Bud Selig is continuing his farewell tour through Major League Baseball today and he finds himself at Citi Field. He just gave a press conference. Some of his comments were interesting. From Adam Rubin, Eric Fisher and a number of reporters who live-tweeted the presser:
Regarding the Mets financial woes, which continue to have a team in the league’s largest market spending as if it were in Des Moines, he said “I don’t have any problem with the Mets’ financing,” and “Do I have any problem with the Mets’ finances? None.” When asked about the NFL’s problems he was wise to back off and not comment on other leagues, saying only that Major League Baseball is a “social institution.” A socially responsible one? Well, don’t get crazy. When he was asked about the Leigh Castergine lawsuit, he called it mere “employment litigation” and that he’d let it play itself out.
That last one was interesting. He was asked why he could so quickly suspend Jonathan Papelbon, for example, but not do anything regarding the Wilpon lawsuit. He cited the Collective Bargaining Agreement, as if that makes it easier to investigate and punish the acts of players than it is to do so with executives. Which is strange given that executives in Major League Baseball have NO union protection and are totally under the authority of the league. In other words, if they wanted to do something regarding the conduct alleged in the Wilpon lawsuit -- like, say, investigate it independently -- they could. They just don’t wanna.
I understand that Bud Selig is like a kid in seventh period study hall right now. He’s done in January and it’s not like he’s going to start any new project, especially a hard one. But I do wish he’d be less transparent about that and maybe allow the people who work for him to do the hard work that can and should be done.
