Bud Selig can only hear your compliments

Bud Selig is a very well paid individual. He is so well off, the criticism of his caviar and cognac lifestyle by Scott Van Pelt landed him on the ESPN suspended list.

And while he helped bring baseball into a modern era with the Wild Card, parity, home runs and television revenue up the wazoo, he wants absolutely no part of that whole steroids black cloud.

Via ESPN.com:

"I don't want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn't care about it," Selig told Newsday in a Monday phone interview. "That annoys the you-know-what out of me. You bet I'm sensitive to the criticism.

"The reason I'm so frustrated is, if you look at our whole body of work, I think we've come farther than anyone ever dreamed possible," he said, adding, "I honestly don't know how anyone could have done more than we've already done."

Fine and dandy. You've done so much for baseball. And by so much I mean taking advantage of players ruining their bodies for the benefit of your own pocketbooks is very Vince McMahon-like.

McMahon and wrestling took a bad rap forever as the sports-entertainment industry racked up ratings, advertising and commercialization dollars as its athletes/entertainers got juiced to make a few bucks.

And Vinny Mac had a nice lil' federal investigation to show for it. He was the selfish, canniving son-of-a-gun who capitalized as these wrestlers faded at the end of their respective careers thanks to rampant steroid use.

Now that Selig has the steroid spotlight to himself, he could help clear his name if he helped take responsibility for what happened.

It's very easy to take the glory. Now it's time for Bud to take the guff.