Kuzul

Eight years ago, the All-Star Game ended in a tie when the teams ran out of players to put into the extra-inning contest.  Nobody likes a tie, and the fans at that game in Milwaukee and those watching nationwide on TV, like myself, were no exceptions.

In response to the deadlocked Midsummer Classic, Commissioner Bud Selig deemed change necessary.  As of six seasons ago, the league that wins the All-Star Game also wins home field advantage for the World Series. 

While it may seem logical on the surface, Selig’s overreaction to the tie eight years ago has him talking out of both sides of his mouth these days.  The hypocrisy of an All-Star Game “that counts” has divided fans on exactly how the teams should be chosen and the game played. 

The two main changes fans want are to remove the fan selection portion of the balloting and also get rid of the requirement for there being at least one player from every team to be chosen for the game.  This way, fans can’t just vote for their favorite hometown star when there is a more deserving (and better) option available, and we would never need another Pittsburgh Pirate on the National League team.

These seem like very logical choices.

But they’re wrong.

The hypocrisy surrounding the All-Star Game does need to end, as you can’t put weight on the results of the game when fan voting and the one-player-per-team rule mean you can’t guarantee that the best teams will be out there for each league. But by taking away these two aspects of the process, it makes the game even less fun than Selig has already made it with his changes.

You see, I can’t even remember what happened in the last six All-Star Games.  I probably won’t remember what happens in this year’s event.  When Bud stopped the game from being an exhibition, he removed most of the entertainment in the process.

As much as the commissioner wants the game to matter in order to drive up TV ratings and add importance, it’s still nothing more than an exhibition.  And when it was treated that way, the games were more memorable.

My three favorite All-Star Game memories:

In 1997, Larry Walker stepping in to face dominant lefty Randy Johnson…from the wrong side of the plate.

In 2001, Alex Rodriguez switching positions so that Cal Ripken, Jr., the man who may have revolutionized the shortstop position, could start there instead in his final All-Star appearance.

In 2002, Torii Hunter robbing Barry Bonds of a surefire home run, and Bonds proceeding to take off for the outfield to jokingly tackle the center fielder.

Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that the last fond memory I have of an All-Star Game came during that 2002 contest.  It was the resulting tie of that game that led to the drab and dull game that takes place now. 

Under the current structure, I’m not sure any of my favorite All-Star memories would have ever occurred.  The aforementioned three all happened because the players were having fun with the game.

Walker never would have taken on the lefty killer from the right side because he was left-handed, and you can’t give up outs in an important game.  As much as A-Rod would have loved to honor Ripken, he wouldn’t have made the switch, as it probably wasn’t best for the team.  And after being robbed of a dinger, Bonds wouldn’t have been joking around with Hunter.  He would have wanted to take his head off for taking away what could have ultimately been a deciding home run.

The game was more fun for the fans when it was more fun for the players.  Sure, they may have played for some small amount of pride, but the players were allowed to go out and just enjoy themselves, along with the spectacle of the moment.  But no more. Now it matters.

My other issue with the call to change is the assertion that the “one player from every team” rule should be abandoned.  Yes, this has its merits.  Should anyone from the Pirates, or the Orioles, or the Indians really be present at a display of the best talent in baseball this year?

In my opinion, yes. 

The large market teams and their very large followings are going to be well-represented on the team no matter what.  Between fan voting, managers favoring their own players, and the fact that those teams can buy the best talent in free agency, there will always be a plethora of Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Mets available for the team.

But as a fan of a small market team, I know how special that one token selection each team receives can be.  During their years of total irrelevance, the Rockies’ one All-Star a season let me know that even though they weren’t on the same level as the top-tier teams, they were still playing the same game, at the same level, and that their achievements, as minuscule as they may have been, could still be recognized by those following the game.  It let me know that no matter how bad the record was, my team still mattered.

The All-Star Game, in its purest form, isn’t about the players, or the marketing, or even the final score; it’s about the fans.  It’s our chance to see the best in the game on the field at once.  For those without expansive cable packages or access to the Internet, it could be their only chance to see many of these players in a given season.

Giving home field advantage in the World Series to the winner of the All-Star Game doesn’t add enough significance to the game to offset the entertainment that it has robbed from it.  The game should celebrate all that is great about the game of baseball, and allow the fans and players to revisit the simpler times when they played the game just for the fun of it.

To take away the fan’s input on the game would further distance the fans from a game with which they are already growing disenchanted. But to combine that with the continued assertion on making the game count is hypocritical and counter-intuitive.

There has to be a better way to decided who gets home field advantage for the World Series, one that doesn’t ruin the best All-Star contest in American professional sports. If that happens, everyone, from the fan who voted online to the kid unfortunate enough to have been conceived in the Steel City, can enjoy the All-Star Game again.

