|
| |
Major League Baseball
|
| |
2007
|
| |
http://mlbmlbcom/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/executivesjsp
|
| |
HTML
|
| |
2007-06-30
|
The current Commissioner is
Bud Selig , who has been in office since 1998 (was "Acting Commissioner" from 1992 to 1998).
The unique title ''Commissioner'', which is a title now applied to the heads of several other major sports leagues as well as baseball, derives from its predecessor office, the National Commission. The National Commission was the ruling body of professional baseball starting with the National Agreement of
1903 , which made peace between the
National League and the
American League (see
History Of Baseball In The United States ). It consisted of three members: the two League Presidents and a Commission Chairman, whose primary responsibility was to preside at meetings and presumably to mediate disputes.
The , team owners decided to reform the National Commission with a membership of non-baseball men. However, their pick for chairman, former federal judge
Kenesaw Mountain Landis , would only accept an appointment as sole commissioner. He also demanded unlimited authority over all aspects of organized baseball. The owners, still reeling from perceptions that the sport was crooked, agreed.
Landis ruled baseball with an iron hand for 24 years. For example, in response to fining
Babe Ruth $5,000, he is quoted as saying, "In this
{Link without Title} office he's just another ballplayer." Subsequent commissioners wielded varying degrees of power with varying degrees of success. An important aspect of the office is that, while charged with defending the "best interests of baseball", the commissioner was always elected by baseball team owners alone, and thus is not directly answerable to players, umpires, or fans. Still, there are a number of occasions on which the commissioner has made decisions unpopular with the owners to defend the "best interests of baseball," such as when
Bowie Kuhn invalidated a
1976 sale of high-profile players to the
Yankees .
The inherent tension, exacerbated by baseball's chronic labor conflicts with the
1992 . Selig, the longtime owner of the
Milwaukee Brewers was appointed chairman of baseball's Executive Council, making him the ''de facto'' acting commissioner.
Selig continued as acting commissioner until
1998 , when the owners made him commissioner in his own right. Having been an owner himself for 30 years, Selig is seen as much less of an independent authority than were previous commissioners. His ascent was soon followed by the disastrous
1994 Major League Baseball Strike , in which the intransigence of both players and owners led to the cancellation of the
World Series and widespread disillusionment among baseball fans. Selig's later administration has had many perceived successes, such as expansion and
Interleague Play , but many still see his lack of independence from the owners as a problem.
The most prominent issue currently faced by Major League Baseball is the usage of
Performance Enhancing Drugs by ballplayers, including
Anabolic Steroids , in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Addressing the issue of whether or not Selig should have taken alternate actions, former commissioner
Fay Vincent wrote in the
April 24 ,
2006 , issue of ''
Sports Illustrated '' that with most of Bonds' official troubles being off the field, and with the strength of the
Players' Union , there is little Selig can do beyond appointing an investigating committee. Vincent said that Selig is largely ''"an observer of a forum beyond his reach."''
