Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig took his show on the road to Kansas City for a press conference and a Q&A with fans at the All-Star game.
As is his custom, Selig said some things that left many observers walking away scratching their heads.
Last night Selig answered questions from fans that were submitted online and another handful of questions from members of a live audience. Here are of the highlights of the Selig Q&A and todays press conference.
On The Home Run Derby
Selig replaied “No matter what you do in either picking the rosters or players for Home Run Derby, somebody is going to have a controversy. The (captains) are picked, then the players invite the contestants.
I think that’s great. I love players doing that themselves. I certainly wouldn’t want to tell Robinson Cano or Matt Kemp who they could pick or not pick.
By the way, to their everlasting credit, they get their guys, too. We used to have a lot of cancelations. Now everybody wants to do it.”
On Expanded Replay
On a more controversial topic Seliig spoke of replay, “We’ve gone to replay. We’re going to expand it, when we get all the proper cameras, for what I call bullets (fair or foul) hit down the left- and right-field lines, plus trap plays in the outfield. I must tell you that within baseball, there is not a great appetite for any more instant replay. It is a game of pace. You have to be careful you’re not interrupting the game every five or 10 minutes. But we’ll continue to watch it.”
That is interesting. I dare anyone reading this article to do their own informal survey of 20 baseball fans and let us know what the results are.
On Expanded Playoffs
“This year to get the one-game playoff we had to change some things. Next year, it will go back to 2-2-1 (This year, it’s 2-3). Agreement came so late and the schedule had already been drawn, so this was the only thing we could do.
“I’m not so sure that this isn’t fair anyway. But you can debate that. The clubs wanted (expanded playoffs) this year, and the commissioner wanted it this year very badly.
All I can tell you is I haven’t had a complaint from any of the 30 clubs. Everyone is thrilled.”
On The Tampa Bay Rays Attendance and Oakland A’s Stadium
Bud Selig praised the Rays for their success on the field but termed their low attendance “inexcusable” and “disappointing.”
He said the Major League Baseball averages 30,000 or somewhere thereabouts and the Rays are averaging 19,000.
Selig didn’t offer any solutions or threats in his comments saying that he will always defer to team owners to know what is best for every situation.
After being asked about the Oakland situation, Selig joked about the Rays and the A’s stadiums are “like death and taxes”
On The DH In National League Parks
Selig, said he likes idea of flipping interleague rules, so pitchers would hit in AL parks, DHs in NL parks
More to come
-logo-1200x675.png?v=20240604144205&h=45&w=95&zc=2){kind=logo}