Don’t take the game away from the fans, Bud.  Give it back to them, and let them make it fun again.

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Since the whole instant replay fiasco came out,  I try to keep my nose out of these controversial stances. I’m all for the integrity of the game and all the same for improving the game as our standard of living allows.

However, after tonight’s recent game of the Tampa Bay Rays vs the Minnesota Twins, I have opted to break my silence. 

To clarify, I am a Twins fan and will openly admit it at the heart of my argument, however I do believe those that lose (besides the team on the wrong end of an obviously bogus call) are the fans. They are being cheated of a fair and firm game.

Last season, as the nation watched, the Twins went into New York to face the Yankees in the Divisional round of the playoffs and faced the bombers in Game 2 in a hard fought match.

Many will recall that despite having a left field umpire, Phil Cuzzi, standing 20 feet from the play, Cuzzi blew an obvious ground rule double call and calling it foul. In that play, the ball not only bounced off of the left fielder Cabrera’s glove IN fair territory, but it also bounced IN fair territory then out of play.

The play would live in infamy for the Twins as after Mauer’s hit was called back, he hit a single and would end up on third base, but never scored. Whereas if he would have been on second with two singles following it that in reality filled the bases would have instead easily scored Mauer.

The play would cost the Twins by the bottom of the 11th as the Yankees would hit a game-winning homer.

There is no excuse for this and the fact there is no repercussions almost makes any Twins fans feel like the umpires are out to get them. The Twins would never recover and ended up losing in a sweep to the Yankees.

Tonight there was a different story. The play would result in a run either way, but the fact is the play happened in extra innings less then ten feet in front of the umpire, Alfonso Marquez. With men a on 1st and 2nd, Willy Aybar hit a single into left with no outs. Crawford would score from 2nd as Shoppach would try and stretch a run from 1st to 3rd.

According to replay, he would have been out by 10-15 feet. However, the umpire claimed third basemen Michael Cuddyer missed the tag and that Shoppach was safe.

Let’s not forget Jim Joyce’s blown call that cost Detroit’s Armando Galarraga’s perfect game earlier this very season.

These plays should not be happening and the fact remains that Selig will be burned in the media and by players and coaches of the league the longer he turns a blind eye on it.

True, he could ignore it for the sake of the integrity of the game. I’m all for keeping the game traditional. However, as broadcasts use replay to revisit plays and check on close calls, Bud is going to discover he will live and die by it.

As technology advances, the MLB and umpires can grow with its assistance or get burned by the inaccuracies of human umpires. Especially on calls that are not close and have influential plays to overall outcomes of a game.

Last October’s events are unacceptable. Phil Cuzzi was not punished for his blown call and on top of that got burned on national television AND in extra innings AND being 20 feet from the play itself.

It’s getting to the point we can keep acting noble and try and keep it traditional or we can take it seriously and consider that maybe our baseball playing forefathers would have used replay had the technology been available to them.

In the opinion of this Twins fan and avid baseball fan, now is not the time to be proud.

To see the play from the 2009 ALDS against the Yankees,

click here .

An article with more detail can be found click here .

To see the play from the game on July 1, 2010 against the Rays (last night), click here .

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After Ozzie Guillen joked with the press about the White Sox being moved to the National League because of a 15-3 record in Interleague Play this season (the best record in the majors in those games), I thought about where Interleague Play is and where it should go in the future.

As this is Bud Selig’s baby, along with the All-Star game, which “counts” for the World Series home-field advantage, I would like to offer some ideas to change it for future years.

1. To DH or Not DH

If AL and NL umpires combined to become MLB umpires a few years back, there should be Major League rules that encompass all of baseball, not separate rules for each home park.

Yes, baseball has currently nine games each at the AL and NL fields across the board, but I believe that to legitimize the game, interleague play should be under MLB rules, which could possibly change the game of baseball to a more consistent rule system.

My opinion : Take away the DH for all interleague play games.

2. Who Plays Who?

Selig and the MLB almost have this right.

The rivalries are played at both AL and NL stadiums, which is the best part about who plays who. Obviously two NL teams need to play each other, but what happens when you have two terrible teams playing each other is you aren’t making as much revenue as the rivalry games, and therefore not gaining anymore with these special contests.

My opinion : Keep the rivalry games, have each team in each division play the same division in the opposite league.

This would help make things a little more even in the division races besides the rivalry games.

3. All Star Game Talk

It’s only an exhibition game, the home-field advantage rule has no reason to be involved with the All-Star game.

The best players don’t get picked in many instances because of the fan’s choosing, which is a popularity contest.

Pitchers who pitch two days before the game generally don’t play, the list goes on and on.

