So, the two major lowlights. Spain asked, I thought, a very well-worded question on the obvious need for instant replay: "With new additions to broadcasts like ESPN's 'K-zone' and countless video angles to track fair or foul balls these days, how can the league expect fans to accept calls that are proven to be wrong just moments later via replay?"

Czar Bud's "response":

Because look, baseball is a game of pace. You can't sit every inning, or every half-inning, or every three innings, waiting for calls to be made. As it is now, I worry about the pace of the game. So, anybody who thinks--look, I noticed Mike Scioscia the other day, who is a very bright guy and a person I have enormous respect for, said it very well as a manager, "I'm not interested in more replay." It's just wrong, all it does is--you can't have a pitcher standing on the mound, Sarah, every inning or two if there's a disputed call, for three or four minutes while they're out looking at this thing.... So the answer to your question is, yes, I understand every time there's a bad call it sets the media off but am I concerned enough to begin inserting the instant replay? No, absolutely not.

(click here to continue reading)

Straw men all over the place. To give an "answer" like this requires him to make the astounding assumptions that (a) replay can only be done by giving managers the power to dispute calls, which would be a terrible idea; (b) there will be a disputed call every inning or two, despite the fact that Selig says (in a middle portion not included above) that umps are right 98% of the time; and (c) any review will need to take 3 or 4 minutes. These are all stupidly wrong assumptions, and designed to shrug off a very complicated problem he apparently doesn't feel like addressing at all. And resting on the authority of Mike Scioscia, who thinks it's better to put the tying run on base than pitch to A-Rod? Not impressed.

As I've said before, I don't think there are any really convincing arguments against replay at this point. But there are arguments that can be made, if you try. Selig just isn't even trying.

Second, Spain asks him (not in so many words, but essentially) when he's going to get rid of that ridiculous All-Star-Game-decides-home-field thing. This answer is as ridiculous as they come:

We do a lot of polling and frankly, it's a huge, huge number of people in favor of it. Yes, there are some people against it, but I don't worry. Look, I've had to do the things I think are right. Attendance is at all-time highs, we're doing amazingly well, the only important thing to me is our fans like it.

First of all, can you defend it on its own merits? Nothing else about baseball is a democracy, so why this? What about it, apart from some nameless people apparently liking it, makes it a remotely good idea?

Second, show us those polls! I'm a little wary of this vague citation to private polling, because to me, this seems like the main unifying force in the game right now. Whether Pete Rose is a hero or a crook; whether you think A-Rod is a Hall of Famer or a cheat; whether or not you like interleague play or the wild card...no matter how you feel about any of those things, you hate Selig's terribly contrived and blatantly unsuccessful attempt at making the All-Star Game matter. I'm not aware of ever having seen or heard a single person other than Selig come out in favor of it. It's just kind of hard to imagine a "huge, huge number of people" having any strong opinions about the All-Star Game right now, since Selig's crazy mismanagement of it hasn't done anything to change the fact that many fans just don't bother watching it anymore. I would really like to know who these people are and what they're thinking.

But more than that, I'd like the man in charge of the best sport on earth to display some modicum of integrity and respectability. Rather than relying on undisclosed polls and the voices of faceless (and almost certainly non-existent) others, try to explain to us why you are thinking the way you do. If you're asked a good question, give us a good (or at least an actual) answer. And when you completely screw something up -- like you did with the All-Star Game -- fess up to it, be honest about it, and fix it.

Of course we know by now that Selig is incapable of doing or unwilling to do any of these things. At least he's gotta retire fairly soon, right?