Out of Commission

Citing Bud Selig’s powers of persuasion, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf suggests that the Milwaukee Brewer owner missed his calling.

“He should have been Senate majority leader,” Reinsdorf said.

Selig’s lobbying skills--this time on behalf of radical realignment or a form thereof--have been tested again over the last few months.

A vote may be taken during this week’s owners meetings in Atlanta.

Approval would represent an auspicious start to Selig’s sixth year as chairman of the executive council.

It was five years ago last Tuesday--48 hours after Fay Vincent resigned as commissioner under pressure from a majority of owners--that Selig was elected to the position that is tantamount to interim or acting commissioner.

It is an acting assignment that has gone beyond cameo.

With baseball finally closing in, perhaps, on the winter election of a commissioner, the two to four months that Selig predicted he would serve have stretched to more than 60.

Longer than the administrations of several presidents. Long enough for 37 managerial changes and the sale of eight teams.

An historic era, says Selig. Hysteric, say others.

A span of action and inaction under a painstaking consensus builder.

A period of tradition-jarring changes dominated by a four-year labor war that included a seven-month player strike, the first cancellation of the World Series, severe attendance losses and an estimated $850 million in lost revenue for the owners.

A period, Vincent said by phone from his summer home on Cape Cod, that still leaves him regretting his inability to talk Selig and the owners out of their determination to stage Armageddon with the players union.

A period so emotionally and financially devastating that it contributed to Dodger owner Peter O’Malley’s decision to sell one of the most stable and storied franchises in sports.

“The last five years have been very difficult for fans, players and owners, but the last five years are behind us,” O’Malley said.

“We need a full-time, independent, dynamic commissioner to restore the public’s confidence in the game, and I’m optimistic that the search committee is acting in good faith to identify that person this fall.”

There are those who continue to believe it will be Selig, despite his ongoing denials that he is interested in the full-time position.

“I’m confident the search committee will reach a successful conclusion,” the acting commissioner said, meaning the recommendation of someone other than himself, which does not preclude a draft.

A majority of American League owners might favor that, sources said, but a majority of National League owners would likely oppose it. Has the industry been hurt by the absence of a full-time commissioner?

Could a full-time commissioner have changed the course of the last five years?

New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner said there is too much emphasis on the commissioner’s role, calling the infatuation “a sickness--’commissioneritis.’ ”

“Our game has been adrift some, but having a commissioner isn’t always the answer,” he said.

“All the other leagues have a commissioner and they’ve had just as many labor problems as baseball.

“You can’t be a [Judge] Landis any more. You can’t defy the Constitution and tell the courts to go to hell, as he did in the [1919 Black Sox scandal].

“Two years ago, I recommended we hire [then Toronto Blue Jay president] Paul Beeston as a deputy commissioner to handle the everyday business of the office because he’s a respected operator and go-getter and I recommended that Bud then become commissioner because he’s a consensus builder.

“At least, we’re halfway there [with the recent appointment of Beeston as baseball’s chief operating officer]. Now we’ve got to get Bud to agree.”

Donald Fehr, executive director of the players union, said he shared Steinbrenner’s respect for Beeston. Selig, however, is another matter.

The union emerged from the long labor war with total mistrust of the acting commissioner.

Fehr has been quoted to that effect, but he chose not to reopen those wounds at a time when he is “reasonably optimistic” about the game’s steady recovery.

“I’ve always thought there were three components to the commissioner’s role,” he said.

“The first is that he’s a chairman of the board and works to resolve disputes among the clubs and develop a consensus. The second is he functions as a store manager, handling strategic planning and the budget and all the day-to-day responsibilities. The third is that he’s the public relations voice.

“We lost all three of those components the last five years and the industry suffered significantly because of that lack of leadership. You can’t run a business of this financial and geographic scope by committee, but I’m hoping Paul Beeston will fill that day-to-day role. I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

A reflective Selig said he did not dismiss the pain of the bitter and prolonged labor dispute, but “as a history major I have to think historians will also look on the five years as the most active and important, perhaps, in the game’s history.

“We’ve done things we couldn’t even sit in a room and discuss before.”

Revenue-sharing for one. Interleague play for another. The first luxury tax on payrolls. Introduction of an expanded playoff and wild-card format to complement divisional realignment.

Arguably, Atlanta Brave president Stan Kasten said, the last five years “have produced the most positive and profound changes in history. Things have been done that were never thought possible. All the owners deserve credit, but Bud is No. 1 among them.

“He may be a painstaking consensus-builder, which can result in things taking longer to get done than they should, but if it helps get people to the same conclusion, it would seem an acceptable price.”

In a slow, steady recovery from the labor losses, major league attendance will be the second-largest in history this year.

In addition, in the aftermath of the strike and baseball’s lamentable attempt to produce its own TV network, consultant Barry Frank convinced Fox, NBC, ESPN and Liberty to show faith in the game’s resiliency with a national package totaling $1.7 billion.

However, there is no clear-cut evidence of a new partnership with the players that O’Malley and other owners believe is imperative and many thought would evolve from the labor agreement.

Kasten, in fact, said the agreement did not resolve the industry’s “deep economic problems” and the union remains inflexible, seemingly “unwilling to change the system for the good of the clubs and overall good of the game.”

The agreement has been in place for only nine months, however, and former commissioner Peter Ueberroth said:

“I think Bud has done an incredibly good job navigating baseball through some very tough times. He’ll eventually be recognized by the Hall of Fame for his efforts.”

Former commissioner Vincent isn’t so sure.

At 59, he sits on the board of 10 companies but is semi-retired, dividing his time between Connecticut and the Cape.