My opinion : There is no place for this to be counting for home field advantage in the largest interleague series, the World Series.

4. Interleague Shortened?

If my Second opinion doesn’t work, I would say stick with the rivalry games, because you could most likely maximize the profits for baseball.

Interleague play would have less of an impact on the final standings and would be more fun for most rivalry series’ match-ups.

Something needs to be improved with it, at least so that Selig’s successor would have less of a reason to kill Selig’s baby, Interleague Play.

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The game of baseball is rich in history and luster, but in the last two decades or so, the game has fallen out of favor in many baseball cities.

Ever since the players strike in 1994, baseball moved into the “Steroid Era.”

Fans were treated to the home run record being broken three times, but in fact, it can be argued all of them were “juiced,” so to baseball purists, the record still stands at 61. 

Today, the economy and fan attendance has a very high correlation.

Baseball teams who have a rich history, such as the Cleveland Indians, are seeing record lows in attendance.

Gone are the days of the consecutive sell out game streak at Jacobs Field. In its place is an Indians owner that is happy when the stadium is half full with around 23,000 fans. 

Back in the early 1990s, when the Skydome first opened, the Blue Jays were a team on the rise. The Skydome was filled every night with 50,000 loud fans and the team won two World Series in a row.

The following year saw the baseball strike.

Post-strike, attendance fell in Canada especially and the game essentially died.

The Montreal Expos were a team in the hunt when the strike of 94 called off the season.

When baseball returned, the fans didn’t in Montreal.

The team relocated to Washington and the city of Montreal remains without a team today.

The Blue Jays and Indians are averaging the least amount of fans to their games, averaging roughly 15,500 fans a night, a far cry from the 50,000 and 46,000 seat capacity of the ballparks respectively.

Recently, Alex Rios has said about baseball in Toronto; “Baseball is dead here.”

A team manager added, “Jays fans don’t show up because the team is like a book that you already know the ending to, so why bother reading it?” 

This message hit home to me so I respond with. “This story will have a different ending!”

The Plan to Revive Baseball Everywhere.

Step One: Division Re-Alignment

We’ll start off by realigning the divisions back to the two divisions per league.

In the American League, you play five series against your division (with two extra games played against two teams, cycled every three years), and two series against the other division (1 four and 1 three-gamer).

For example, the Yankees play BOS and TOR one extra time in year one, the next year they play TB and BAL, and then in year three, CLE and DET, and so on and it repeats over again.

This leaves the schedule at 141 games. 

Note: The schedule is shortened by about three and half weeks, this will be explained later.

I have not decided to switch teams from National to American League or visa versa, I believe that’s too much of a change.

AL East

NYY, BOS, TOR, TB, BAL, CLE, DET

AL West

TEX, LAA, OAK, SEA, MIN, CWS, KC

In the National League, since there are more teams, the schedule is worked a little differently. You play four series, with one series being a four-game series.

This makes 91 games (13 games against each team) within the division leaving the remaining 50 games. There is also six games each against the other divisional teams. 

This leaves 48 games, with the remaining two games played against the other division to be cycled through every four years. Example: ATL plays COL and SD two extra times in year one, then for year two they play SF and ARI two extra times and so on.

NL East

ATL, NYM, FLA, PHI, WSH, PIT, CIN, MIL

NL West

COL, SD, SF, ARI, LAD, HOU, CHC, STL

The total here is 141 games which means in my plan that I’m scrapping inter-league play. It’s a dying breed in my opinion.

The only way its fair for everyone is if they play every team.

Some divisions are easier, some divisions are harder.

Step Two: Revenue Sharing

Since baseball will never go to a hard cap, this is a way to help out the struggling teams.

This has worked pretty nicely in the NHL, and in baseball, this could be a valuable option for teams.

Granted the NHL also has a hard cap, but it’s just an idea I’m throwing out there. 

This offers teams some extra cash to go after a big name free agent or two knowing they may have some extra cash in their back pocket.

The Blue Jays lost Roy Halladay mostly because they could not afford him anymore.

Doc often brought on average 2,500-5,000 more fans in the seats each time he pitched.

Star players have that kind of impact. Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Ken Griffey Jr. are past players that often brought big crowds with them.

Step 3:Expansion of Playoffs 

This is my last and most important step.

People often say, “If you know the ending, why bother reading the book?” as a reason why to not show up to some teams games.

These teams make a good run, but always fall short come September. 

Teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, and Oakland Athletics are just a few teams that seem to fall into this lull, and to no one’s surprised that they are ranked in the bottom tier in terms of home attendance.

With this thought in mind, I believe expanding the playoffs to eight teams is great for the game.

The rounds of 16 and eight are each five games series, while the LCS and World Series are both seven game series.

