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The commish Selig talks Rocker, realignment and salaries
Posted: Saturday April 01, 2000 02:20 AM
This past January baseball owners empowered baseball commissioner Bud Selig with power not seen since Kennesaw Mountain Landis. The agreement allows Selig to block or void trades, fine teams up to $2 million and perhaps most significantly, they handed Selig complete control of baseball's treasury. CNNSI.com's Nick Charles interviewed Selig in his office in Milwaukee during CNN/SI's Page One show. Nick Charles: Bud the most prominent story of the offseason was John Rocker perhaps. How would you judge his character based on the face-to-face conversations you had with him? Bud Selig: Nick, that's tough to do. That was the biggest story of the offseason. I would call it a distraction in the midst of this wonderful renaissance that baseball is having. I talked to John the day of the hearing. He came in and talked to me for a while in my office in New York during one break in the hearing. He was very respectful and very nice. But I happened to believe that all of us in baseball, starting with me have a social responsibility. And we do have a social pact with our fans and therefore this was a particularly egregious situation that had to be addressed. Charles: From a security standpoint, what's baseball going to do to prepare for June 29, the day Rocker and the Braves play in New York's Shea Stadium? Selig: Obviously, we'll take a lot of precautions. We had security down in Florida. And I do have a significant amount of concerns. But hopefully, time is a great healer and we'll take care of some of that. We'll be extremely careful and very protective in every way. Charles: Bud, a hot issue these days is your push for realignment which would include no National League wild card, six teams in the AL Central, only four in the East and the West creating a decided imbalance.
Selig: We're going to an unbalanced schedule. We're going to rotate the divisions for interleague play. We're going to keep the best of the natural geographic rivalries like the Cubs and the White Sox and the Yankees and the Mets and the Dodgers and the Angels. So we have the best schedule ever developed. But in order to do that we need a very modest realignment. Now as for the National League, we do have four divisions of four if this all goes Nick. They're all on a geographical basis. You're in a division with three other teams. There's no question the fans love the wild card. It will still exist in the American League. But the National League breaks down into divisions of four which I think you produce the same number of teams in the playoffs. But we're still working on a lot of things so there's nothing is cast in stone. But we will need some very modest realignment to finish this thing off. Charles: Bud, eight of baseball top-paying teams grabbed all eight playoff spots last season. It's generally proven the more teams spend the more they win which makes for a lack of competitive balance. How are you using your self-proclaimed "sweeping powers" to get every team a realistic fighting chance? Selig: There's a disparity problem and there's no question about that. I say to the clubs over and over again that one thing as a fan that I always remembered, and I use to give this as speeches when I was running the Brewers, the fans have hope and faith. It's the commissioner's job to restore hope and faith in as many franchises as possible so that it becomes what it used to become and that is management rather than just money. Charles: Well Bud, player's salaries though are out of control. A cap could be the solution. What is your response to critics who say you'll never get one because you don't have authority over the players union who will never agree to it. Selig: Nick, we will solve the disparity problem. It will take a grouping of solutions to do that. But it's a problem that needs to be solved. It's the number one problem facing baseball today and I can assure you that in whatever way we finally do it, and as I said, it's going to take a myriad of solutions to solve, but we will solve it.
Charles: But Bud, given the checkered pattern of labor strife that has set baseball back, the most recent which killed the 1994 World Series, what kind of dialogue are you specifically having to avoid another work stoppage? Selig: You can see on a number of issues that we really have worked very closely with the player's association, we're going to continue to do that... Charles: And let them know that the salary cap is essential? Selig: Well, I didn't say that. I believe that revenue sharing is essential. I believe some salary restraint is essential. I believe a whole series of other things. but only time will tell. I have, I think, a great amount of my time every day figuring on different solutions and different economic equations that will solve this problem. Right at the moment I am considering a lot of them. And I continue to talk to the clubs. I have every confidence Nick that this problem will be solved in the coming months and years. Charles: You are the commissioner, you were an owner. But first and foremost you are a baseball fan. What is Bud Selig most looking forward to this season? Selig: You know, I'm really excited about the season. Obviously I think there are some great races shaping up. You look at the divisions, they look extremely competitive. You've got New York and Atlanta coming off that great playoff last year. In the National League you have the Central Division in the National League between Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. It should absolutely tremendous. I think it will be a terrific race in the National League West because no team stands out. The American League East looks very competitive. The Red Sox, the Orioles, and Toronto all think they can make a real run at the Yankees. The Central Division looks like it should be much more competitive. And the American League West, again because no team stands out, should have a terrific race. This ought to be a great year and Nick, I want to say to you again, I mentioned this great renaissance, we're going to set another all-time attendance record, opening up three new ball parks in April and it should be a tremendous, tremendous season.
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