Article: Bud Selig's Legacy in Minnesota: Contraction Threat

[Cody Christie]

Bud Selig is set to retire this off-season after 22 years at the helm of Major League Baseball. Rob Manfred has already been voted in as his successor, a position he has been groomed for ever since starting to work for MLB in 1998. The 55-year-old Manfred will have a variety of issues on his plate as he takes over from the 80-year- old Selig.

 

During Selig's tenure as commissioner, baseball has been marked by a variety of ups and downs.A large growth in attendance has increased revenue across the game. This has resulted in some large contracts for baseball's more established players. Besides the positives, there was also a World Series that was cancelled because of a strike and the performance enhancing drug scandal which impacted many parts of the baseball world.

 

For the Minnesota Twins, there have been some positive things that have happened under the Selig regime, even if they can't all be credited to him. The Twins were able to finance a new stadium and Target Field has turned out to be a gem. Increases in revenue allowed the Twins to pay Joe Mauer one of the largest contracts in baseball. The organization also got to host the last All-Star Game with Selig as commissioner.

 

However, the biggest story surrounding the Twins and Selig will always be the threat of contraction made following the 2001 season. Minnesota and Montreal were left on MLB's chopping block after Selig revealed that owners had voted 28-2 to eliminate two teams.

 

Twins owner Carl Pohlad was frustrated with Minnesota's state government for not being able to come up with a deal to replace the outdated Metrodome. Pohlad would have been paid $250 million to close out the franchise he purchased in 1984. There were a lot of things going wrong in the baseball world in the aftermath of September 11th.

 

In an interview with the Pioneer Press this summer, Selig said, "Contraction had nothing to do with Minnesota. Baseball was really struggling at the time, losing a fortune as a sport. There were owners who believed that contraction might help."

 

Luckily for Twins fan, contraction never happened. A Hennepin County judge ruled that the Twins had to honor their Metrodome lease for the 2002 season. The Twins took full advantage of their new life as they qualified for the playoffs for the first time since their 1991 World Series championship. The team won the AL Central Division three straight seasons and six of the next nine years.

 

Minnesota found itself back on the baseball map but not until after dealing with a situation that left more than one scar on the franchise. Selig did some good things for the Twins but his lasting memory will be the fact that he almost stole baseball away from a generation of fans in the Upper Midwest.

 

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[jharaldson]

Selig has a number of things that went wrong under him but the threatened contraction more on Carl Pohlad.  Selig went to the owners and asked for volunteers.  The Expos were a default choice.  Speculation was a Marlins team that wasn't taking hold in Florida despite winning was going to be the second team until Carl Pohlad raised his hand and volunteered to take baseball away from MN.  The real villain in the contraction story is Carl with Selig and Contraction just being a tool Pohlad used.  

[BobAzar]

 The real villain in the contraction story is Carl with Selig and Contraction just being a tool Pohlad used.  

 

Selig certainly is a tool. 

 

Seriously though, I agree with you. And Selig has done good things for the game (interleague play, 2 wildcards), but I will never forgive him for the contraction talks, even if Pohlad (who I will never forgive either) had more guilt in that.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Something always smelled funny to me about contraction. Especially coming right after it was believed (by me anyway) that the threat that the Twins were moving to North Carolina was mostly staged.

 

Selig ushered in many improvements to the play, but the NFL instant replay model is really a stinker so far.

[big dog]

Contraction threats are similar to blackmail/kidnapping.

 

Drug testing was too little, too late, too tentative.  Do it or don't do it, don't make it look like you are doing it when you effectively aren't.  Does it work now?  I doubt it, despite what they say.

 

I don't like interleague play but I'm sure many fans do, so that's a positive.

 

The wild card made sense, but the season going into November doesn't make sense.

 

Putting Milwaukee back in the NL only made sense if you felt you owed something to Milwaukee...such as if you were a former owner and a resident of the city.

 

Late-night World Series games benefit TV, as does everything else Selig did, and the owners and players, but not the fans.

 

Selig is a former owner, employed by the owners, and he made the owners rich. Job well done, I guess.  I'm sure the players are thrilled they have a chance to play for $20 million contracts instead of those piddly $5 million contracts.

 

As a fan, his overall performance has reduced my enjoyment of the game. 

[Monkeypaws]

At the time, contraction seemed a heavy handed attempt to make the Selig family owned Brewers the only team in the upper Midwest. Wouldn't that have been convenient? 

[Thrylos]

If I were to point fingers for the contraction, I would first point them to Pohlad and his employees who followed his direction and did not care about the product on the field, including Mr Ryan, before I point fingers at Selig.

 

And I don't care about Seilig.  At. All.  But you cannot talk about contraction and think that Ryan was innocent.

[snepp]

Provide proof that Ryan didn't care about the product on the field, or that he was complicit with contraction, please.

[biggentleben]

Provide proof that Ryan didn't care about the product on the field, or that he was complicit with contraction, please.

 

Proof?! We don't need no stinking proof! It's the internet!!

[DaveW]

Provide proof that Ryan didn't care about the product on the field, or that he was complicit with contraction, please.

I think it's a perfectly reasonable take, what hard working adult wouldn't want the company they spent years of their lives at to suddenly just fold and be out of a job!?!?

[snepp]

Still waiting for some elaboration on that proof.