Bud Selig: we don’t need replay. Just look at our attendance!

[El Supremo]

Craig Calcaterra Jul 2, 2012, 5:15 PM EDT

Bud Selig spoke with the media this afternoon. John Shea reposted one of the Commissioner’s answers about expanding instant replay:

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.

We’ve heard Selig erroneously claim that no one wants instant replay a million times — of course people in the game want it or else they wouldn’t have included an explicit provision about it in the latest collective bargaining agreement — but this new twist is too much. Attendance shows that people are fine with instant replay? Really? As if increased attendance has anything to do with it?

It’s nonsensical, as there is no relation — or at least there should be no relation — between the public’s willingness to purchase tickets and the Commissioner’s decision to make technical improvements to the game. As a response to the specific question and as a piece of logic. it’s simply incoherent.

And now that I think about it, it’s less about an answer that makes no sense as much as it is an answer that gives away Selig’s hand: no single innovation that baseball truly takes seriously is about improving the game. It’s all about the bottom line. “Who cares if we can improve the product? People are still buying tickets!”

It’s a horribly complacent position to take. But hey, as long as a problem in the game doesn’t hurt revenue, who cares? As long as an improvement doesn’t increase revenue, why bother? That’s what Selig is saying here. Find me an example in American business history where such thinking didn’t lead an industry to ruin.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/02/bud-selig-we-dont-need-replay-just-look-at-our-attendance/

I hate instant replay, but Bud Selig is a stupid selfish jerk!

[joeybee12]

1. Calling Selig a stupid selfish jerk is like calling Dubya a bad boy...

WAY TOO KIND!!

[madinmaryland]

2. But you gotta remember this...

[El Supremo]

3. Sometimes I wonder if * would be a better commissioner.

Could he be worse than the used car salesman?

[MADem]

4. They should have given the job to George W. Bush years ago.

The country would have been saved from a HORRIBLE leader, and we'd get instant replay because Dubya has a problem paying attention.

GWB probably would have been a very avuncular and popular figure in that job.

I like instant replay. Screw tradition. I hate it when teams win because some fat guy on the sidelines wasn't paying attention, and I hate it when a team loses because some fat guy on the sidelines wasn't paying attention. You want to feel that the team you are rooting for EARNED the win.

I suspect the real deal here is that these jerks are afraid it will cut into their "hard" breaks for tv advertising. The fact of the matter is that it will give the league more opportunities to slide an ad in there--a quickie fifteen second one while they're making the call.

I say go for it...and reduce ticket prices too, while they're at it.

[Auggie]

5. Mittens just found his running mate

[El Supremo]

6. Unfortunately, Selig is a Democrat.

He doesn't even know what party represents his interests.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Selig must be a Republican spinmeister

He makes a simple statement and then follows it up with an irrelevant observation as if it were a supporting fact.