Granted, this runs late into the year when the snow falls, but I believe with the season shortened slightly by roughly three weeks, this will allow for playoff expansion.

Each division winner gets a top three spot, while the Wild Card winner from years part gets the fourth spot, with the remaining four spots taken from the other teams.

Looking at the AL East this year. They have currently the four best teams in the AL and only two will make the playoffs. That makes little to no sense to me. Thus, the reason for the article.

Playoffs energize cities and ball-clubs, but most of all, during the dog days of August and well into September, if teams are in playoffs races, it just makes for a better baseball atmosphere.

Also, playoff baseball brings in extra team revenue, a great thing to have in today’s economy.

If the playoffs started right now the standings would finish like this for playoff seeding.

AL

TB/MIN/TEX/NYY/BOS/TOR/OAK/DET

NL

SD/ATL/STL/LAD/CIN/PHI/SF/COL

Doesn’t this make for a more exciting regular season? It also limits travel and saves teams money in the long run.

Summary:

1. Division Realignment, lower season schedule to 141 games.

2. Revenue Sharing to allow smaller market teams the ability to compete with the likes of the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, etc.

3. Expansion of playoffs to eight teams

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The NCAA is powerless to stop the complete destruction of the Big 12. Nebraska has already joined the Big Ten (now the new Big 12 – or maybe Big 16 soon), and teams such as Texas, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and others could soon follow.

Other teams are being courted by the Pac 10.  

These big conferences are doing it for money, to create new rivalries, and gain leverage over other conferences with regards to bowl games and TV contracts (i.e. more money).

Major League Baseball likes money too, and they are very good at earning a buck. With TV revenues at an all time high, and royalties galore, each team is making around $40 million before they sell one ticket. Estimated revenues in 2010 are $8 billion.

With the team salaries of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox increasing via free agency, there is talk of possible realignment in the major leagues due to the perennial top of the division finishes for both of those “Big Market” teams.

Realignment for the sake of putting all the “Big Market” teams together should not happen—ever.

Teams need to compete with what they have, similar to how some people are born into wealth and some are not. Those people who are not born wealthy need to work harder and do better than those who already have the money.

Do you think Bill Gates of Microsoft was born with a silver spoon in his mouth? No. He worked hard to develop his software for personal computers.

The only teams which people are concerned about in realignment are the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the American League East and the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East. 

Other large city teams such as the Los Angeles and Chicago teams are somewhat affected, but not as much.

Why? They are the only big market team in their respective divisions. The Yankees/Red Sox and Mets/Phillies are two big markets teams in one division. Seeking to “one up” the other, both franchises try to outspend each other. 

This causes people to believe other teams in those divisions might not be able to compete. But those other teams do compete and they compete and win often.

They work harder by drafting and developing players and building from within.

Take the Red Sox and Yankees. They have been rivals for too long, and have a tremendous history.

Why change things?

Despite their recent success, each of those teams has had bouts with loss. The Yankees have made the playoffs 13 of the last 14 seasons, but missed out on the playoffs the 12 years prior to Derek Jeter—and other home grown players—becoming starters.

The Red Sox have made the playoffs six of the last seven years, but missed out on five of the prior seven years before that.

During those down years, the Orioles and Blue Jays were dominating the AL East. At the time of two divisions, even the Detroit Tigers won a few titles. The Tampa Bay Rays are currently tied for first place, and made the World Series in 2008.

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were miserable for both teams, and the Phillies and Mets were mostly terrible back then as well.

The Yankees and Red Sox built their recent good stretches through their own systems and players, and then paid up the money to keep their own guys. Any free agents they signed were brought aboard to supplement an already strong team.

These big market teams have the most revenue, and are supposedly the richest. But in order to succeed, a team (and a company) still has to be well run.

Most of the dozen seasons the Yankees were not winning, they were signing free agents, but still not winning titles. That is because they did not have their own core of home grown players to keep things stable.

Same thing with the last few seasons of the New York Mets. They signed free agents such as Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, but did not build a deep core of home grown talent. They did not make the playoffs for several seasons, but now are playing better with many cheaper, younger players.

All winning teams have their own home grown developed core.

The Yankees and Red Sox have deep pocket ownership, but all MLB owners are wealthy. The Minnesota Twins’ Pohlad-family ownership is worth over $2 billion. The Rays owner made a fortune on Wall Street. They are all wealthy.

The Yankees and Red Sox have tremendous local TV money, but that is because the demand is there for their product.

That has been built through years of turmoil and success and both franchises have built up a tremendous fan base. Most teams which have been around have that advantage. Newer franchises need to build from within to win.

And winning seasons usually do bring more fans (and additional revenue) to the games.

