SELIG SUCCESSOR LOOMS ON HORIZON
By Murray Chass
August 7, 2014
Twenty or so years ago, the question arose in two different stages: Who will be the next baseball commissioner? Major League Baseball twice had a search committee purportedly looking for a commissioner to replace Fay Vincent, but it never came up with a candidate or candidates whom it could present to the owners for a vote.
No finalists surfaced, but not for a lack of trying. There were no finalists because the interim, or acting, commissioner, both of which labels he denied holding, wanted no finalists. Bud Selig wanted the job for himself, and anyone who had designs on it would be wise to keep those thoughts and desires to himself.
Now, finally, the question can be answered, at least it can be after the owners meeting in Baltimore next Thursday (Aug. 14). If one of the candidates gets 23 votes he will be the answer to the question. If no one gets 23 votes – a three-fourths majority – the owners will …
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WRITERS’ VERSION OF FANTASY BASEBALL
By Murray Chass
July 31, 2014
As I write this, only 24 hours remain before we reach the non-waiver trading deadline. The clock can’t go quickly enough as far as I’m concerned.
In my view, this is one of the three worst times of the baseball year. The others are the general managers meetings in November and the winter meetings in December. All three times give my colleagues in the field of baseball writing license to indulge in creative writing rather than in legitimate reporting.
The two sets of meetings probably bring out the worst in writers. The weeks leading to the trading deadline are bad but not as bad as the creative fiction writers inflict on their readers from the two sets of meetings. …
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LA RUSSA LAPSE OF GOOD JUDGMENT
By Murray Chass
July 27, 2014
What people have been saying (not all of it intelligently):
On the eve of Hall of Fame weekend, one inductee used his new status to comment on the status of steroids-tainted candidates. In my opinion, Tony La Russa would have been wiser to keep his thoughts to himself.
“Treat them all the same,” La Russa said in an interview in Cooperstown with Willie Weinbaum of ESPN, speaking of players suspected of having used performance-enhancing substances.
“If you were a Hall of Famer during that period as far as your pitching and playing, I would …
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