In Praise of Bud Selig

The Baseball InterVerse is aflutter this week with doomsday discussion of the . . . Yankees. The questions being flitted about -- can their top prospects rescue the team, should they trade their veterans to restock the farm, are they the worst team in the American League -- have to be making Boss Steinbrenner spin furiously in his grave.

That's the New York Yankees we're talking about, lord overseers of the horsehide world. The franchise that has appeared in 40 World Series and won 27 of them, and earned playoff berths every season from 1995 to 2012.

It's the Evil Empire of baseball that flaunted the built-in advantages of the nation's largest market, its media capital and its massive financial power to bully its competitors.

The Drew Henson Case
Case in point: In 1998, the Yankees could afford to draft star Michigan quarterback and third baseman Drew Henson in the third round and sign him to first round money. Henson appeared headed to the NFL, but the opportunity to play for the flagship franchise enticed him to start in the minors.

After a year on the farm, the Yankees traded Henson to the Reds. He immediately packed his gear and announced his intention to attend Houston Texans training camp. Reluctantly, Cincinnati traded Henson back to the Yankees for pennies on the dollar and he immediately rescinded his departure.

That it all came to nothing in either sport -- he completed five NFL passes and had one big league hit -- is beside the point. The Yankees ruled the baseball world at every level not too long ago. Teams in "small" markets like, well, everywhere else, but certainly the likes of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Minneapolis and San Diego, could do little more than develop the players who would sign as free agents in the Bronx.

The World Is Upside Down
Today, all the Yankees' strength is reserved for holding up the AL East standings from the bottom. Their roster is decrepit, expensive and way past its expiration date. The promising pitchers like Nova, Tanaka and Severino don't seem to have panned out. The future is no longer now, or at least that's how it appears 40 games into 2016.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals are the World Champs and teams like the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, cash-strapped Mets, and Pittsburgh Pirates were all playoff teams in 2015. Everyone has a chance to compete every year. 

Your nose runs and your feet smell. The world is upside down.

Thank You, Bud
How did this happen? Hate the commissioner emeritus all you like, but this Bud's for us. Following the destructive lockout that cancelled the 1994 World Series, Selig was able to wrest some measure of control from the free-spending teams and institute brakes on franchise costs. The luxury tax, reinforced in subsequent negotiations, and the co-opting of revenue streams to MLB, like all the digital properties owned equally by the teams, has dramatically smoothed the revenue curves and negated much of the financial advantage that big market teams used to enjoy.

At the same time, the Internet has made it possible for top stars to shine from any home base. The entire slate of games is available to any American with the proper cable/satellite deal or with $150 for MLB-TV on their computer. Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and Manny Machado can enjoy superstar brand status from DC, Anaheim and Baltimore just the same as if they were standing right on Madison Avenue.

More money is still a useful tool, but the game is awash in it, from Phoenix to Cleveland and St. Petersburg to Denver. Today, if your team perennially stinks, it's not the market's fault, it's management's, even if they blame the manager and fire him.

And if they're perennially contending, thank the people running the franchise, and Bud Selig too. Even if you hate him for cancelling the World Series.