Many people feel the other teams in AL East, such as the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays, are destined to be fighting for last place nearly every season. Those teams need to do a better job in developing their own players to get better.

The Orioles think they have done that, but it hasn’t transpired yet into wins. The Blue Jays have done the same via the draft, but their guys (mostly young pitchers) have begun to improve.

The good teams build from within, then add on when needed.

Within the last several years, five starting pitchers were traded due to salary concerns. These players were Johan Santana, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and Jake Peavy.

Only Sabathia’s current team, the Yankees (40-23), have a significantly better record than the team which traded him, the Cleveland Indians (25-37), or let him go via free agency, the Milwaukee Brewers (26-37).

The Mets (35-28) are a game worse than Santana’s former team, the Twins (36-27). Lee’s new team, the Seattle Mariners (24-39) are worse than the Indians (25-37). Even Halladay’s new big market team, the Phillies (32-29) are a half game back of the Toronto Blue Jays’ record (34-30).

And the surprise in all of baseball, the San Diego Padres, who traded Peavy last season to the big market Chicago White Sox, have a record of 37-26, a full seven and a half games better than the Pale Hose.

Those small market teams are doing something right. They are developing cheap talent and winning. Spending the most money does not guarantee success in the win column.

The next step is to be able to keep the young talented players within your franchise and not let them move on via free agency. More revenue is flowing into the smaller market teams. That money needs to be put to better use.

Let’s say I have complete control of what to do for the majors with regards to realignment. Both the owners and the players union give me carte blanche and will not change anything I enact. 

I would then:

1) Add Two More Teams to the American League West .

The American League has 14 teams and the National League has 16 teams. Two more teams in the AL would give the majors 32 teams.

It would give the current owners another billion dollars in their coffers. Sell two franchises to two more rich people for $600 million each. Take the billion and split it between the current 30 teams.

Take the additional $200 million and give much of it to the lower market teams, and make it part of the deal that they spend this extra money on player salaries.

Or they can split the money up any other way, but the additional money received by the smaller market teams MUST BE SPENT ON SALARIES.

Not to sign other teams’ free agents , but require them to use that money to sign their own players who are free agents . The idea is to keep your own good players to build a relationship between fans and players. Kids grow up idolizing their heroes.

My hero was Thurman Munson, and he was a Yankee for life. My Dad’s was Joe DiMaggio, and he was a Yankee for life. My 12 year old son’s baseball hero is Derek Jeter, and he isn’t gong anywhere else.

These home grown heroes should be kept and not let go via free agency because of salary constraints. Joe Mauer stays in Minnesota, Albert Pujols stays in St. Louis, Carl Crawford should be able to stay in Tampa Bay, and Prince Fielder the same in Milwaukee.

These two new MLB cities should be Portland, OR and San Antonio, TX, the two largest cities which do not have a major league baseball franchise. Each of these cities have several citizens who are members of the Forbes 400 of riches Americans, so they have wealth.

2) Require revenue sharing money to be spent on player salaries

This is similar to the above concept, but also includes the International free agent market and the draft.

The Florida Marlins should not receive $45 million dollars in revenue sharing, and only have $35 million in player salaries. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals should not be content with earning a small profit based solely upon their revenue share dollars, and continue to be rewarded for their ineptness.

These teams are/were content to make a small profit and move on. Mostly they complained of the woe-is-me small market syndrome.

The International market is teeming with talent, and most players go to the bigger market teams. I am not a fan of an International Draft so the smaller market teams need to be required to spend on these talent troves to get better players.

3) Limit teams to sign only two multi-year free agents per off season

Since revenue sharing money is required to be spent for smaller market teams to sign their own free agents, there will be less players available on the open market. Teams will lock up more of their own talented younger players for longer terms.

With less free agents out there, more teams will be have to develop their own talent. 

It is easy for a General Manager to spend a lot on players, but it is much tougher to develop talent.

But if a GM must go free agency, he cannot sign more than two multi-year deals in one offseason affecting the bigger dollar contracts. This will force guys to sign quickly and does not limit the one year deals.

4) Expand team control from six years to seven years

A team which develops a good young player should be rewarded. A young player usually takes two seasons to get his feet wet, and begins to really start producing in year three. That is three years into the team relationship and now you begin to get into the higher arbitration dollars.

Make it seven years of control, with the first four of slotted salaries, unless, of course a team wants to buy out a players’ arbitration years.

Then get rid of the Super Twos. If a rookie plays in a game, he has a year under his belt. That will get really good younger players up sooner for teams which develop talent, but teams now have that extra year of control.

No more Stephen Strasburg’s and Carlos Santana’s waiting for two plus months in the minors when their teams could use their talents now. More Jason Heyward’s and Evan Longoria’s. How many games could have Strasburg won if he began this season in the majors?

