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I too am from the midwest and I too don't agree with what Selig has done, but this is a extremely poorly reasoned piece of writing. You enumerate the many things that baseball has done wrong over the years, such as poorly evaluating and dealing with an event over 100 years ago (the Black Sox scandal) and racial issues. But racial issues in particular were hardly unique to baseball, plagued all facets of American society in those years that you detail, and continue to do so! So you criticize the sport that helped the process of tearing down racial boundaries by being one of the most important, large organizations to integrate at an extremely early, pre-Civil Rights movement date for having racist people involved. Right. Then you seem to implicate Bud Selig in those issues? Your article reads like you're blaming Selig for American racism and gambling scandals. Right...
Your issue is that baseball has many problems, and does a bad job of fixing them. Fine. You've correctly identified this. Baseball and Selig did a remarkably poor job of handing steroid issues in the '90s and '00s (p.s. why are you taking cheap shots at McGwire? He's a hitting coach for crying out loud, not a team doctor or even a player. You can't BAN a player from the sport for breaking a rule that wasn't a rule back then. Maybe if you did some research you'd find out that McGwire, though he used steroids to gain an unfair advantage, did not violate MLB policy.) By denying baseball access to those findings, you're refusing to help baseball get better at fixing them. You've correctly identified a problem, but, for whatever reason, seem to just like having something to whine about, or feel powerful about, and not be progressive and help fix issues. It's a lot easier to stand back as a bystander and do nothing, attacking those who want to make progress. It's a lot harder to be part of that progress. I challenge you people at the New Times to do so.
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@Roger782 Glad you have faith in baseball. I wish I had similar faith they would right their wrongs. I believe baseball will get the answers it seeks. But I think a change in leadership is critically necessary if anything is to actually be done. Owners have gotten a free ride for too long. Journalistic ethics play into our decision as well. You fail to address this in your otherwise well thought out response, which is too bad. Thanks for taking the time.
Definitely. I apologize for my initial internet rage, that wasn't really necessary! Bud Selig must go. You're spot on with that. And there must be an ownership change, or some change on how that's all negotiated. Essentially, there needs to be precautions in place to make sure Loria and others like him never take ownership of a team ever again. I completely missed the whole "second page" thing, embarrassingly, when I wrote out my response. I think journalistic ethics are a completely valid point to cite here, and you're in the right. There needs to be a change, and while I might think it would be useful for some cooperation with MLB, I think you all have done a good job exposing the story in the first place. Kudos to you on that, and thanks for the response that was far nicer than it could've been.
