Monday, October 6, 2008

All Hail Bud!

Bud Selig gets a standing O for throwing out the first pitch yesterday:
Already on its feet for the national anthem, the sellout crowd at Miller Park gave Selig a raucous ovation — complete with clattering Thunder Stix — as he walked onto the field. Selig stopped a few feet in front of the mound, and overhanded a respectable throw over the plate to backup catcher Mike Rivera. Selig thrust his arms into the air and grinned as fans applauded and whistled in appreciation. He high-fived Attanasio before disappearing into the Brewers' dugout.
I suppose a small handful of the folks on hand remembered how hard Selig worked it just to get Milwaukee that team back in the day, and from their point of view he no doubt deserves that ovation.

As for the rest of them? I can only assume that the gates to the stadium and the beer taps inside opened at 8AM and that they were all suffering from that irrational euphoria that only alcohol can bring. Under those circumstances, cheering loudly for Bud Selig is not unlike pounding one's fist and doing the air guitar solo to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" after downing a half dozen Miller Lites in a suburban strip mall night club.

4 comments:

Eric Toms said...

Boo Craig!

Ok, you give Bud credit for bringing baseball back to Milwaukee. If you're a Brewers fan you should also applaud him for getting Miller Park constructed. ( I'm philosophically opposed to publicly funded stadiums but I'm also a hypocrite because I supported the publicly funded construction of our local baseball stadium which may soon be demolished but I digress ).

As for you and Bud's many, many detractors, you should like him because:

1. Labor Peace. NOTHING is more important. What's worse than NO BASEBALL!!! Bud unified the owners and grew revenues to such obscene amounts that there was no way the players would strike. THIS IS GOOD AND HE SHOULD GET FULL MARKS!

2. Better ballparks. Yeah the new ballparks are cash cows and taxpayer rip offs but are they not also better places to watch ball than the multi purpose monsters that they replaced? I've not been to one but I think they're a LOT better for the fans, no? Is Jacobs Field not a better place to watch baseball than Municipal Stadium? Bud deserves a lot of credit for helping get many of these built.

Who gives a crap that an All Star Game ended tied. It's a friggin exhibition game that I don't even watch. The chattering classes used to complain about steroids but attendance has never been better. ( ok, you can split hairs, MLB did not set a 5th ( 6th? ) consecutive attendance record but you get my point ).

If he has done such a crap job, why has baseball never been more popular than under his regime? ( And I don't buy the revisionist BS that the Golden Age has passed. There were a LOT of empty seats for a LOT of years. )

XXOOOO. ( I still love you ).

Craig Calcaterra said...

Pete -- don't get me wrong. I appreciate an awful lot about Bud, including many of the things you mentioned.

That said, there is a big difference between that which is worthy of polite applause and restrained admiration, and that which is worthy of a full-blown standing O.

tHeMARksMiTh said...

Craig, are you speaking from experience here?

Craig Calcaterra said...

That was probably not the best choice of words I've ever made.