Washington would have a much better record, and they would have sold out every Strasburg game so far. That is good for all teams involved.

Over the last ten seasons, there have been six different AL teams in the World Series, and an amazing eight different NL teams in the Fall Classic. Small market teams such as Houston, Florida, Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Arizona have made the World Series.

During this stretch Colorado, San Diego, Oakland and Minnesota have made the playoffs in multiple seasons.

There is no need for realignment to occur. There have been many times where large market teams such as the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Dodgers, Mets and both Chicago franchises have floundered.

The Cubs spend a lot of money ($144 million in 2010) and still have not won a World Series in over 100 years. The White Sox have won one title since the early 20th century and the Red Sox have only their two recent titles.

The Marlins have the same number of World Series titles. If they were required to spend money on keeping many of their own players, they might have won more.

According to reports I read, Boston is only the 10th biggest market in the United States, and areas such as Dallas, Houston, Washington, Miami and Atlanta are bigger.

So why is Boston considered a “Big Market” team and some of those above and many just below Boston considered “Small Market.”

There is a vast history of baseball in Boston, and many more fans are interested in their team. And their ownership spends the money to compete.

If other “Smaller Market” teams built a relationship with the fans in their market via home grown players who are kept within their organization, they could build more of a following, too. A better product builds more revenue via ticket sales and media revenues.

It will take some time and good hard work to compete. Bill Gates can attest to that.

Teams which build strongly from within and then keep their own players will get better. Even the Pirates were good in the early 1990’s, but could not keep their good, young players such as Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and John Smiley.

Trades will still occur and major stars will still be traded for a pack of prospects. New York will win their share of titles, but will also go through a period of losing.

Everything goes in cycles.

My changes listed above would help many teams keep their talented players and compete with the bigger clubs.

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After months of hibernation in a coffin, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has awakened.

In an impromptu press conference Wednesday morning in Milwaukee, the 75-year-old skeleton addressed the media.

“In light of the developing story regarding the success of Nationals’ pitcher Steven Spielberg, it has come to my attention that a plague called the Pittsburgh Pirates actually exists in our great game,” said Selig, while dusting himself.

“As a result of the team’s utterly embarrassing national television display Tuesday night, I have decided to designate the franchise for assignment.”

“These so-called Pirates have 10 days to decide between accepting their assignment to AA, or accepting their outright release from American professional sports,” continued Selig, as he pulled out a pair of mallets and began to play his ribs like a xylophone.

He cited the “best interest of baseball” clause as his reason for the decision.

The Pirates were thought to have ceased to exist since the 1992 season, but have actually still been playing Major League Baseball.

However, their performance on the field has not been noted, and they are not regarded as an actual MLB franchise.

In a college football-style move, Selig addressed plans to replace the Pittsburgh franchise.

Illogically, Selig has stated that the league has been in contact with the Los Angeles Lakers regarding a potential league and sport change.

Lakers’ owner, Jerry Buss, while combing stray championship rings out of his mustache, declined comment on the matter.

“We will now conduct an 80’s-style NBA lottery to determine the future status of Andrew McCutchen, who appears to be the only true baseball player on the Pittsburgh roster,” said Selig.

A basket was then unveiled on-stage containing 29 envelopes, each containing one of the league’s remaining teams.

Without further ado, Selig reached into the basket and shuffled the cards around before finally pulling one from the pile.

Curiously, this envelope appeared to have a slightly bent edge.

“The rights to Andrew McCutchen have been awarded to…the New York Yankees.”

The bony commissioner then posed with the card in hand, winking towards the camera.

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When is Major League Baseball going to learn to have some morals and values?

It starts—and ends—at the top. And that means commissioner Bud Selig.

He’s old and in charge. He wants to let the world know—and he’s too freaking stubborn to make one single change to America’s Pastime.

Like it or not, commissioner Selig, we live in the year 2010.

We live in a world with social networking, instant messaging, and texts.

We live in a world with instant replay.

When, oh when, is MLB going to wake up and face reality?

You would think screwing a kid out of perfect game would change Selig’s mind on the whole instant replay issue.

You would think a 60-year-old umpire in tears may just strike the heart strings of Selig.

You would think Selig would have some sense to at least consider the notion of change.

Obviously not.

Change scares many people; and it’s a tough issue to deal with. But it’s something NCAA Football is currently dealing with—especially in regards to the Big 12, Pac-10, and Big Ten—as expansion talks are the focal point of water-cooler conversations.

And it’s something Major League Baseball will have to deal with one day as well.

Put it on the backburner for as long as you want, commissioner Selig; eventually that pot’s going to boil over and changes WILL be made.

What will it take to make the needed and necessary modifications to America’s Pastime?

