Commissioner given three-year deal through 2012

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig received a three-year extension through 2012 at the owner's meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., today. Selig, 73, appeared before Congress this week to testify about the Mitchell Report, which he authorized to examine the history of steroids in baseball.

Details of the contract have not been announced. In 2007, Selig was reported to have earned $14 million.

Selig, the former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, was named acting commissioner by his fellow owners in 1992 and has had the job full-time since 1998. Of the game's eight previous commissioners, only the first one, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who held the post from 1920-1944, was in office longer than Selig's 16 years.

Selig's time in office has been marked by radical change and explosive economic growth. Among the innovations he helped push for were revenue sharing among clubs, a three-division format and the wild card round in each league, instituted in 1994, and the World Baseball Classic, which debuted in 2006. Baseball has also achieved its highest-ever levels of popularity in recent years, setting new attendance records almost annually, with a new mark of 79 million this season. Revenues have skyrocketed to more than $6 billion.

But Selig and the game have encountered dark times as well. Chief among these were the 1994 player's strike which wiped out the World Series and the ongoing steroids scandal that has gripped the sport for three seasons.