Bud Selig And A League Of Extraordinary White Gentlemen

I know we said we'd be on auto-pilot this week, but for the second straight day, we've got some eyebrow raising news that just doesn't sit right with your editor.

Upon first glance, I wanted to give kudos to Bud Selig for forming a 14-person committee to take a look at some of Major League Baseball's issues.  It is a step in the right direction for a sport that seems so set on not moving into the 21st century.

And then I take a look at the committee ... and it appears as if baseball is intent on not moving into the new era.

Of the 14 members in Selig's committee, Frank Robinson, baseball's first African American manager, is the only representative of a minority group.  A deeper look into the committee reveals no Latino rep.

I'm not writing this because as someone who represents that demographic.  Instead, I make this post because if you take a look at the baseball's landscape and it is full of Latin ballplayers and managers.  Yet, you can't get one representative from that area?  I'm kind of shocked.

Baseball's best player, Albert Pujols, comes from a Dominican Republic background and plays in a city where at any given time, the only people with Latin backgrounds are Pujols, Yadier Molina, (and on the rare occasion) me.

Do you think Pujols, a known humanitarian and a guy who has yet to be linked to performance-enhancing drugs, would be a fit representative for a group that makes up a good chunk of major league talent?

How about Ozzie Guillen, the first Latin-born manager to win a World Series?  For all his flaws, he's an ambassador to the game of baseball.

Even if Pujols and Guillen politely declined, Selig could have found at least one current or former ballplayer or manager to be a guy who spoke up.  If I wanted to get into it more, I'd note there is no oriental rep either.

So, who's on board?  Tony La Russa (age 65), Jim Leyland (age 65), Mike Scioscia (age 58), Joe Torre (age 69),Terry Ryan (age 56), Andy MacPhail (age 56), John Schuerholz (age 69).

Mark Shapiro (age 42) is the youngest member of the committee.  And still white.

Among the other old white men own reps include Chuck Armstrong of the Seattle Mariners, Paul Beeston of the Toronto Blue Jays, Bill DeWitt of the St. Louis Cardinals and Dave Montgomery of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Oh, then there's columnist George Will (age 68) ... and guess what ... still white.

"A League Of Extraordinary White Gentlemen," coming to meeting room near you.

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.