Bud Selig: A lifetime in baseball

Bud Selig’s half-century in baseball spanned everything from being a fan in Milwaukee buying stock in the Braves, to owning the Brewers, to holding the game’s top office for 22 years. Photo by: SCOTT PAULUS / MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL

1934
■ Allan H. “Bud” Selig is born July 30 in Milwaukee.

1956
■ Selig earns a bachelor’s degree in American history and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Selig meets with the press about the move of the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee in 1970. Photo by: AP IMAGES

1970
■ Selig leads a group that buys the Seattle Pilots out of bankruptcy to become the Milwaukee Brewers.

1981
■ In a season shortened by a players strike, the Brewers make their first postseason appearance, losing to the New York Yankees in the opening round.

1982
■ The Brewers appear in the World Series, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Milwaukee beat the California Angels to win the American League championship.

Selig watches a Brewers game on Sept. 9, 1992, the day he was named chairman of MLB’s executive council. Photo by: AP IMAGES

1992
■ On Sept. 9, two days after leading a movement to oust Commissioner Fay Vincent, Selig is named chairman of MLB’s executive council, making him acting commissioner.

1994
■ Selig oversees realignment into three divisions for each league. One wild-card team from each league is added to the playoff format. The strike by players cancels the end of the 1994 season, so the new wild-card system is not implemented until the following year.

■ On July 12, Selig’s first media deal begins when The Baseball Network kicks off its coverage with the All-Star Game from Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium. The game is televised on NBC. The Baseball Network is a joint venture between ABC, NBC and MLB, in which the league produces its own in-house telecasts of games, which are then brokered to air on ABC and NBC.

■ Players go on strike on Aug. 12, forcing Selig to cancel the rest of the season and the World Series.

1995
■ As replacement players take the field in spring training, the National Labor Relations Board cites the owners for unfair labor practices and files for an injunction to return the players to work under terms of the expired collective-bargaining agreement. Eventual Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issues a preliminary injunction against the owners and the strike ends three days later. The 232-day ordeal remains the longest player strike in U.S. sports history.

■ Baseball’s owners in May end their 120-day lockout of the umpires union, reaching a five-year agreement that enables the regular umpires to return to work with raises ranging from 25 percent to 37.5 percent.

■ Selig tells the Los Angeles Times that the topic of steroid use was addressed in an owners meeting a year or 18 months prior. “If baseball has a problem, I must say candidly that we are not aware of it. It certainly hasn’t been talked about much. But should we concern ourselves as an industry? I don’t know. Maybe it’s time to bring it up again.”

■ Selig’s expansion committee recommends expanding by four teams. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Phoenix, Orlando and two separate groups from Northern Virginia are the finalists, pledging expansion fees estimated at $125 million to $140 million.

1996
■ The first regular-season MLB games are played outside of the United States and Canada, as the New York Mets and San Diego Padres play a three-game series in Monterrey, Mexico.

■ MLB opens an office in London.

1997
■ Still majority owner of the team at the time, Selig moves the Milwaukee Brewers from the American League to the National League.

1998
■ Arizona and Tampa Bay begin play as the 29th and 30th MLB teams.

In his Milwaukee office in 1998, Selig ponders a question on the day he accepted the job as commissioner. Photo by: AP IMAGES

■ After serving as interim commissioner for six years, Selig is elected the ninth commissioner of Major League Baseball on July 9 by a unanimous vote of the 30 MLB club owners. Selig transfers his ownership stake in the Brewers to a blind trust, and his daughter Wendy becomes president and CEO of the team.

■ MLB opens an office in Australia.

1999
■ Longtime umpire Richie Phillips becomes general counsel and executive director of the Major League Umpires Association and advocates a strategy of mass resignations. Selig shocks the umpires by accepting most of the resignations, terminating their employment and promoting replacement umpires from the minor leagues. The umpires, led by John Hirschbeck, vote to decertify the union, and replace it with the World Umpires Association.

■ Fidel Castro, Selig and Peter Angelos attend a Baltimore Orioles-Cuban National Team exhibition game in Cuba. Jose Contreras, the ace of the Cuban pitching staff, dominates the game and would defect to the U.S. three years later.

■ Following the 1999 season, the American and National leagues are merged with MLB, and the leagues cease to exist as business entities. The positions of the league presidencies, held by Gene Budig (American League) and Leonard Coleman (National League), are abolished.

2000
■ MLB opens an office in the Dominican Republic.

2001
■ Owners vote to approve contraction, widely reported to be the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins. On Dec. 6, Selig tells the House Judiciary Committee that MLB lost more than $500 million in 2001 alone. The players union disputes the figures, as well as the need for contraction.

■ Owners vote unanimously to extend Selig’s contract through 2006.

2002
■ Owners approve Selig’s three-team swap in which then-Expos owner Jeffrey Loria sells the team to the new MLB-owned Expos Baseball LP for $120 million. Loria then buys the Florida Marlins from John Henry for $158.5 million, with MLB lending Loria the $38.5 million difference. Henry subsequently becomes controlling owner of the group that buys the Boston Red Sox for $700 million.

