Commissioner sounds off on MLB's major issues

	Bud Selig has overseen an era of immense change in the game since taking over as commissioner in 1992. AP

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has been making his rounds at Spring Training camps in the past few weeks, and his unwavering message is this: The Game is Good.

Gross annual revenues have soared past $5 billion. Attendance is at an all-time high. The sport is becoming more global by the minute, making inroads into Asia and Europe, where games may soon be played. With improved economics and increased revenue sharing, it seems more teams than ever have a chance to compete for a spot in the postseason.

Yes, Barry Bonds is being investigated by a federal grand jury even as he nears Hank Aaron's home run record, bringing up the thorny question of whether Selig will attend the game that Aaron's record falls. (It's a topic Selig refuses to address.) A new scandal involving players who allegedly received illegal shipments of human growth hormone (HGH) is all over the news. Former Sen. George Mitchell is conducting a separate investigation, under Selig's orders, of the game's shadowy steroids-fueled past. A $700 million deal with DirecTV that may take the game's Extra Innings package of out-of-market games off of cable has angered many fans.

But Selig, 72, is clearly pleased with where the game is and where it's headed. I talked to Selig, who took over as commissioner in 1992 and is scheduled to retire after the 2009 season, several times over the past weekend. I followed up with an extensive phone interview on Monday after he returned to his Milwaukee office.

Here are some excerpts from our conversations:

SI.com: This has been a tough week or so for you with the passing of former commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who was both a mentor and a friend to you. [Selig attended Kuhn's funeral on Tuesday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.] Tell me about the relationship between you two, and how you view his term as commissioner.

Selig: For two or three years ... my wife and I and Bowie and Luisa [Kuhn's wife] shared a home during spring training. We'd all go our own separate ways in the morning and then would be back later in the day. And we had a wonderful time. I have wonderful memories.

Bowie was the commissioner through tumultuous times. The sport was finally changing after what I believe was being stuck in neutral for a long time. You had the advent of the Players Association, and then came arbitration, then came free agency. I feel very strongly -- I don't think Bowie gets enough credit. The scarred, awful history of labor relations in Major League Baseball was very difficult. And Bowie was in the middle of that. Maybe the most painful [time] came when I was the acting commissioner [with the cancellation of the 1994 World Series], but at least since then, we've had labor peace. Bowie didn't have a day of labor peace because, even in between, there was a lot of anger.

So, when you look back on it, Bowie was a man of enormous integrity. And he loved the sport. He just loved the sport. So I really believe that for those who understood the times -- not looking at it today, I read some things that I really actually take some rather significant exception to -- given the circumstances, I believe that Bowie served the sport well. He certainly served it with honor and dignity. He had a lot of tough times. He had some very, very tough owners. This was before revenue sharing, before all these things that have happened. So for all the joy and happiness today, and the great golden era of prosperity we're having ... Bowie planted a lot of those seeds, and he just hasn't got the credit for it.

SI.com: You've taken a lot of criticism over the years, as well. But you're saying that Kuhn had it tougher than you?

Selig: Oh, I think he did. I think that's absolutely true. For a lot of reasons, I've been able to do what Bowie couldn't do. The owners have always been very much behind me, very, very loyal. [Selig was an owner before he was appointed, by his fellow owners, to be acting commissioner in 1992.] We stopped fighting with the union. I really demanded that the owners stop fighting with each other. That's what went on during the Bowie Era, and it was brutal. Nobody caught in the middle of that is going to survive and do very well.

SI.com: You and he often talked about the difficulties of being commissioner.

Selig: As tough as I thought it was in the '90s ... Bowie and I talked about it a lot then. He used to say to me, jokingly -- but in some cases not -- 'Look, I've been there and I understand.' I've had a lot of peace. Everything seems to have really worked well the last six or seven years. He never had a day of peace, right to the day he left.

He'd call me Buddy, as everyone in my family does. He would say 'Buddy, what you've done with the group, I just couldn't do.' You know, Leo Durocher once said that it's better to be lucky than good. And timing in life is everything. Bowie's timing ... tumultuous is maybe not even a strong enough word.

SI.com: Does Kuhn's passing make you think about your own legacy?

Selig: I certainly have thought a lot about it, and I understand, and I'm very proud of what we've done. We're setting attendance records now, and revenue growth records, which I believe are a manifestation of how well the sport is doing. I honestly believe that, without a question, the sport is today more popular than it's ever been. No question. It's not even close. But I guess ... the retrospect of history will have to determine how I'm treated. I'm just going to do what I think is right. I'll let them make those judgments.

There's no question that the last 14, 15 years have been the most active years in baseball in terms of change, how the economic landscape of the sport has changed. You finally have interleague play ...the wild card and everything else. I'll let historians judge that.