Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban had some strong words for MLB and Commissioner Bud Selig on Thursday's episode of NBC's "The Tonight Show," saying MLB team owners "don't want me to own" a franchise and Selig "does not want anybody to stand up to him." Host Jay Leno asked Cuban for his reaction to Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez' suspension for his ties to the Biogenesis clinic. Cuban said, "It's disgraceful what Major League Baseball is trying to do to him. It's not that he doesn't deserve to be suspended, he does. But they have policies in place: first-time offender 50 games, second time 100. Two hundred-fourteen games? That's personal." He added the penalty was "something totally outside the rules." Cuban said following the Rodriguez situation, there is "no chance I'm going to be able to buy a team." Cuban: "It's basically become Bud Selig's mafia. He runs it the way he wants to run it." Cuban was a bidder for the Rangers when they were being sold at auction in '10, and he said, "I sat in there with my good, hard-earned money trying to bid, and they did everything possible to keep me from buying the team. They had lawyers in there trying to change the rules, they had people trying to put up more money. It was horrible." Leno asked why MLB tried to prevent him from becoming an owner. Cuban replied, "It's not like he called me and said, 'You're a jerk.' I don't know. The way I run the Mavericks is I try to do what's best for the fans, I try to do what's best for the team, I try to do what's best for the league. If I disagree with the commissioner every now and then, I'm not going to back down. Obviously, Bud Selig does not like to be tested. He does not want anybody to stand up to him." Cuban later added of Rodriguez' suspension, "This is more about Bud Selig trying to flex his muscles and say, 'Look, if you don't kiss the ring I'm going to take care of you and kick you out of Major League Baseball,' and I think that's wrong" ("The Tonight Show," NBC, 8/8).
