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Major League Baseball, in its usual clumsy-footed manner, offered up a press release the other day on the accomplishments of Commissioner as Long as He Wants to Be, Bud Selig. It was an embarrassingly self-serving and congratulatory document, topped by a cloying quote from friendly columnist George Will, and it accompanied the news that Selig, one of the most polarizing figures in recent sports history, will stay on as commissioner through at least 2009.

Selig, according to the document, is responsible for the "rejuvenation" of the All-Star Game, the "reaffirmation" of the strike zone and is pulling the strings for what the two-page list calls "the greatest ballpark boom in the history of the game." Selig has accomplished "important progress in the area of minority hiring," and the "consolidation of the umpiring and administration functions of the AL and NL."

Somewhere in the bullet points, the authors missed "Showed Barry Bonds how to drive the ball," "Thought up the retractable roof," and "Invented the split-fingered fastball."

Baseball owners, who unanimously voted this week to extend Selig's contract, unabashedly love their man. He was one of them once, remember? The commish has led a stale business that had alienated a large percentage of its customers back to major-league profitability. More than anything, Selig has helped make buckets of bucks for the owners. That is paramount. This extension was simply the owners' way of saying, "Thanks, Buddy. And keep it up."

As much of a hero as he is to the owners, though, Selig remains a pariah to many fans. He was, as everyone recalls, the commissioner on call for one of the sport's most damning moments, the walkout of '94. He made the announcement cancelling the World Series.

(The owners' tribute, not strangely, doesn't address that. Instead it mentions that Selig, "In 2002, concluded Collective Bargaining Agreement without a work stoppage for the first time in more than 30 years.")

"There were owners," Selig told reporters, "people who begged me [in '94] not to make an announcement [canceling the Series] because they said 'You'll be the person remembered as ...'"

And, of course, he is that, to many fans. The man who killed baseball.

Some will never forgive Selig for '94 or for so radically changing the game they once knew. He pushed through interleague play, split the leagues into three divisions and added an extra round to the postseason by implementing a wild-card system. Though many of those innovations, if not all of them, were not necessarily Selig's ideas, he put them before the owners. He urged them to adopt and adapt. And so they did.

And now the owners can't get enough of their "Buddy" (as Mets owner Fred Wilpon calls him). Ticket sales are up. Television ratings are up. Revenues, as it says on the owners' press-release tribute to Selig, have rocketed from $1.6 billion in '92 to $4.1 billion this year. Franchise values, too, have increased. And nothing says love more than a nice, fat revenue-sharing check -- at least for those on the receiving end.

As for the fans, they'll probably always be polarized over what Selig's done. No commissioner in baseball history has exacted so much change. No one has presided over such upheaval. Whether you praise him for what he's helped baseball become or blame him for it, he's responsible. The buck stops with Bud.

And now, thanks to his friends the owners, it will be stopping with him for at least five more years.

Now, on to the E-Bag, where we cover the importance of legwork, the Cards and the Cubs, A-Rod's failures in the clutch, sneaky Baltimore and Bob Costas.

Why is it that there are certain teams in the majors that always have pitching and young prospects (Dodgers, A's, Yankees, etc.) and then there are the others, no matter where they draft (my Tigers), that keep finding cadaver arms? Are other teams that much better at scouting? Or are they looking for specific characteristics in a player?
 -- Mike McPeak, Detroit

Well, Mike, it might be simply skill in scouting and developing players that makes some teams better than others. More often, it's the commitment to the dirty work that separates the good teams from the bad. Or, of course, the money. Building a good minor league system is a difficult, time-consuming task. It takes a lot of legwork and a lot of evaluation. The richer teams can get away with not doing it. They can just buy talent on the major-league level. But the other teams -- and we're talking the Tigers, for one -- have to do their homework. If they don't, they end up with a lousy feeder system, which leads to a lousy major-league product. It's interesting that you stick the Yankees in your list, because they have one of the emptiest cupboards in the minors. But they have the money to make up for it. As far as your Tigers go, they were ranked 22nd in Baseball America's annual minor league talent rankings earlier this year, which doesn't bode well for the immediate future. But they were ahead of such teams as the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants and Cardinals.

What is wrong with the Cubs? This isn't a bad Cubs team that stinks. This is a good Cubs team that stinks. It's painful to watch them this year.
 -- Greg Whisler, Arlington, Va.

Maybe the Cubs just haven't peaked yet. You better hope they haven't. I wouldn't be too worried. I'm with a bunch of others on this one: I expect to see the Cubs in the postseason, given their easy September schedule. And if they make the postseason, with that pitching, watch out.

I would love to see the Cubbies make it to the playoffs as the wild card, as this would be the first time the Cards and Cubs could ever potentially meet up in a playoff series. For all of the talk about Boston and the Yankees, this truly would be a dramatic series for the ages.
 -- Marshall Auerback, London

The Cards and Cubs can't meet in the first round, but they could play in the National League Championship Series for a spot in the World Series. And wouldn't that be a hoot? I'd watch it. I might have to take a bodyguard with me. But it sounds like a blast.

I don't usually want to pick on anyone just giving an opinion in a column, but with your comment about Randy Johnson being cranky about the offense behind him, he has nobody to blame but himself. The D-Backs would have loved to trade him before the deadline, but he said "Yankees or nothing." So he will get nothing -- and he will like it.
 -- David Allen, Fort Worth, Texas

Wow, tough crowd. Consider this, David. I think the Diamondbacks wouldn't have minded trading Johnson if they could have gotten what they wanted in return. But they couldn't find anybody to pay their price. Not the Yankees. Not the Dodgers. Nobody. And Johnson's simply too valuable to let go for a couple of prospects and a kiss on the cheek. I can't blame the D'backs for not trading him. True, Johnson's not too happy about it, but I'll bet even he understands. In any event, it has to be difficult watching that franchise, so high just a few years ago, now so pathetically low. Give the poor Unit a break.

