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About Allan H. (Bud) Selig
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Allan H. (Bud) Selig
Commissioner of Major League Baseball |
Allan H. (Bud) Selig was named the ninth Commissioner of Baseball on July 9, 1998, by a unanimous vote of the 30 Major League Baseball club owners. Prior to his election as Baseball’s Commissioner, Selig served as Chairman of the Executive Council and was the central figure in Major League Baseball’s organizational structure dating back to September 1992.
Selig has led the way toward implementation of many of the game’s structural changes, including the Wild Card playoff format, Interleague Play, realignment, restoration of the rulebook strike zone, consolidation of the leagues’ administrative functions and limited instant replay.
In August 2002, Selig engineered an historic labor agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association that avoided a work stoppage for the first time in 30 years and included meaningful revenue sharing among the clubs. In October 2006, MLB and the MLBPA continued the unprecedented era of labor peace by reaching a new five-year collective bargaining agreement. By the end of the agreement, baseball will have gone at least 16 years without a strike or a lockout, the longest period of uninterrupted play since the inception of the collective bargaining relationship.
The significant changes to baseball’s economic system have helped the sport achieve competitive balance, made evident by many developments: nine different clubs winning the last 10 World Series; 11 different clubs occupying the 12 World Series berths from 2005-2010; 15 different clubs earning the 16 Postseason spots in the 2006-2007 seasons; 22 different clubs participating in the Postseason over the last five years; and 25 different clubs making the Postseason over the last 10 years. From 2000-2009, MLB produced eight different World Series Champions, which exceeds the comparable figures of the other major American professional sports during the decade, and 14 different Clubs earned the 20 available slots in the World Series in the 10 years, which is also unsurpassed among the results of the other leagues.
In November 2005, MLB and the MLBPA announced an historic agreement to fortify its drug testing policy, making it the most comprehensive in professional sports and highlighting Selig’s long-term efforts to try to rid the game of illegal steroids and other performance-enhancing substances. In July 2010, MLB became the first U.S. professional sports league to conduct blood testing for the detection of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) with the start of testing among Minor League players.
Selig has expanded the reach of the sport in numerous ways. Under his guidance in January 2000, MLB took the unprecedented step of centralizing all of the sport’s Internet rights under MLB Advanced Media. On January 1, 2009, MLB Network launched as the largest debut in cable television history. In 2006 and again in 2009, MLB and the MLBPA staged the World Baseball Classic, the most important international baseball event ever ventured, in which Major League players competed for their home countries for the first time.
Selig is guiding the game through a significant renaissance. Major League Baseball set its all-time regular season attendance record each year from 2004-2007, culminating in an all-time high of 79,503,175 fans in 2007. The 2008 season marked the second highest attendance total in history with more than 78.6 million fans. With more than 73 million fans again in 2009 and 2010, the last seven years represent the seven highest-attended seasons in baseball history. Revenues have increased more than five-fold, from $1.2 billion in 1992 to $7.0 billion in 2010.
In 2010, Selig received many significant honors for his philanthropy and corporate citizenship. In March, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which aids academically distinguished minority students, presented him its Lifetime Achievement Award. In May, the Taylor Hooton Foundation bestowed its inaugural Taylor’s Award to Selig for his impact on educating American youth on the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. In August, the Milwaukee Brewers unveiled a statue in Selig’s likeness outside Miller Park, honoring all of his efforts for his hometown and for his leadership of the Brewers and the game of baseball. In September, Stand Up To Cancer, dedicated to groundbreaking translational research in the fight against cancer, made its first Named Innovative Research Grant in honor of Allan H. Selig and his wife, Suzanne L. Selig, for spearheading MLB’s remarkable industry-wide support.
Selig is a major supporter of his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as Marquette University. The University of Wisconsin has named several need-based scholarships and a history department chair in Selig’s honor. Selig, who has taught at Marquette University Law School since 2009, was named to its adjunct faculty as distinguished lecturer in sports law and policy in 2010.
Bud and Sue have three daughters and five granddaughters.
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