MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is interviewed in the
current issue of USA TODAY BASEBALL WEEKLY. Selig, on how
the effort to give the commissioner's position increased
authority came about: "Larry Lucchino of the Padres was
really the first person that addressed it. ... Then, in our
last meeting, I put it on the agenda at my 3:30 Wednesday
meeting. It was over at 3:40. And the vote was 30-0. It
was remarkable." Meanwhile, Selig's longtime barber Sal
LoCoCo said that Selig visits his business every Friday for
a haircut: "We try to fix him up the best we can. His hair
looks like a million bucks when he leaves here. We clean up
his neck, his schnozz, his eyebrows, and he's ready to go.
That's what I don't understand. When he's on TV, he looks
awful" (USA TODAY BASEBALL WEEKLY, 2/9 issue).
OTHER NOTES: The NATIONAL POST's Paul Waldie reports
that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "could soon be rubbing
shoulders with politicians in Ottawa again," as he was
recently re-registered as a federal lobbyist (NATIONAL POST,
2/11)....HI will pay the NFL $19.75M to keep the Pro Bowl
four more years. The deal also includes "a promise to
install natural grass" at Aloha Stadium by 2002 (USA TODAY,
2/11)....Broncos OL Tony Jones, on the image of the NFL:
"We're to the point now where the image of the league is
about to be killed. I think the NFL needs to get ahold of
how these young guys are carrying themselves" (ROCKY
MOUNTAIN NEWS, 2/10). CBS SportsLine's Len Pasquarelli
wrote on "entourages" that accompany NFL players these days.
Pasquarelli: "Several team officials surveyed by SportsLine
attribute the increase in player entourages to the
popularity of hip-hop music with younger players and the
recent emergence of entertainment moguls into the sports
representation fraternity" (CBS SportsLine, 2/10). Univ. of
CA-Berkley Professor Harry Edwards, on some factors
contributing to athletes committing crimes: "Even the agency
has changed. More and more agents are not just negotiating
football contracts. They're negotiating football contracts,
video contracts, shoe deals, movie, rap music deals and
everything else ("The Last Word," FSN, 2/10).
