Commissioner Bud Selig in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, discussing the pace of the game. He added “We live in a fast-paced society. The game ought to be played the way it’s always been played. You watch a 2-1 game and that ought not to take 3 hours and 4 minutes.” I can’t argue with that. I also can’t argue with the fact that it’s much better to hear this from the Commissioner of Baseball than from some loose cannon umpire.
One question, though: does Selig really need to name-check Aaron and Torre on this? Bud’s been around a while so I’m sure he knows that guys didn’t use to step out all the time. Heck, they didn’t do it even 20 years ago. At the risk of totally irresponsible armchair psychology -- my favorite kind, by the way -- this quote is a window into Selig’s insecurity. He’s the freakin’ head honcho of baseball, but he doesn’t feel confident enough in his role to simply state something obvious with authority. Instead, he invokes the names of two guys who he believes have much more weight and credibility than he himself does, likely believing on some level that his opinion wouldn’t matter otherwise.
Such behavior creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bud hasn’t taken many strong stands on his own. Instead, he has let public opinion dictate the courses he takes. This is just the latest example.