Baseball owners to vote on Selig’s successor

BALTIMORE — Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is looking forward to writing a book, teaching history and taking it easy when he retires this winter.

Before that happens, however, he hopes to introduce his successor — perhaps as soon as Thursday.

Baseball’s 30 owners meet in Baltimore this week to vote on Selig’s replacement. A seven-man committee whittled down an expansive list to three candidates: MLB Chief Operating Officer Rob Manfred, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner and MLB Executive Vice President of Business Tim Brosnan.

“The process has worked just the way I thought it would,” Selig said Tuesday at the Orioles’ home ballpark. “I gave them a great list of names, and these names were on it.”

To win Thursday’s vote, a candidate must receive approval from at least 23 owners.

“A lot of other people are making predictions,” Selig said. “I’m staying out of that business because I don’t know.”

Asked what would happen if there is an impasse, Selig replied, “This seven-man committee has done really good work. We’ll see what happens.”

This is what won’t happen: Selig changing his mind and sticking around.

“I thought long and hard before I made my announcement in October of last year,” he said of the announcement, actually made Sept. 26. “I just celebrated my 80th birthday. In life, there’s a time to come but there’s also a time to go. I’m looking forward to that. I have a lot of things planned.”

Those plans include writing an autobiography, teaching at two or three universities and “maybe a little peace and quiet.”

“It’s time for baseball to move on and it’s time for me to move on,” he said. “If anybody would have told me back in September of 1992 I’d be here 22½, 23 years, that would have not been conceivable. So, I’m done.”

As far as Thursday’s vote goes, Selig has only one priority.

“The only goal I’ve really had all along is, when it’s all over that people can say, ‘Well, it was really fair,”’ Selig said.