Bud Selig with Phil Rogers. For the Good of the Game. Morrow, 2019.
Fans of Major League Baseball would certainly get something out of For the Good of the Game, both for what it tells us and what it omits. The author served as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1990 until 2015. During this time organized sports of all kinds were struggling with the use and abuse of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). This is Selig’s story from that era.
For the Good of the Game does tell us how Allan “Bud” Selig, the son of a successful Milwaukee car dealer, became involved in baseball, first with the Milwaukee Braves, then a minor league team from Milwaukee, then the Brewers, and finally as the MLB Commissioner.
There are some interesting stories about dealing with the growth of television and the division into major and minor markets. The players’ union and some of the major markets (notably the Yankees) opposed any kind of revenue sharing program at first, but as the other top sports leagues adopted some kind of mutual arrangement, eventually even George Steinbrenner of the Yankees agreed to a luxury tax concept.
Selig also records the effects of free agency and how the clubs dealt with that. Selig presents himself as a realist but also noting that the major market clubs would have a real advantage. He also deflects some blame for the strike-shortened 1994 season. Indeed, we do note that until 1995 he was the acting commissioner, but he was officially chosen for the position with the acting dropped as 1995 began.
There are many personalities here. Back when Frank Torre was playing for the Braves, Selig’s family got to take care of Frank’s younger brother Joe, then a teenager, when he was in town. Through the car business he got to know many other players. He especially speaks highly of Hank Aaron who is still a personal friend.
Later with the Brewers, he tells a lot about the two main stars from that franchise, Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. He notes that Molitor had some problems with illicit drugs early in his career but repented and cleaned up. He would contrast that with others who never acknowledged a problem and never admitted to drug use or gambling even though the evidence was obvious. He seems especially annoyed at Barry Bonds. He also explains why he saw no reason to change the league’s ban of Pete Rose. In Rose’s case especially, he does note his skill as a player and manager.
There are many little details that baseball fans might pick up with some smiles or nods. For example, he tells of having a conversation with Ted Williams where Williams told him that Molitor’s swing was the closest he had seen to his own swing. Having watched both players on television, I would have to agree. At times I even thought there was something about Molitor that I could not quite put my finger on. That may have been it.
Selig expresses his long-time frustration with dealing with the players’ union on the issue of drugs and drug testing. For two decades the union leaders refused even to bring up the subject. As the book’s title would suggest, doesn’t it seem strange that the union leaders couldn’t see that testing and sanctions were for the good of the game? Finally, when it became clear that a signficant majority of players themselves wanted testing, the union gave in.
One observation from this reader is that Selig tells us that Marvin Miller, the hard-nosed president of the players’ union, had been a union representative for the United Steelworkers’ Union before he got connected to baseball. I was born in Pittsburgh and am old enough to remember the 1960 steel strike. Nearly every father of my schoolmates was out of work, but no one would compromise for a long time. In many cases the issues for this strike were living wages and job safety. Steelworkers themselves were hard-nosed and tough.
Did Miller really treat baseball no different from the steel industry? The 1990s were not like the 1930s or even the early sixties. The public perception was that the conflict was between millionaires and billionaires. This continued with Miller’s successor, Donald Fehr. He tells of Fehr mocking Selig about MLB losing money, “but we were losing money,” Selig claims.
Selig acknowledges that MLB has some unique challenges. The National Football League plays one game a week for four months. The NBA and NHL play a little more than a third of the games that MLB plays, and with many days off. Because it is the oldest and for a long time the most widely followed of the major sports, Selig was told and believes that baseball has been held to a higher standard than the other pro sports.
Selig notes that more fans now follow the NFL and the NBA (and probably even college basketball) than MLB. While he rightly credits Pete Rozelle for marketing savvy in the NFL, he never really addresses why interest in baseball has declined.
When I was teaching in the 1980s, students still talked about baseball more than other sports, except around playoff time. That was changing by the early nineties, especially with basketball: Larry Byrd, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and so on. I recall one summer day in the early nineties driving by a city playground. There was a baseball field and two basketball courts. There were a couple of games going on in the basketball courts and the baseball field was empty.
When I was kid in Pittsburgh, we lived near a similar playground. For us, the baseball field was far more active. I actually do not recall anyone every playing basketball on the basketball court. Sometimes we might play horse, but we mostly rode our bikes on it. What had happened in thirty years?
I still see that the biggest problem baseball has is attracting younger fans. Where did they miss it? Yes, owners and the players’ union were often at odds. Team owners themselves often were, too. Selig suggests that in 1990 MLB came close to falling apart. Frankly, though, kids do not pay a whole lot of attention to those things.
When I was a boy about half the games were still in the daytime. The World Series were day games. We would listen to games on the radio and discuss what was happening. On weekends there might be an afternoon game on television to watch. I have noticed this year that there are more day games because of the influenza restrictions. Of course, there are no fans in the parks, but maybe MLB should consider more day games in a season.
Yes, games also last longer nowadays. I recently watched a recording of game 7 of the 1960 World Series. The score was 10-9, there was a lot of action, a lot of runners on base, numerous pitching changes. The game lasted two hours and twenty minutes. Nowadays, no-hitters last longer than that. Rule 5.07(c) could be enforced.1
I was disappointed that Selig never addressed any of these issues. However, for interesting details about the rising baseball salaries which led to the major vs. minor markets, and especially the steroids problem in the sport, For the Good of the Game is worth reading.
Although the book is presented as an autobiography and is Selig’s personal account of his experiences in baseball, because there are so many names and events recorded in the book, one could treat it more like a history book. For that reason, For the Good of the Game could use a good index, or at the very least titles and dates for the chapter headings.
1 Rule 5.07(c): When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call “Ball.” (35-36)
Official Baseball Rules. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, 2019.