turned the legue around

It's easy to dislike Bud Selig, but baseball has enjoyed tremendous success under his leadership. In hindsight, there are a lot of things he should have handled differently--the strike of '94 and Steroid Era would be obvious choices--but baseball is still thriving.

Because he is a former owner, baseball can never expect true objectivity between ownership and labor.

I get the feeling he could be more diligent about cleaning up the MLB. This steroid thing has gone on long enough, and has taken up way too much of Congress's time.

He has made the game worse. Sure they're more home runs, but what happened to team morals? He knew that the players were juicing. Was it a coincidence that baseball players started looking like football players Bud? Look about Barry Bonds, he can't even wear a normal sized baseball cap anymore. Sama Sosa corks his bat. You have dudes throwing chairs at the fans. The WBC was a big embarrassment, it showed the world that big buck athletes don't necessarily gurrantee a win.

I wish Ty Cobb was alive so he could beat the crap out of Selig. He's an OWNER!!! He's not a commissioner.

He definetly needs to take a much stronger stance on steroids. I hope congress gets involved because it's obvious that this isn't a very high priority for him.

Steroids? What are steroids?

A nepotistic fool, more concerned with his pathetic image than of the game he is the supposed guardian of. Possibly the worst baseball commissioner ever, and that is a really tough competition.

In the pocket of the owners, hel' he was an owner. Talk about putting the fox in with the chickens.

Selig has helped the league recover from the strike. He has also recently implemented drug testing to put all the steroid scandals to rest.

Not given enough credit.

Poor Bud. It seems that when it comes to making sound decisions, he is below the Mendoza Line. How can he manage a league when he couldn't even manage a team (The Milwaukee Brewskies). He is hell-bent on destroying ages-old traditions and amalgamating the NL and AL, yet won't do anything about the stupid DH rule. He makes the idiotic decision of making no decision in the the All-Star Game tie fiasco a couple years ago, then goes Wrong-squared by making an exhibition game determine home field advantage in the World Series. Senseless. The Expos fiasco is yet another case of Selig's uncanny ability of vacillating, waffling, and dithering. The Union whips his butt so resoundedly on every front, that something as basic as testing players to prevent them from taking deadly drugs can't get to first base. About the only thing Selig has won is the most recent collective bargaining agreement. But really, could baseball have survived another work stoppage.

What can you say about the commissioner who called for a 7-7 tie in his home town?

Perhaps Bud is the most frumpy or unorthodox public figure but he has managed to lead baseball into its greatest era. Lay the facts side by side and the haters will see that their case does not exist. Being the first commish to avoid a labor stoppage since free agency is his greatest accomplishment and getting the greedy union to agree to historic revenue sharing. 2nd is maintaining a firm stance on Pete Rose and showing 0 tolerance for breakers of RULE 21 (D). 3rd is his ability to keep baseball teams from relocating like the revolving door NFL, NBA and NHL. Imagine if the Red Sox left Boston? It could only happen under Paul Taglibue's watch as he let the Browns and many other teams ditch their fans. Selig has managed to expand the playoffs in fashion that respects the regular season and has created more balance and opportunity to win the World Series. The greatest stadiums in sports have been built under his watch preserving the game for generations to come. Best of all he has led the way for minority hiring unlike the NFL's miserable record on coaches and QB's. Selig even gained control of renegade umpiring (Angel Hernandez) by setting standards and enforcing them. When Bud took over the NBA was supposed to be replacing baseball and baseball was written off as all but dead. Instead where is the NBA now? Baseball? Our national pastime is still by far the most affordable family entertainment in sports. What case do the haters have? Baseless insults from NFL fans.

First commish to establish labor peace with union in history in '02. And finally got the players union to concede on something. People forget Selig announced the cancellation of the WS, but it was the players who refused to play. Look at baseball attendance figures, MLB has had it's best average per game seasons on his watch (I'm not using total gate due to expansion). Only the NFL has had more different champions than MLB(8) since 1990. The NBA has had just five teams Pistons, Bulls,Lakers,Rockets, Spurs win a title in that span, if anything the NBA is the league of have and have nots.

He has failed to address just about every major issue facing pro baseball - with steroids and an unlevel playing field in salaries being at the top of the list. In my opinion, Selig has left baseball in worse shape than when he found it.