I’m giving the award to Commissioner Bud Selig this week, and I’m sure it won’t be his last, in fact I’m thinking about giving it to him by default when there are no other good nominations. I dislike him that much. He see’s “no reason” why he should take Charlie Hustle off the banned listed allowing him into the Hall of Fame, where he should belong. He unbanned Mr. Steinbrenner for hiring a P.I. to dig up dirt on a player so he could get rid of him. That’s a big reason why I have a sour taste in my mouth towards him. Yes, he helped the World Baseball Classic become a reality. He’s also really not done a whole lot in the fight against steroids. If I were him, I would make it mandatory at the beginning of the season that EVERY player take a drug test in order for them to make the 25 man rosters. Then during the season subject players to random tests, but hey I’m not the commissioner so I don’t know anything.

For those of you that don’t know there was a package offered by satellite and cable companies over the past years called “MLB Extra Innings”. It allowed people to view the out of market games of their favorite teams. Let’s say I’m a Orioles fan. Obviously, with me living in Cedar Rapids, not many Oriole games will be broadcast through my local cable company, minus a few that are shown on ESPN. Luckily, I’m a Cubs fan living in the Midwest, so their games, when they aren’t on Comcast Sports or WGN; they are usually the selected game on ESPN or FOX. Also my local cable company will pickup the second Comcast Sports game on one of their local stations, because at times the Cubs and White Sox will have both games broadcasted on Comcast Sports.

Now I know how basic business works, and I understand not everybody is going to be pleased by the deal, but you have to try to please as many folks as they can. It’s a win, win for MLB because they have their $700 million deal with DirecTV. What ever people were affected by the deal, they can subscribe to mlb.tv and watch their games over the net. While a lot of people have internet, not everybody can get High Speed Internet to watch these games. I don’t like how the package is only offered by one company, as it becomes a true Monopoly. Sure, the DirecTV has the largest number of subscribers, but I still think it’s bad moral business on MLB’s Part.

The other thing that gets me is this quote Selig said:

“Obviously our objective is to get our product in front of as many people as possible. … But the number of people who can’t get DirecTV is very, very small.”

This really gets me because for a few reasons. Just because people, myself included, have access to switching over to DirecTV, doesn’t mean they all will. To be satellite isn’t that great of a deal because you’re under a binding contract when you subscribe to their service. Also, you have to deal with weather, natural location and other things that could possibly make you lose your service momentarily. Satellite prices can get more expensive, and quicker than cable TV. You have to pay extra to get your local stations as well.

David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, was very critical of Congress as they were criticizing MLB’s deal with DirecTV. He was quoted in a very sarcastic comment saying “As a taxpayer, I think the most important thing the Senate should be doing is holding hearings on Bud’s DirecTV package. I don’t care about health care or … the war in Iraq.” Part of this is true, but they need to be cognizant towards other business actions in their own country to make sure everything affecting the whole nations is fair towards everybody. This is referring to the Checks and Balances. They also need to keep a close tab on the steroids issue in baseball today. Congress is doing a fine job I think with baseball. I was thoroughly impressed with the steroids hearings last year, while they were grilling the former and current superstars of baseball.

I didn’t have the time to put on the annual crown on Selig this week, but hopefully I can add the image later this week if I have time to do so.