In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig - Hardcover

Zimbalist, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471735337 ISBN 13: 9780471735335

Publisher: Wiley, 2006

Synopsis

"Once again, Andy Zimbalist proves that no one understands the mysterious inner workings of the best game on earth better than he does. With energy, thoughtfulness, and passion, he has parsed the complicated world of baseball and shown how important its business side is to its soul—and its survival."
—Ken Burns

"By looking at baseball from the perspective of the commissioner's office and its many challenges, Professor Zimbalist has been able to use his scholar's eye and his fan's heart to see the game as an ongoing enterprise that needs refreshment. The fair but unsparing portrait of Bud Selig he paints is of a man who is nobody's fool and nobody's tool—and now, those of us who love the game need him to start the rally that will restore baseball in America's esteem."
—Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday and author of Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball and Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan

"Baseball books, like the game itself, are often replete with errors. But Andrew Zimbalist has written a carefully researched yet lively review of the record of the nine commissioners that is both fair and accurate. It is long overdue and a superb read."
—Fay Vincent, former commissioner of baseball

"Tremendously enjoyable and a must-read for baseball fans. Guaranteed to raise the level of discourse on sports-talk radio."
—Jim Bouton, former 20-game winning pitcher for the Yankees and author of Ball Four

"Andrew Zimbalist has done a very credible, eminently readable, and engaging job describing MLB's commissioners, particularly Bud Selig, who easily has become the most significant figure in baseball in decades. While Selig will not necessarily share all of Zimbalist's views about the game, In the Best Interests of Baseball? has thoughtfully, and perhaps uniquely, tracked many of the thorny issues that Selig confronted during baseball's new golden era."
—John Moores, owner of the Padres and member of MLB's Executive Council

"I always thought Yogi Berra was the wisest source on baseball, but Zimbalist has hit a grand slam here."
—Tom Werner, owner of the Red Sox and former owner of the Padres

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College. An award-winning writer, media commentator, and consultant in the sports industry, Zimbalist has worked with players’ unions, cities, owners, and leagues.

From the Inside Flap

So what impact have Selig's thirteen years at the top had on the sport? How have his policies changed baseball, and how will they influence the future of the game? Few people are in a better position to answer these questions than sports economist, consultant, labor negotiator, award-winning author, and baseball fan Andrew Zimbalist. In this thoughtful, balanced, but hard-hitting critique of Selig's tenure, Zimbalist examines the commissioner's performance in every aspect of the job. Among the more controversial topics he probes into are:

• Conflicts of interest arising from Selig's original role as owner/commissioner
• Selig's response to the growing steroids scandal
• The commissioner's role in promoting and marketing the sport
• Player relations and the collective-bargaining agreement
• Major changes in the game made on Selig's watch
• Leadership—getting owners to think beyond their wallets for the good of the game
• Selig's growing compensation

Underlying this very public evaluation is a far more challenging question: given the legal, economic, and political architecture of Major League Baseball, can any commissioner act in the best interests of the game? Zimbalist examines the history of MLB, the pervasive effects of its 1922 antitrust exemption, and the ambiguous role of the commissioner's post since its inception in 1921. He compares Selig's performance to those of other commissioners and explains how and why Bud has functioned in a dramatically different fashion from his predecessors and thus has had a far greater impact on the sport.

Based on dozens of interviews with Selig, baseball COO Bob DuPuy, and scores of baseball insiders and interested outsiders, as well as mountains of historic baseball documents, In the Best Interests of Baseball? challenges everything you think you know about the game, the Major Leagues, the players, the owners, and, most of all, the man at the helm.

Reviews

Since 1992, Major League Baseball's owners have adopted a revenue sharing program, realigned their leagues, restructured the playoffs and put aside some of the bitter conflicts that hampered efforts to build a fan base and deal with a well-organized players union. Credit (or blame, depending) for these changes largely belongs to baseball commissioner Bud Selig. As Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College and a leading sports-business authority, argues persuasively, Selig's consensus-building leadership style and status as (now former) owner of the Milwaukee Brewers made it possible for him to drag the most hidebound of sports into the modern era. Zimbalist applies his considerable knowledge to explanations of financial issues that go underreported by mainstream media: the benefits and flaws in baseball's revenue sharing plan, the machinations behind several franchise sales, the hidden tax implications of some of baseball's business practices and some intriguing solutions to the money gap between large- and small-city teams. Zimbalist's treatment of Selig is even-handed, though he takes a harder line when discussing Zelig's conflicts of interest (in his dual role as team owner and commissioner) and describing the ways Selig used his power to help cronies and punish owners who failed to toe the line. Readers expecting a successor to Helyar's Lords of the Realm will be disappointed-Zimbalist is an economist, not a storyteller. Still, this book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the way the game has been run during an era of considerable upheaval.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

While this book's provocative title might lead the reader to believe that Bud Selig is the wrongheaded, compromised commissioner of Major League Baseball he often seems to be, author Zimbalist argues, not unconvincingly, that Selig's 14-year tenure has been spectacularly successful, if primarily on financial terms. Clearly, some of the success has been dumb luck--for example, the emergence of scintillating players like Barry Bonds, Ichiro, and Randy Johnson--but Zimbalist, a sports columnist and economics professor, also shows Selig to be a consummate diplomat among his fellow owners and an advocate for players (there have been no player strikes in baseball since 1994). Zimbalist also argues that Selig effectively metes out justice and stays open to ideas that spark fan interest, such as the wild-card races. In addition to analyzing Selig's performance, the text also places his reign in the context of the commissioners who preceded him. For those who follow the often-depressing business of baseball, this makes thought-provoking reading. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471735337
• ISBN 13: 9780471735335
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 250