When I heard that Braves President John Schuerholz was going to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I thought no big deal. He helped architect one of the most successful and popular teams of the 1990s and 2000s. No big deal.
And then I heard Bud Selig, former MLB Commissioner, was going to the Hall of Fame. And I again thought “no big deal,” a former league executive who helped expand the game.
And then the comments came in on Twitter and I really started to think: “Does Bud Selig’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame mean that PED users of the 1990s and 2000s should be in too?”
John Schuerholz, Bud Selig's differing Hall of Fame paths (by @jay_jaffe) https://t.co/5I7LgotpyJ pic.twitter.com/r53NVbKkIc
— SI MLB (@si_mlb) December 5, 2016
Let’s examine the good of Bud Selig, taken directly from this article:
Still, over a two-decade span Selig brought about tremendous change, starting with realignment into three divisions in each league with the addition of the wild card and a three-tiered playoff system (not fully implemented until 1995), revenue sharing between wealthier and poorer teams (1996), interleague play (1997), creation of the collectively owned MLB Advanced Media to allow distribution of audio and video over the internet (2000), the competitive balance tax (2003), the inauguration of the international World Baseball Classic tournament (2006), and the introduction of instant replay (boundary calls for 2009, with bigger changes instituted in 2014). Against that backdrop, he oversaw a building boom that resulted in new ballparks for 22 teams during his tenure—with taxpayers footing the largest share of the bill and owners reaping nearly all of the financial benefits. Indeed, such were the gains that baseball expanded from a $1.2 billion industry in 1992 to a $9 billion one in 2014, with franchise values skyrocketing.
No doubt the game saw massive gains under his leadership, but with him supposedly turning a blind eye to steroids in the game, isn’t it a bit hypocritical to keep all the steroid users out?
Maybe. I’m really having trouble with this one. Bud Selig didn’t use steroids. He didn’t give steroids to players, but he may have known what was going on — and he reaped the financial benefits of it. Doesn’t that make him somewhat of an accomplice? Throw in canceling the 1994 World Series and relocating the Expos to DC, does he enough stains on his resume to make him out of the Hall of Fame too?
Or does his inclusion in the Hall of Fame mean that the steroid users of the 1990s/2000s should be in too?
