In a prepared statement, acting MLB Commissioner Bud Selig
said he had been aware of Anheuser-Busch's decision to sell the
Cardinals and Busch Stadium "for some time." Selig acknowledged
that A-B had been a "sensational" owner for over 40 years, but
added that he understood the "rationale behind this decision"
(BOSTON GLOBE, 10/26). USA TODAY quotes Selig as saying, "This
has nothing to do with the problems baseball is having" (Hal
Bodley, USA TODAY, 10/26).
NATIONAL REAX: USA TODAY's Tom Weir asks, "What does it say
about the state of baseball that, in the middle of a World
Series, Anheuser-Busch's taste for the game has gone flat?" (USA
TODAY, 10/26). PaineWebber's Emanuel Goldman said the moves make
little difference to A-B's primary business: "They were a beer
company before, they're a beer company now." The WALL STREET
JOURNAL's John Helyar notes that A-B's purchase of the Cards
"marked the beginning of a sports-marketing blitz that took the
company from a weak second in the American brewing industry to
the king of beers" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/26). In Baltimore,
Jon Morgan notes the sale would mean the end to "brewery-owned
teams" (Baltimore SUN, 10/26). In Philadelphia, Mike Sokolove
writes, "Just when things seemed to be looking up for baseball,
Anheuser-Busch dropped a stink bomb" (PHILA. INQUIRER, 10/26).
New York headline: "THIS DUD'S FOR SALE" (N.Y. POST, 10/26).
St. Louis native Bob Costas: "In the modern economics of
baseball, if you don't derive the emotional benefits of it, it's
just not worth it" (Tom Weir, USA TODAY, 10/26). CNN's
"Moneyline" noted the team "had been a big drag" on A-B's bottom
line (CNN, 10/25).