Will it take giving commissioner Selig the boot?

Will it take another perfect game called not-perfect due to a blown call?

What, exactly, will it take to make change happen?

America believed they’d get it when they elected Barack Obama—and only time will tell if that’s the case.

Selig could learn a whole lot from other sports leagues around the nation—as well as taking a glimpse at the political world—in learning to adapt to the world we live in today.

Wake up, commissioner Selig. The time has come for some changes in baseball; and as stated earlier: It begins—and ends—with you.

The NBA, whether they did it reluctantly or not, has made some changes in their game to adopt new rules regarding instant replay.

Those rules have already been vital in this season’s NBA Finals.

The same could be said about the near-perfect game in 2010.

And Selig COULD have done something about that.

But he chose not to…

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

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Bud Selig is reportedly “very comfortable” with his decision not to award Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga with a perfect game.

Glad we could get that out of the way, Bud.

Professional sports’ most aloof commissioner remains just that.  The other side of his aloofness (you know, aside from arrogance) is that he’s also utterly out of touch with fans.

You remember fans, Bud?  The ones who used to follow baseball before your lockout.  The ones who used to follow baseball before they found out all of their heroes were juicing. 

But, as with the use of performance enhancing drugs, Selig is going in entirely the wrong direction with regards to umpiring and the state of replay

Keep in mind it took an act of Congress, literally, to convince Selig to address PED use.

Now, in the midst of pitching’s recovery from the Steroids Era, we have an umpiring controversy.  And not just any controversy.  No, we’ve got a controversy in which, by Selig’s own admission, the pitcher, umpire, manager, team and fans handled it all in an extremely classy way.

The commissioner, sadly, did not follow suit.

Selig spoke at length in complimenting the way others handled Galarraga’s loss of a perfect game.  I’m certain that was very gracious of him.  Selig also stated his belief that “baseball people” are against the use of replay.

If he meant the same stodgy “baseball people” who wanted to sweep the Steroids Era under the rug or who wanted to keep African-Americans segregated from the majors for as long as possible, he would be right.

The rest of us checked our calendars and it was 2010. 

Selig’s reasoning for not updating the way games are called?  That’s right, people have been complaining about umpires since the 1950s.  He then extended that window to major league baseball’s beginnings in 1865. 

Based on that wonderful logic, I’d imagine the MLB office doen’t employ women.  I mean, why change for change’s sake?

For me, one of the dumbest things about Selig’s comments was that he acknowledged that people have been complaining about umpires for that length of time, but didn’t acknowledge, or even address, that the use of replay would result in a significant reduction in those complaints.

When initially responding to the Galarraga situation, Selig also cited that human error was part of the game.

As long as he is the commissioner, that would appear to be the case.

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Remember the days when you rounded up as many kids in the neighborhood as possible in order to play a baseball game at the park?

Tennis balls, wooden bats, and short orange cones were usually the equipment of choice, as you didn’t need a glove to play outfield and even the kid with Velcro tightened sneakers, tube socks, and a smothering mom could hit a tennis ball 400 feet.

Of course, the act of organizing and playing out a full game was rarely possible.

Sometimes you fell short of players because one or two happened to be grounded. Or maybe you couldn’t detach a pair of guys who were right in the middle of a Mike Tyson’s Punch Out Nintendo marathon.

Sometimes you had to bribe the soccer kids, who insisted on resting all day for a five o’clock practice, to come out and play.

Or sometimes you simply came to fist-a-cuffs in the fifth inning with your next-door neighbor over a close call at first base.

Sandlot games were just a lot of work, because no matter how hard you tried, you could rarely put all the pieces together to cohesively play the sought after perfect game on a perfect day at the park.

Heck, even the big leaguers rarely suit up for what they call a perfect game. Just ask Tigers starting pitcher Armando Galarraga—on what was supposed to be the last live play of his last start, he was robbed of officially pitching a perfect game because umpire Jim Joyce clearly made the wrong call on a play at first base.

Then everyone who cares about baseball collectively turned his/her head towards Commissioner Bud, hoping he would overturn the umpire’s call based on the “best interest of the game” clause he can act on as commander-in-chief of the sport.

Then to paraphrase, Bud reminded us that life isn’t fair. No perfect game. Perfect cop out, though.

Let me get this straight, Commish: So because umpire Jim Joyce, who did admit fault by the way, was wrong for a nanosecond, Galarraga will never officially get credit for an immaculate sporting feat for as long as Major League Baseball exists?

Something just doesn’t seem right there.

Who or what in God’s name is Selig afraid of? There is no comparison to this call, Bud. Every other hypothetical comparison in sport is apples and oranges.

Is Bud afraid of being viewed as an over-meddlesome dictator, or a non god-fearing mad scientist?

