Baseball commissioner Selig stops at Safeco Field on farewell tour

Published 6:55 pm Wednesday, September 10, 2014

SEATTLE — Commissioner Bud Selig’s farewell tour made a Wednesday swing through Safeco Field, and he offered up a litany of familiar talking points at a pre-game news conference:

The sport’s labor peace has fueled its remarkable financial growth in recent years. Baseball has been at forefront, Selig believes, in efforts to create a clean sport through steadily tougher drug-testing procedures.

Competitive-balance efforts are a major factor in enabling all but two franchises to reach postseason over the last 13 years. Instant replay has worked better than even proponents had a right to expect.

The expanded playoffs are, as intended, creating heightened postseason fever without, he contends, diluting the achievement of reaching October when compared to other sports.

Every so often, though, Selig, 80, touched on personal moments from his 45 years in major-league baseball, which include 22-plus years as commissioner, as he prepares for retirement at the end of the season.

Selig cited a poem that Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck read to a crowd in St. Louis — and the crowd’s reaction — when baseball resumed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“When he read it,” Selig recalled, “he got a standing ovation, an emotional ovation. I cried. I was that nervous (about resuming the season). One of the (parts of the poem) was ‘Should be be here tonight?’ And the crowd roared.”

There was also a heartfelt note from the late Michael Weiner, the former executive director of the players’ union, when Selig announced plans to retire.

“I remember reading it to (incoming commissioner) Rob Manfred,” Selig said. “‘Wow, can you ever imagine (former union director) Marvin (Miller) writing a note like that to (former commissioner) Bowie (Kuhn)?’”

Selig joked about getting booed once in Seattle because he was the man who bought the Seattle Pilots in bankruptcy in 1970, moved them to Milwaukee and renamed them as the Brewers.

And he offered up a Ken Griffey Jr. story:

“Commissioners are never supposed to have favorites,” Selig said, “but I’ll tell you a story about him. One Sunday in April ‘04, my phone was ringing. I got home from Arizona on a Sunday night.

“My phone was ringing, and I always debate whether to answer it. … I always do. It was Ken Griffey Jr. He was very apologetic. ‘I’m sorry to bother you at home.’

“He said, ‘I know Jackie Robinson Day (is coming up), and I know how much it means to you. What would be wrong with all of us wearing 42?’

“I thought about it, and I said, ‘Let me think about it.’ I was very cautious, but I said, ‘I’ll call you tomorrow morning.’ I thought about it, and thought, ‘What’s there to think about? It’s a great idea.’ It was his idea.

“I called Rachel Robinson (Jackie Robinson’s widow) the next morning to tell her, ‘This is not my idea. This was Ken Griffey Jr.’s idea.’ As a result, everybody wore 42.

“It was a wonderful (tribute), and that tells you (about Ken Griffey Jr.).”