Bud Selig's Reaction

Resurrecting baseball from the pits of sports hell after angering its fan base after the strike of 1994. A 2.8 billion dollar television contract signed in 2006. A league doing what the almighty NFL cannot in making its sport “matter” in Asia and Europe. Opening beautiful ballparks in many cities over the past seven years. Building attendance to the highest it has ever been for Major League Baseball.

All of the following are accomplishments achieved by Bud Selig during his current reign as commissioner of Major League Baseball. But while Selig served as commissioner of Major League baseball during the years in which all of these events occurred, he does not, will not, and should not receive credit for the healthy state in which baseball currently presides. And after seeing his reaction to a homerun hit on August 4th, it is apparent that he realizes this fact.

Tonight, with Selig looking on, Barry Bonds hit his 755th career home run tying Henry Aaron for the most homeruns of all time. With the camera focused on Selig at all times, one could not tell by the commissioner’s reaction whether or not Barry Bonds had just tied Aaron in the second inning. Selig seemed stupefied that the greatest homerun hitter had just hit a homerun. As he watched the ball sail over the wall and into the stands it hit Selig. He was struck with the harsh reality of what he had let happen under his watch.

With his home run in the bottom of the second inning against Clay Hensley, Bonds had drawn the final line in the asterix next to every players name in this era. Prolific power hitters such as Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield, and Barry Bonds are all thought, and justifiably so, to have used performance enhancing drugs. Power hitters such as Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard face constant doubt on the merits of their performance, and things will continue to be this way because of the influx of performance enhancing drugs over the last twenty years, forever tarnishing the game.

August 4th, 2007 was a night where the greatest home run hitter ever, at least statistically, was actually booed by fans when he tied the most sacred and well-known record in all of sports.

For all the money he has made Major League baseball, for all the improvements that have occurred under his watch, Bud Selig’s legacy will not be remembered for any of those things. He will forever be attached with the steroid era. Selig will undoubtedly be remembered one hundred years from now for being the commissioner who wanted so badly to save his sport that he ignored the illegal use of performance enhancing drugs in each one of his clubhouses for many years too long.
When Barry Bonds hits homerun 756 and passes Hank Aaron for the title of greatest homerun hitter ever, the last piece of dirt will be removed from Bud Selig’s grave. And in three years, when he chooses to retire, Bud Selig will take his eternal resting place next to Barry Bonds in baseball infamy. The tombstone will read: Here lies Bud Selig and Barry Bonds. Both had a hand in ruining the credibility of Major League Baseball.