Bud Selig: A Bad Joke

As I was doing my usual Sunday routine – eating breakfast, reading the NY Times Sunday sports section – I came across a letter to the editor that I feel perfectly captures what I hate about Commissioner Bud Selig. I’ve copied it below:

To the Sports Editor:

Commissioner Bud Selig’s open letter to baseball fans addressing the spread of performance-enhancing drugs among players is an outrage (“Selig Admits Baseball’s ‘Problems,’” June 16). It asserts that the office of commissioner was created nearly 86 years ago to ensure the integrity of America’s pastime.

In fact, when Selig assumed his revamped office in September 1992, it was only after he and the White Sox chairman, Jerry Reinsdorf, engineered the ouster of Fay Vincent, essentially eliminating an independent office of commissioner. The net effect was to destroy the office and to replace it with what Reinsdorf used to refer to as a C.E.O. of the owners, not of the players or the umpires.

Baseball has no integrity for its commissioner to protect.

David Peterson
Blue Island, Ill.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Selig’s got to go. While we’re at it, let’s toss Reinsdorf out on his fat ass too.