Your column about the '94 strike season brings up one good question. Almost every announcer says the Braves are on their way to winning their 13th straight division title. Why doesn't anyone set them straight and remind them who was in first when the season shut down? Yup, MLB's favorite homeless poster child, the Montreal Expos. All other stats and records from the '94 season count, why not the Braves' second-place finish?
 -- Kevin Purcell, Spring Hill, Fla.

Yeah, we get complaints about that all the time. I guess the answer to your question is this: the Braves didn't finish second in '94. They didn't finish at all. No one did. The season was aborted. So we'll never know. But you're right, technically, about how people word it. If we're after accuracy, it should be that Braves are on their way to winning the 13th straight division title that has been claimed, or something like that. And, remember, all those titles weren't in the NL East, either. The Braves played in the West until 1994.

It's time someone put a stop to the gushing praise heaped upon Alex Rodriguez. I've always thought that average with runners in scoring position was one of the true benchmarks of a great hitter. Alex fails miserably in this test, with a paltry .217 this year. His career mark is barely above .270. Compare this with Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki ... much of the league, in fact. No one on the Yankees' active roster today has a lower average with runners in scoring position except three pitchers. It's sad when, as a Yankee fan, I'd rather have almost anyone else up than him in these situations.
 -- Greg Waldmann, New York

Well, Greg, he's no Mike Lieberthal (.115 with RISP, with 113 ABs), or Joe Crede (.172, in 87 ABs), or Jim Thome (.200), or Steve Finley (.200), or Vernon Wells (.206) or Carlos Delgado (.211). But, yeah, he's no Shannon Stewart (.400), Scott Rolen (.382), Pujols (.365), Ichiro (.360), Ivan Rodriguez (.343), Ramirez (.321) or Jeter (.261), either. I can look up some stats, you know.

Everybody talks about Bonds & BALCO. How come Sammy Sosa gets a free ride for the corked bat? I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'm willing to bet that since that day, his batting, HR & RBI totals are way down, making him just an average ball player.
 -- Alan G., Wantagh, N.Y.

Alan, I don't know why I did this, because I know it doesn't prove anything. Heck, it doesn't even disprove anything. But I looked up Sosa's numbers, post-incident, last year. Before I lay them on you, two things. First off, a lot of people believe that cork doesn't help a hitter in any substantial manner. Secondly, Sosa has been hurt for much of this year, so I don't see how you can do a real pre-cork, post-cork evaluation. That said, before he shattered his corked bat last June 3, Sosa was hitting .283 with six homers and 24 RBIs (he missed a chunk of games in May). Afterward, he hit .272 with 34 homers and 79 RBIs. His OPS was .914 before the incident. He ended the season with a .911 OPS. So ... draw any conclusions you want. Personally, I don't think you should draw any.

I am so tired hearing from announcers how certain baseball players "need a day off." Give me a break! A three-to-four hour game, usually one a day, half of it spent sitting in a dugout, all for millions of dollars. Where do I sign up?
 -- JoAnn Bertrand, Acushnet, Mass.

I have to say, JoAnn, you're a little rough on the poor guys. Let me give you the typical schedule of a big leaguer. Say it's a 7 p.m. game. Players normally start to roll into the park around 3 p.m. Pregame workouts and all, you know. Then let's assume it's a three-hour game. Add an hour to shower, get treatment and talk afterward. It's a 3-11 shift, minimum. And then you throw in all the travel and the physical strains and the mental anguish, the few days off ... OK, OK, OK. I can't keep it up. Yeah, JoAnn, I'm with you. Where's the line form for that job?

Expos "on the move" you say. Really? I am always amazed at the shortsightedness of the U.S. (and Canadian) sports press regarding the serious challenge posed by the former Expos partners racketeering (RICO) lawsuit against MLB. This lawsuit is well funded, has hired the top sports law firm in the country and is managed behind the scenes by the best lawyer in the Bronfman family corporate empire. The Montreal partners want their property back, of which they are the legitimate 76 percent owners, after it was hijacked by Selig and Jeffrey Loria in 2002. I predict the federal court agrees with them on the merits of their RICO case. See you at Big O for Opening Day 2005.
 -- DCWinch, Geneva

Thanks, bub, for driving me back to the message boards and a dozen newspaper stories for the last hour to check your claims. I'm certainly not going to get into all the legal wrangling over the Expos here because it's way, way too complicated. But, yes, the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit still lives. Whether it's enough to derail the plans of MLB to move the Expos ... again, you argue it. I'll wait and see.

I'm sure you've already received lots of e-mail from nerds like me but, as I recall, Henry Fonda said, "Good God, look at the Orioles. I always knew Baltimore was a sneaky town."
 -- Jerry Cooperman, Baltimore

Jerry, I count on nerds like you. The line, from On Golden Pond, fits these Orioles perfectly, I think. Thanks.

Am I alone in mourning the fall of one of our great broadcasters? Bob Costas was once a terrific baseball announcer with an encyclopedic knowledge of the game. He had great insights to the future of the sport. But now Costas has become little more than another smarmy Olympic host giving play-by-play of the pageantry and introducing tear-jerker athlete profiles. Think we'll ever see him return from the dark side?
 -- Ron, Reno, Nev.

Ron, I'm with you. I miss him on baseball. Costas was so good and cared about baseball so much that people mentioned him as a possible commissioner at one time. I still see him weighing in on the state of the game from time to time, but as far as calling a game again? if NBC ever gets some baseball games, maybe, or if Costas ever switches networks, we might. I'd like to think it'll happen, sooner or later.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.