reason why Bud knows he doesn't have to step in with some grandiose plan for the Dodgers. Let it play itself out, the truest blue will return, and the game moves on. Ever how many years it takes. No hurry.
Posted by: alanw19 | 03/20/2011 at 05:02 PM
This is a situation that is at a standstill. McCourt seems to be standing alone.
Posted by: OldBrooklynFan | 03/20/2011 at 05:36 PM
"I’m not going to say anything today,” Selig said."
- and he never has/will say **** even when he has an 'mouthful'... this be the type of 'leadership' that makes one yearn for the of days Bowie Kuhn whom I revered about as much as Durocher and Finley did, likely; at least Bowie had a pulse - Buddy boy has flatlined, paradox lying in the fact the bleeding can continue even aft the patient (baseball) is dead.
Aft overseeing the steroid/faux hr era and now the dudgers/McCourt freefall, the 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil' Commish hasn't any more blind eyes to turn... this cat used up his nine a long time ago.
Yes, when you say Bud you've said it all...
Posted by: 16blows | 03/20/2011 at 05:45 PM
Problem #1 is Bud Selig himself.
Posted by: These Dodgers Suck! | 03/20/2011 at 06:36 PM
When Selig agreed to become commissioner, he put his ownership of the Brewers in trust.
What does that mean?
His decisions won't make him coins?
Any decisions on small market ball clubs will not be suspect?
Behind the scenes, Selig might be, and probably is, a ruthless money monger but his public image will always be that of a weak and unmanly character as shown by his hiding in his office.
In other words, a big joke to everyone except the MLB owners and ESPN.
Posted by: StanL | 03/21/2011 at 04:23 AM
I can see it now...
A remake of The Coen Brothers' "The Man Who Wasn't There," starring
Billy Bud Selig.
Boycott.
Posted by: Striker | 03/21/2011 at 04:48 AM
Such an awful commish. This idiot has exactly zero redeeming qualities.
Posted by: FormerLifelongDodgerFan | 03/21/2011 at 05:55 AM
"Problem #1 is Bud Selig himself."
Boy, talk about hitting that nail on its head. Selig's behavior on the subject of Frank McScum makes me wonder if McScum is holding some awful deep, dark secret over Bud's head. McScum can't afford to actually pay Selig to keep quiet, so there must be something else. Any ideas?
Posted by: K | 03/21/2011 at 07:05 AM
After "giving" the Dodgers to the McCourt’s; Selig and MLB owners should be on trial for collusion and fraud. Instead, Bones is “basically” on trial for what 70% of MLB players did during the Steroid era (which for a fact includes several of our beloved Dodgers).
The truth is out there.
Posted by: mitchell report | 03/21/2011 at 09:00 AM
“Well, Fox sold the club to him and we did approve it, but that’s a normal process. I don’t really have any other comment.”
Oh really...Mark Cuban was the highest bidder for the Rangers and you guys wouldn't sell it to him. Is that the normal process?
Posted by: let pete rose in | 03/21/2011 at 01:29 PM
Oh Bud, you looked the other way during the steroid era and now you're doing it again with this train wreck called the 2011 Dodgers. Grow some and finally do something!
Posted by: Wilton "Corky" Guerrero | 03/21/2011 at 11:25 PM