Larry Brown Sports

The number of African-American players on Major League Baseball opening day rosters this season was historically low. Only 7.7% of the players on all 30 MLB rosters are African-American, which is the lowest percentage since the Boston Red Sox became the final team to integrate their roster in 1959. Bud Selig is hoping to change that in the near future.

According to USA Today Sports, Selig is expected to announce the creation of a formal task force this week that will aim to reverse the decline in African-American ballplayers across the league. The project will reportedly consist of a 17-member committee that includes owners, executives and coaches. It is expected to include Hall of Famer Frank Robinson and Chicago White Sox vice president Kenny Williams, among others.

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan said he believes the low number of African-American stars in the MLB today has resulted in a lack of role models for young African-American players.

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We knew that Jose Canseco had plenty of time on his hands, but who knew he was a budding artist?

Canseco tweeted a picture Tuesday of the photo you see above. He says it is a picture of MLB commissioner Bud Selig that he painted himself. Though we can’t be certain exactly what Canseco was trying to depict, it looks like he made Selig into a fire-breathing dragon, or a T-Rex whose tongue is bleeding.

Canseco despises Selig and has long claimed that MLB blackballed him from the game, which explains the negative (and hilarious) portrayal of the commissioner.

In typical Canseco fashion, he’s soliciting buyers over Twitter for the painting.

Hey, if you don’t purchase it for the art work, at least you can get it for the autograph on the left side.

Photo credit: Twitter/Jose Canseco

Bud Selig would like to see some changes in his game in 2013, one of which I imagine will be well-received while the other will result in him being called a Scrooge. For starters, Selig wants expanded instant replay. He made that clear during a recent Q & A with Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

“I think we’ll have it for sure,” he said when asked about instant replay. “They’re working on cameras in all the ballparks. We need the right cameras. Should we have them by next year? We’d better.”

If the man in charge says we are probably going to see instant replay next season, it’s probably safe to assume it’s coming. What makes Selig’s comments particularly interesting is that it was only a few months ago that he said baseball didn’t need expanded replay because attendance numbers were fine. Perhaps he now realizes that was a dumb thing to say, or maybe he knows horrible calls like this one shouldn’t be affecting the outcome of playoff games.

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Typically there are two schools of thought regarding expanded replay in baseball. One one side, you have people like the LBS crew who believe Major League Baseball needs to take advantage of the available technology to prevent horrible calls like this one from affecting the outcome of games or rewriting the history books. On the other side, you have people like Jim Leyland who cherish the all-important human element of the game and are against replay.

Then, there’s Bud Selig. Here is what the commissioner had to say about expanded instant replay on Monday according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle:

“People in our sport don’t want any more. Given our attendance and everything we’re doing, we’re in the right place with instant replay.”

That statement is absurd on so many levels. For starters, how do the attendance numbers have anything to do with whether or not the game needs instant replay? Attendance is up across baseball this season, but are we supposed to believe that spike is due in part to the fact that the “human element” is still fully intact? In addition, a rule change in the game shouldn’t have anything to do with attendance. Selig is basically saying that whether the lack of replay is wrong or not, enough people are still coming to games so it doesn’t matter.

We know Selig is an old timer who wants nothing to do with instant replay, but this is officially the worst line of reasoning we’ve ever heard on the topic. If a bridge is unsafe but plenty of people still drive across it, I suppose the bridge doesn’t need to be repaired.

H/T Hardball Talk
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

MLB commissioner Bud Selig finally determined something Wednesday he should have known seven years ago: Frank McCourt is not a suitable owner and operator of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The stunning announcement was made that MLB would take over the business and day-to-day operations of the historic franchise and appoint a trustee to run things.

Here is the official statement from Bud Selig:

“Pursuant to my authority as Commissioner, I informed Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt today that I will appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the Club. I have taken this action because of my deep concerns regarding the finances and operations of the Dodgers and to protect the best interests of the Club, its great fans and all of Major League Baseball. My office will continue its thorough investigation into the operations and finances of the Dodgers and related entities during the period of Mr. McCourt’s ownership. I will announce the name of my representative in the next several days. The Dodgers have been one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, and we owe it to their legion of loyal fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future.”

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Commissioner Bud Selig was on hand for the opening of Target Field in Minnesota Monday where the Twins hosted the Red Sox. He spent some time in ESPN’s broadcast booth to talk about many of the issues facing the game. Selig discussed the League’s drug testing policy, MLB’s efforts to get more African-Americans playing the game, the plight of small market teams, and the issue of playing the World Series in November, amongst others. I could do a separate post on each issue in baseball but I’ll stick to the possibility of MLB expanding the playoffs for this one. Here’s how the conversation went between play-by-play man Dan Schulman and commissioner Bud Selig in the bottom of the second inning:

Schulman: “Do you see any change in the playoff format? Do you ever see another Wild Card team?”

Selig: “Well, I remember all the abuse I took about the Wild Card to begin with and now everybody wants more. I would like to see more. You know we only have eight out of 30 — the least number of any sport — we have the most direct playoff system. It’s something we’re going to consider. In some ways I like it, in some ways I don’t. It’s very attractive.”

Mr. Selig, for all the complaints I have about baseball (the W.S. ending in November, the strong correlation between high payroll and long-term success, instant replay), the playoffs is where baseball has it almost perfect. I am a champion and proponent of systems that highly reward strong play during the regular season as MLB’s currently does. Four teams out of 16 in each league works perfectly for me. Just having the Wild Card in addition to division races means many teams are still involved in a playoff race the entire season and that keeps fan excitement up. The only playoff change I would want is expanding the Divisional Series to best of seven, not five. I hope that will be addressed in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. But please, please, please don’t expand the amount of Wild Cards — the playoff system is excellent as is.

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Outside of the brilliant pitching of Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia (add Rivera to the list?), the biggest topic of the MLB postseason has been the horrendous umpiring. Things started with Phil Cuzzi’s blown call on a Joe Mauer leadoff double against the Yankees in the ALDS. Then C.B. Bucknor blew a few calls in favor of the Angels against the Red Sox at first base in the ALDS. After that, the umps blew about three calls in Game 4 of the ALCS between the Yankees and Angels. Considering the egregious nature of these calls and the indisputable evidence from the instant replay we saw on TV, you figure the logical step would be to allow the umpires the opportunity to review their call when they make such a bad **** up. But not under Chief Selig’s watch:

“I’ve talked to a lot baseball people about this recently — that includes on the field and executives,” said Selig, explaining his position at length. “Believe me, they have a lot of trepidation about expanding it. [Angels manager] Mike Scioscia put it very well: The umpires get it right 99 percent of the time.

“Times change, but I’m still in favor of keeping the human element as a part of it, and I’m also very concerned about pace. I think there are other ways we can make corrections. During the offseason we’ll review everything. I’ve made my position clear, and by the way, I think it’s the position of most people in baseball. You have to be very careful when you tamper with a sport.”

Dude, we’re not saying get rid of the human element and have pitch tracker call balls and strikes, we’re just saying take the freaking five minutes to let the umpires see how badly they effed up with the Joe Mauer call or when Mike Napoli tagged out both Yankees at third base. That would go a long way towards preserving the purity of the game. Wait a sec, did I say purity? This is Selig we’re talking about. Why would I expect anything different? Still, MLB has to do something to correct this issue.