New MLB President & COO Paul Beeston was part of a
media conference call yesterday with Acting Commissioner Bud
Selig. Excerpts from the call:
Beeston, on his immediate agenda: "What I want to do is
get everybody pulling together. I want to put an
organization together that really is working toward the
betterment of the game, that communicates well, and then I
think you can start looking at things from there."
Selig, on the distinction between the COO and the
Commissioner: "He reports only to the commissioner, in this
particular case to me, and that's not going to change in the
future. He's in charge of the day-to-day operations. This
is something that companies have [and] the other sports
have. This is the kind of structure frankly that I've
viewed about for a long time, but the critical part is
finding the right person. ... The commissioner will be the
CEO and will deal obviously with discipline, with more
global issues, with a lot of other things, but the day-to-
day running of the office will be with Mr. Beeston."
Beeston, on uncertainty over who the commissioner will
be: "I know that I'm reporting right now to Bud and I'm
reporting to the Executive Council. ... I won't deny the
fact that I would be thrilled if Buddy [Selig] would take
the job. If he doesn't then we'll cross that bridge when we
get to it" (THE DAILY).