One can never analyze a situation like this and forget about vanity or the ego, either. By agreeing with the majority here, maybe Bud actually believes he would be empowering the fan or media by overturning Joyce’s call.

This game was going to define someone’s career. It was going to make Galarraga’s life better. The guy spent roughly nine seasons in the minor leagues.

Think about this: In a dream you are visited by the Baseball Gods who make you an offer either to be an average starting pitcher for 10 seasons (minor leagues included) or to pitch one perfect game. Well, you may actually have a harder time picking between the two. Galarraga had a chance to say he did both.

Instead, Galarraga will forever be associated with controversy about how he was perfect but not perfect. And the majority of baseball followers will still be disappointed in Bud’s decision making, and inability to right a wrong in a timely fashion.

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For any person involved in professional sports there is often a discussion of what their legacy will be after they leave the sport.  Even players who were never all-stars can leave a legacy as a hard worker, great teammate, or role player.

Some peoples’ legacy can be defined by a single event, such as a great win or a heartbreaking loss.

When it comes to most players, their legacy is defined by their actions from their first game as a rookie to the day they retire.  In most cases this is a relatively short time frame in which to leave a legacy.

On the other hand there is one person in any league that is often given the opportunity to have an impact on multiple generations, and in some cases, change the game—for better or worse—forever.

That person is the commissioner of the league.  One commissioner in particular has added to his legacy in recent days:

Bud Selig.

Selig’s handling of Jim Joyce’s blown call that cost Armando Galarraga his perfect game opened my eyes to exactly what Selig’s legacy will be.

I will forever see Selig as the man who does nothing. 

To prove my point, I will start with present events and work backwards through his time as commissioner.

Selig has pretty much pretended the whole perfect game dispute never happened. He refused to overturn the call and award Galarraga the perfect game he earned because he supposedly doesn’t want to set a precedent.

There is not a single person in the world that thinks Galarraga didn’t pitch a perfect game. Joyce himself feels terrible that he blew the call so badly. 

It is true that the call did not affect the outcome of the game, but righting this terrible wrong would not affect it either. It would simply give a young pitcher the credit he is due. 

He deserves to have his name on the list of perfect game winners, and Selig could fix that, but he didn’t.

Instant replay could have easily righted this wrong as well, but Selig refuses to use that tool to its full extent. 

Even after the plethora of terrible calls in the 2009 postseason, he is still unwilling to let technology aid in the proper calling of games.  He did institute replay for disputed home runs in 2008, which is a step in the right direction, but not a big enough one.

Human error is a part of baseball, and replay would never eliminate that part of the game, nor do I think most close plays should even be reviewed, but these plays that are not even close could easily be righted and no one would complain.

In what will most likely be the single biggest chapter in the Bud Selig era, I will remember how he refused to take action until Congress forced him to.

I am of course referring to the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

It was not until after the 2005 Congressional hearings that Selig helped form the new league policy on PEDs.  This is totally ridiculous as a big chunk of the steroid era started in the ’80s and ’90s.  Not to mention the use of amphetamines in the ’70s, which were also outlawed at this time.

I realize Selig did not become acting commissioner until 1992, and commissioner in 1998, but he was an owner before that time and had to be aware of what was going on in the game. He very easily could have come in and helped to fix the problem before it got totally out of hand.

I realize he had to work with other groups, namely the player’s association, to get stuff like this done, but it would not have been difficult to get the aid of the media, and in turn, the public, had he actually wanted to make something happen.

But he did nothing.

Selig did reinstate George Steinbrenner from his lifetime ban from baseball though he refuses to reinstate Pete Rose, who I feel has paid his debt and belongs in the Hall, but that is a different argument all together.

In comparing other commissioners to Selig I can’t help but keep thinking about Roger Goodell of the NFL.  He has come in and taken action on what can be very controversial subjects.

He has brought the NFL into an era of dominance in the American sports world.  He has disciplined severely, but fairly, while always maintaining the league’s best interests.

He is accepting of new technologies that will further the game, and is willing to make tough decisions when they need to be made, and stands firmly by them when he gets criticized.

There is much more involved with the success of a league than just the commissioner, but while the NFL continues to increase in popularity, Major League Baseball has remained mostly stagnant, if not somewhat worse off after the steroids fallout.

Who knows if Selig will actually retire when his contract is up in 2012, since he didn’t in 2009 contrary to his previous announcement that he would.  All I know is that I hope whenever he does get replaced, his heir will be more willing to take a stand on issues, and really try and make the game better.

Money is often the driving force in these decisions, but it wasn’t money that kept Selig from awarding Galarraga the perfect game that he had earned, it was simply his inability to do anything, even when the decision is an obvious one.

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