Relaxed and refreshed, he said:

“It’s been a nice five years for me. If Bud and the owners are happy with the way things are, then we’re both happy.

“But even now I just wish I had been able to persuade them that fighting the union wasn’t the way to go.

“That’s still a regret for me, but Bud and Jerry [Reinsdorf] convinced the owners that this was Armageddon, a battle between good and evil that couldn’t be fought with the commissioner sitting there.”

Militants among the owners were still angry in 1992 that Vincent had interceded and helped resolve the 1990 work stoppage. They were determined to stage a showdown in 1994, to take the negotiations to impasse, if necessary, to unilaterally impose a salary cap.

Selig and Reinsdorf led the charge, demanding that Vincent give up his “best interest” authority in labor matters.

Vincent refused, citing the Major League Agreement that says a commissioner’s powers can not be diminished during his time in office. The owners met in suburban Chicago on Sept. 3 and approved by 19-8-1 a resolution of no confidence in the commissioner.

Vincent called it an illegal meeting, considered going to court, still thinks he could have won, but decided two days later to resign.

Selig was elected chairman of the executive council two days later.

“In my wildest imagination I couldn’t have conceived that I’d still be in this position five years later,” he said.

“What happened was that the clubs themselves decided in 1993 that given the labor history and the situation, it would be unfair to bring in someone as commissioner who was unfamiliar with that history.

“I still hear people say the strike wouldn’t have happened if there had been a commissioner, but what about the seven previous work stoppages?”

It wasn’t until the fall of 1996 that owners and players reached an agreement. There was no salary cap, and no winner, and Steve Greenberg, who was deputy commissioner under Vincent, disputes Selig, saying a commissioner could have made a difference.

“As long as Fay had the authority, I’m sure he would have found a way to keep the game on the field. A shutdown was contrary to everything he was about,” said Greenberg, president and co-founder of Classic Sports Network.

“Of course, it would have led to a bloody confrontation between the commissioner and a large group of owners, and I’m not sure that wouldn’t have been worse.

“I mean, Bud and Jerry had their agenda. I’m not sure any commissioner could have stopped that steamroller. After the settlement in 1990, they wanted to take their shot in ’94.

“I give Bud credit for keeping the most fractious group of tycoons I know together, but the cancellation of the World Series and everything that went with the labor unrest represents the greatest blemish in the game’s history and--right or wrong--it will always be looked on as Selig’s call and responsibility.”

The next commissioner, perhaps, will have a clearer picture.

A recent restructuring gives the commissioner responsibility for setting and implementing the owners’ labor policy.

Selig, however, would never think of doing it alone.

He is too much of a consensus-builder.

“I agree with the need for a strong commissioner from the clubs’ standpoint,” Selig said. “There’s definitely a role there, but anyone who thinks you can get things done autocratically is wrong.

“It needs to be done sensitively, and the whole point is to get every club involved more so they have a better appreciation and understanding of the things that need to be done.”

No one criticizes Selig’s passion or work ethic. He is on the phone 10 to 12 hours a day, earning the $2 million a year his colleagues pay him.

However, a National League owner requesting anonymity said:

“I criticize Bud for agreeing with everybody he talks to, whether he agrees with them or not, and I also think five years is a very long interim period. I agree with Peter. We need a full-time independent commissioner.”

The Selig tenure has seen the respected O’Malley isolated and removed from the corridors of power. Selig has also tended to insulate himself among allies, making sure that Reinsdorf and Minnesota owner Carl Pohlad, among others, are always on the executive council and other influential committees to help Selig control votes.

The NL owner said the majority of his league’s owners would oppose Selig’s possible candidacy for the full-time position on the following basis:

1. The conflict-of-interest perception as Brewer owner;

2. The perception he bears responsibility for the strike and Series cancellation;

3. The marketing void.

“That’s where baseball has really suffered,” the owner said, referring to the global and national markets. “Deals just aren’t getting done. The ’97 season was a total loss in that regard and there’s no excuse for it.

“Greg Murphy was hired [as president of the new marketing arm, Major League Baseball Enterprises] with a lot of fanfare, but he doesn’t have Bud’s support. It’s a real void. We’re not generating the income we should.”

Then, of course, there’s realignment and the radical concepts that the NL owner terms “a total disaster in that they throw out 115 years of tradition. Maybe Bud looks on it as his final step in the reconstruction of the game and thinks it will get him reelected, but I don’t believe [his reelection is] going to happen.”

Maybe not, but Selig believes realignment is imperative to ease problems in the schedule, maximize rivalries and minimize travel.

It seems certain to materialize in some form and could, indeed, be the final act of the acting commissioner’s tumultuous, five-year tenure, although his overall popularity among owners is such that his possible election as full-time commissioner can’t be dismissed.

“For too many years, baseball took the Scarlett O’Hara approach--we’ll think about it tomorrow,” Selig said.

“There’s been a lot of pain in getting some of these things done, and that’s unfortunate, but if the next generation can avoid the work stoppages and learn from our pain, it will have been worth it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BASEBALL COMMISSIONERS

Kenesaw Mountain Landis: Nov. 12, 1920-Nov. 25, 1944

Happy Chandler: April 24, 1945-July 15, 1951

Ford Frick: Sept. 20, 1951-Nov. 16, 1965

William Eckert: Nov. 17, 1965-Dec. 20, 1968

Bowie Kuhn: Feb. 4, 1969-Sept. 30, 1984

Peter Ueberroth: Oct. 1, 1984-March 31, 1989

A. Bartlett Glamatti: April 1, 1989-Sept. 1, 1989

Fay Vincent: Sept. 13, 1989-Sept.7, 1992

None (Bud Selig--Acting): Sept. 7, 1992 to present