Bud Selig: Do as I say, not as I do
June 4, 2008 at 11:44 am by Wayne GarciaAaron Sharockman at the Times gets an exclusive interview with MLB Commish Bud Selig, who lays down the heavy threat to St. Pete: get us a new ballpark or suffer in anonymity for the rest of your stinkin’ existence:
Selig, who spoke exclusively to the St. Petersburg Times, said the small-market Rays cannot compete with larger ball clubs without the guaranteed revenue that comes with a new stadium.
He called the proposed Al Lang location outstanding, and promised St. Petersburg an All-Star Game if a waterfront stadium were built.
“There’s no question that the Rays need a new stadium. There’s just no question,” Selig said by phone from his offices in Milwaukee.
Selig then demonstrated that he has indeed watch the Alec Baldwin speech from Glengarry Glen Ross on numerous occasions by pushing to close the sale. In his estimation, new ballparks are a can’t-miss:
“I could take you from city to city to all of our projects,” said Selig before rattling off a list of cities initially wary of investing in a new ballpark. “Once a stadium’s up, there isn’t a city anywhere that’s disappointed.”
Oh yeah?
Not if you listen to the opponents of the project. Or even a nationally respected newspaper such as the New York Times. POWW members circulated quotes from a Times op-ed piece in 2003 about how Selig’s own team disappointed Milwaukee:
Tommy G. Thompson played a key role in the building of Miller Park in Milwaukee with public money while he was governor of Wisconsin. Like many other residents of the state, he feels a bit jilted.
”The Brewers made it clear that if we built a modern, state-of-the-art stadium, it would provide them with the resources to field a winning baseball team,” Thompson, now the secretary of health and human services, said. ”The Brewers need to put an end to the games. They need to invest in a winning team.”
Other politicians are more outspoken. Referring to the family that owns the Brewers, State Senator Mike Ellis said, ”The Seligs just scammed the living dickens out of the people of this state.”
