Given this most recent salvo, I have begun to conclude that Bud Selig has been the most socialist baseball commissioner ever:
While meeting with baseball writers Tuesday before the All-Star Game, Commissioner Bud Selig threw out a stunning proposal—banning All-Star Game pitchers from being used on the Sunday before the Midsummer Classic.
I realize it’s only a proposal, but way too much attention is given to the All Star game – one game played in the middle of July – by Selig, from trying to figure out ways to “make it count” to this. It’s a showcase and should not be made more important than regular season games that really count. Sure, those Sunday games are but one game for each team in a 162-game schedule, but division championships and wild card spots often come down to the wire where one game here or there can make all the difference.
Other examples of his socialist bent while running baseball:
- Getting uniform revenue sharing (in national politics, we call this “taxing”) in the collective bargaining agreement, then getting the proportion shared increased to 34%.
- Taking control of each team’s website which, before “nationalization”, were controlled individually by the teams themselves.
Is this increased socialism the best thing for baseball in the long run? Maybe. The NFL is the most popular league in the US and it is also the most socialist with its wage controls, national television contract, and its 40% local revenue sharing. But it also has each team play once a week, making it much easier for fans of a team to follow each game’s action.