■ Selig asks the players union to accept a luxury tax that would slow the increase of salaries. He also proposes that teams vastly increase the amount of local revenue they share.

■ In August, the league and MLBPA reach a new collective-bargaining agreement. The agreement, effective starting with the 2003 season, includes increased revenue sharing, a tax on high payrolls, tighter debt rules and, for the first time, testing for performance-enhancing drugs. It guarantees that no team will be eliminated by contraction through 2006.

2003
■ MLB and the players union report that 5 to 7 percent of players tested positive for steroids in random testing during the year. As a result, more random testing will occur in 2004, with a second positive test resulting in a 15-day suspension.

The Expos’ move to D.C. was the only relocation during Selig’s reign. Photo by:

■ Selig tells a group of sports editors that he will not seek a new term when his contract expires Dec. 31, 2006. “When I took the job, I told my wife I’d do it for two to three months, and it has turned into 14 years. There are some other things I want to do.”

2004
■ MLB opens an office in Japan.

■ Selig says he will not retire in 2006 as planned and will retire instead after a new three-year term ends in 2009.

■ Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president of business, briefs owners on the league’s TV deals, talks that include a proposed MLB channel.

■ On the day of Montreal’s last home game of the season, MLB announces that the Expos will relocate to Washington, D.C.

2005
■ The Selig family sells the Brewers to Mark Attanasio for a reported $223 million.

With future commissioner Rob Manfred at his side, Selig testifies at the House Committee session on steroid use in 2005. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

■ Selig, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro are among those testifying before the House Committee on Government Reform, which is examining steroid use in baseball. When asked about whether he used steroids, McGwire repeatedly says he’s “not here to talk about the past.” Palmeiro, pointing a finger for emphasis, says “I have never used steroids. Period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that.” Later that year, Palmeiro tests positive for steroids.

■ MLB players and owners reach a new drug-testing agreement calling for more banned substances and a 10-day penalty for first-time offenders. By the end of the year, players and owners agree to Selig’s suggested plan to suspend first-time steroid offenders for 50 games, a 100-game ban for second offenders and a lifetime ban for a third violation. The policy also provides for more frequent tests for amphetamines and shifts administration of testing to an independent person.

Japan and Cuba meet in the championship game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

2006
■ The first World Baseball Classic is played. Two subsequent tournaments have been staged, with a total of 18 countries participating.

■ Selig announces that George Mitchell, the former U.S. Senate majority leader, will lead an investigation into performance-enhancing drug use in baseball. The move comes after “Game of Shadows,” a book by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is released, detailing Barry Bonds’ alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

■ Selig selects a group led by Washington, D.C.-based real estate developer Ted Lerner as the new owner of the Washington Nationals. The purchase price is $450 million.

2007
■ Mitchell releases a report indicating widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs in MLB. Among the names tarnished were those of Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Andy Pettitte and Eric Gagne.

2008
■ MLB opens an office in China.

■ Selig accepts a three-year extension that carries him past his supposed retirement date of the end of 2009. “This is clearly it. I can say this without equivocation.”

2009
■ With Selig calling it the “ultimate television destination for baseball,” MLB Network goes on the air with an estimated reach of 50 million households.

■ MLB launches the Australian Baseball League.

■ Umpires reach a five-year labor agreement, which reportedly is the largest such contract in the history of MLB. The contract runs through December 2014.

■ Selig begins teaching at the Marquette University Law School. A year later, he’s named to its adjunct faculty as a distinguished lecturer in sports law and policy.

2010
■ Selig accepts an extension through the 2014 season.

■ A statue of Selig is unveiled outside of Miller Park in Milwaukee.

2013
■ The Houston Astros move from the National League to the American League.

■ Selig formally declares his plans to retire when his current contract ends on Jan. 24, 2015.

2014
■ In his final labor negotiation before retiring, Selig approves a five-year umpire deal just days before the existing agreement is set to expire.

Selig, who began teaching at the Marquette University Law School in 2009, visits the Brewers’ offices with his University of Wisconsin students in 2015. Photo by: COURTESY OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

■ The Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers play MLB’s Opening Series at Australia’s historic Sydney Cricket Ground. MLB has previously opened seasons in Monterrey, Mexico (1999); Tokyo (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012); and San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001).

2015
■ Selig retires as MLB commissioner at the age of 80.

■ The Bud Selig Experience, a multimedia state-of-the-art attraction to honor MLB’s commissioner emeritus, debuts at Miller Park.

■ Selig begins teaching in the history department at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2016
■ Selig adds Arizona State’s law school to his list of teaching gigs, where he also is founding president of an advisory board to the school’s sports law and business program. He also spearheads an initiative to bring in speakers as part of the Bud Selig Speaker Series on Sports in America.

Source: SportsBusiness Journal research