http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3878964

Torbush.

The hell...

And that's for doing a terrible job.... Imagine if he would actually do something

The owners love him. MLB is as profitable as it has ever been. It isn't an absurd salary if you view him as the CEO of MLB. Just look what the CEOs of big public companies are paid.

That said, I think there are plenty of things he does horribly.

Ridiculous.

I'm not surprised. MLB is huge business.

Hey, he's done a great job. Just look at his leadership on the steroids issue!

MLB secretly makes the most money for the effort of any of the major sports.

People like to say MLB is dying and its not what it used to be, but I say they're doing better than they've ever done. Just look at attendance numbers between now and 50 years ago in baseball's "golden era". The owners are printing their own money, and Selig, as much as I despise him, is right in the middle of it.

in one sense, Selig handled the steroid era brilliantly, say your going to do a lot, form a big investigative committee (Mitchell) etc..,

but then in reality actually do nothing and with the secret goal to just return everything to the status quo

Very true W. Selig was fully aware of the trouble brewing, but he knew that it was putting butts in the seats of ballparks across America. At it's height was the Sosa/Big Mac HR title chase. Then after the fallout he just passed the buck. Any other business has a major controversy like that and the top guy is forced out...not so much with the MLB.

You are exactly right, W. Selig and the owners were crazy like a fox with the entire steroids issue. The players, the owners and the commissioner's office are equally to blame for the steroids era, in my opinion.

Selig handled it perfectly, even though anybody with half a brain can see exactly what happened.

go ahead and add "the fans" to the list of people on the blame list for steroids.

As far as executive pay is concerned, I think Selig's pay would be in the correct ballpark for the business(the MLB) size he runs.

However, other exectuives would have been asked to leave along time ago if a scandal like the steriod fiasco broke out.....but hey-I guess baseball is not always run like Fortune 500 company.

Again, the owners would have to be the ones to force him out and they won't do that because he has fatten their wallets significantly.

quote:

---

However, other exectuives would have been asked to leave along time ago if a scandal like the steriod fiasco broke out.....but hey-I guess baseball is not always run like Fortune 500 company.

---

I seriously doubt it. the "scandal" didn't hurt the pocketbook, so I don't think a Fortune500 CEO would have been forced out either.

I don't think I could blame the "fans" in general. It's the fans of certain franchises (Cubs, Cardinals, Giants) that put their steroid-fueled 50-HR-a-year guys on a pedestal and kept them there for so long. And the Cardinals still have McGwire on one.

Why would you blame the fans anyway? What were the fans supposed to do?

Not go to the games.

I seem to recall a certain astro go public with his steroid usage (Caminiti). To say it was just a Cubs, Cards, Giants thing is idiotic. Every team ran with the success that came with roids and in particular MLB/Selig.

and Cubs fans don't put Sammy on a pedestal....the fans ran him out of town

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Check out "Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order"
at tamu-and-baseball.com

Feds set to unseal evidence in Barry Bonds case
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6245746.html

MLB did prosper while Selig ignored the fact that many of its star players were juicing, but it's going to bite them in the ass long term. If this story is true and Bonds officially tests positive, then who is baseball's home run king? How embarrassing would it be for them to give the record back to Hank Aaron?

For that matter, who would hold the single season home run record? McGwire is also widely believed to be a juicer, so would it be Roger Maris?

The owners want one of their own as commissioner, and they have that in Bud Selig. I think that MLB would be better off in the long term to have a real commissioner though.

the fans deserve "blame" because they cheered wildly when it was clear to all the players were on something. the sudden richeous indignation over (gasp!) performance enhancing drugs is comical.

Astros fans gave Bonds a curtain call when he hit #70. He was cheered everywhere he went. Fans ignored the obvious.

To now "blame" Selig, Fehr et al for the "scandal" is sorta stupid. We knew what was going on and didn't care.

quote:

---

Bonds officially tests positive

---

Bonds has already admitted under oath to taking the Clear & the Cream.

I think all that just goes to how serious the "scandal" really is. Personally, I don't think it's that big of a deal since everybody was doing it. Of course you'd rather have clean athletes and I would've rather baseball not done it, but baseball was still baseball during the steroids era, and I for one certainly wasn't going to turn away from the game.

I am glad that they've made an effort to clean things up (I still think they could do more), and I hope in the future we can get back to clean honest baseball.

Since the Black Sox scandal, the integrity of the game has been everything for baseball. If a juicer hits a game-winning home run off of a pitcher who isn't juicing, is that integrity?

Suppose the guy who provided that hitter and some of his teammates with the steroids goes to Vegas and starts betting on that team? Isn't that at least somewhat similar to what happened in 1919?

I agree with you to a certain extent, and I think the entire "steroids era" (if we can ever determine exactly when that was) will forever have a big asterisk beside it, but it's the only baseball the fans had at the time.

At this point, you acknowledge that it happened, heap shame on those players who broke the laws of the country (not the rules of baseball at the time) and on those owners who knew it was happening and willingly turned a blind eye to the entire situation, and move on.

quote:

---

I seriously doubt it. the "scandal" didn't hurt the pocketbook, so I don't think a Fortune500 CEO would have been forced out either.

---

Yes, he would have. There is no doubt MLB has prosepered under his reign, but any Fortune 500 company that had had that kind of negative publicitiy would have axed their CEO. MLB doesn't operate like a Fortune 500 company.

quote:

---

Yes, he would have.

---

I'll have to disagree with you on that one. Making money is the most important thing. If controversy doesn't hurt the bottom line (or was the cause of it), there's no way they fire the guy.

Mayeb it's just wishful thinking on my part.

If I own stock in a company, I want them to make as much money as possible. That's the way it works. Why else should you invest?

The same holds for baseball owners.

Publicity is only negative if it hurts the bottom line. Not sure the steroids issue did that.

And steroids were against the rules of baseball. Faye vincent sent a memo to all teams reminding them.

quote:

---

The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players or personnel is strictly prohibited ... This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs ... including steroids."

---

[This message has been edited by BMX Bandit (edited 2/5/2009 6:38a).]

thats just a sick amount of money for anybody to make, i really dont know why Bud Selig has to be the one making it, kinda just pisses me off that a guy who just looks so odd and almost senile can make that much money, oh well, i guess the upper echelons of baseball is run by the old country club types.