Manfred lauds Selig's 'moral compass' as tenure ends
NEW YORK — With barely two hours before Rob Manfred would take over for Bud Selig as Major League Baseball commissioner, the successor presented his predecessor with the William J. Slocumb-Jack Lang Award for long and meritorious service at the annual Baseball Writers Association of America awards dinner.
Whether the outgoing commissioner was in a moment of reflection at the end of his tenure or numbness at yet another distillation of the totality of his career, Selig sat with his arms crossed as Manfred introduced him and rattled off the bullet-point highlights: two decades of labor peace, a three-division format, a wild card and then a second, attendance records, 22 new ballparks, $9 billion in revenue and the technological advancements of MLB.com, MLB Network and instant replay.
"Maybe more important — I know to him — he was also a moral compass for our game," Manfred said, noting that Selig championed diversity (establishing Jackie Robinson Day and appointing an ambassador of inclusion) and also authorized a groundbreaking independent investigation of performance-enhancing drugs in his own sport.
A more impartial observer might have had a differing view on whether Selig's track record with PEDs belongs in the pro or con column of his career, but the rest of those accomplishments are now so widely accepted that it's hard to remember the prior acrimony about such changes as realignment and playoff expansion, for instance. But competitive balance remains at or near the top of his own list.
"Most importantly for our fans," Selig said, "our sport's revamped economics give all of our clubs legitimate hope and faith" — at this point, he repeated the phrase "hope and faith" for further emphasis, much like the college professor he will become — "to compete for the World Series."
After 23 years at the helm of the nation's pastime, Selig, 80, will stay involved in the reduced role of commissioner emeritus — essentially, he'll serve as a consultant — and will be an adjunct professor of history at two universities, Marquette and Wisconsin.
As is the case for any chief executive of a multi-billion dollar business under constant media scrutiny, Selig's legacy is complicated or at least nuanced. The boss always receives too much credit for successes and too much blame for failures.
Yes, the sport now has the toughest drug program in sports in the aftermath of the oft-criticized Mitchell Report, but did it arrive quickly enough?
On the other hand, it's indisputable that baseball — no matter who deserves the credit — is much better off than it was when the former Brewers owner started the job in 1992. The early years were marred by a major labor stoppage that wiped out the 1994 World Series, but the sport has been steadily growing and adapting ever since.
"I'm proud to say this is no longer a sport resistant to change," Selig said.
Selig had a seat of honor adjacent to the podium to his left and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax to his right, in the center of a dais that also included Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr., new electee John Smoltz and 2014 award winners Clayton Kershaw, Corey Kluber and Jose Abreu, among others. (Kershaw appeared to collect his third NL Cy Young and first NL MVP award, doing so a mere 24 hours after his wife, Ellen, gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Cali Ann.)
One of the award winners not present was recently retired Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who received the Joe DiMaggio "Toast of the Town" award from the BBWAA's New York chapter. Selig presented the award in absentia, using the opportunity to recall that DiMaggio was his boyhood hero and that his mother brought him to New York for a Yankees game as a 15th birthday present.
Later, Selig interjected that he was good friends with Lang, one of the late namesakes of the award he received. He also told the story of being a 23-year-old student who skipped an accounting class to buy an upper-deck, obstructed-view ticket to watch the Milwaukee Braves win the National League pennant — in 1957. Such examples only serve to reinforce the reputation, deserved or not, that Selig was old and out of touch, even though he was in office during the creation of the wildly successful subsidiary technology company, Major League Baseball Advanced Media.
While announcing the award to the future Hall of Famer Jeter, Selig proudly said, "I'm forever grateful that during my time as commissioner of baseball, Derek Jeter was the face of our sport."
In that regard, Selig was lucky that the game's most prominent player for two decades was a legendary player playing a central position for the sport's marquee franchise in the country's biggest city.
Similarly, there are also questions about how much credit he deserves for his being in office concurrently with the rise of television money in sports, as advertisers covet the diminishing number of large live audiences, and those TV contracts have been the primary driving force in the sport's revenues more than quadrupling.
When evaluating Selig's record, however, there are clearly accomplishments that can be attributed to him, such as culling the votes for relatively smooth collective bargaining negotiations of the past 21 years.
However it came to pass, the state of the sport is much stronger than it used to be, and Selig does undeniably deserve recognition for his behind-the-scenes maneuvering. He was known for spearheading consensus among the owners, a difficult task given the power and personalities of that constituency, not to mention the diverging interests of large- and small-market franchises.
There will not be consensus over Selig's ultimate legacy, but on this night there was unanimity in the Hilton ballroom, as everyone rose in a standing ovation for his final public appearance as commissioner.