"THE BODY" vs. Selig!!!

[KowboyKoop]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9...9;s-indictment




vs.

[Arctic Blast]

As much as I find Jesse Ventura to be an endlessly annoying and self aggrandizing tool...he does make some good points. And I completely agree...baseball wants to have more than just the image of cleaning up? Punt Bud the Useless of his cadre of idiots who willfully turned a blind eye for the sake of profits, but now want to reap the benefits of being paragons of decency in the sport.

[oriole^]

Personally, I agree - with Arctic, and with Ventura. What happened in baseball is worse than what happened in wrestling...Selig should be indicted, and I hope he is found guilty and jailed.

[Big Mikey]

You need more than accusations against a guy to send him to prison. There is no actual proof that Selig knew anything and just "let it happen". Saying that he knew (and yes I do think he knew about it) is just hersay. Kick him out of baseball? Sure. Sending him to prison over it I think would be a little too harsh when the case is based on hersay unless I'm missing anything. I don't care enough about the steroid scandal (players did it who cares you can't change the past, just do what you can now to change the future) to really research anything Selig has said, although I doubt he's addmitted to anything regarding him knowing.

[gRYFYN1]

Personally, I agree - with Arctic, and with Ventura. What happened in baseball is worse than what happened in wrestling...Selig should be indicted, and I hope he is found guilty and jailed.

While I find Selig a total tool, this is way off base. Sure Selig stuck his head in the sand over the issue and avoided ever bringing it up against the Union, for just a reasonably so dodge another strike, which came doen to the last minute anyways.

McMahon wasn't in trouble because steroids were being taken by wrestlers. He was charge with not only having first hand knowledge of steroid abuse, but of actively promoting and helping distribute the steroid to both wrestlers and body builders in his failed body building venture.

There were piles upon piles upon piles more evidence that McMahon was complicit in the steroids issues in the WWF/E, not just an acceptence of ignorance like Selig And still McMahon was acquitted.

Any legal action by by the government in this issue would simply wind up dislodging Selig as the top reprehensible scumbag.

[oriole^]

While I find Selig a total tool, this is way off base. Sure Selig stuck his head in the sand over the issue and avoided ever bringing it up against the Union, for just a reasonably so dodge another strike, which came doen to the last minute anyways.

I'll admit that the fact that Selig is an idiot makes me more inclined to wish to see him prosecuted. Add to that the fact that he has already been successfully charged, albeit for collusion, and I'd say that I wouldn't trust him if he told me the sun would rise in the East tomorrow.

As for all cases of corruption in high places, the question becomes, "What did he know, and when did he know it?" Elsewhere, we've discussed Jose Canseco's allegations, which have all proven correct thus far; he categorically states that Selig (and Fehr) knew. I believe him, and I believe that if any of these steroid cases were followed to their ultimate conclusion, you'd find the evidence necessary for a conviction.

[kenny1234]

As for all cases of corruption in high places, the question becomes, "What did he know, and when did he know it?" Elsewhere, we've discussed Jose Canseco's allegations, which have all proven correct thus far; he categorically states that Selig (and Fehr) knew. I believe him, and I believe that if any of these steroid cases were followed to their ultimate conclusion, you'd find the evidence necessary for a conviction.

What would you be convicting him of? Knowing about a crime and not saying anything? Damaging the reputation of baseball? That isn't a crime. No one has suggested that he was involved in helping players get steroids, or encouraging them to take them. The vast majority of the players involved don't even work for Selig - unlike the situation with McMahon. I'm not sure what he has said before Congress, so I guess someone might be able to take a shot at a perjury case - but other than that I can't see how he has done something criminal.

[reflections]

Bud is definitely trying to lay somehow all the blame on A-Rod.
I never understood how a owner could be voted in to office of commish. His part in the collusion scandal should of been a sign, but he somehow has just tried to keep the money train rolling at the price of any sort of integrity. (Although this does sort of fall in line with what most commishes have seemingly done).
He shouldn't be getting pay increases making more than a commish that actually draws a hard line (Goddell), he should be forced to watch the Brewers blow leads and be unable to do anything like letting his friends run down franchises and move them to Washington DC, but keep owners from other leagues out cause he might just bring a championship to the Cubbies for once (or maybe cause he'll call Bud out on things).
This is going to go on for years now.

[JayC]

You need more than accusations against a guy to send him to prison.

Right. Hence the call for an indictment. McMahon isn't in prison, but he was indicted and tried. He was acquitted. Saying that Selig should be investigated and indicted isn't the same as saying he should automatically be sent to prison, it's saying the facts should be established and the legal process should be the same for the guys leading both (or by extension, all) sports.

Now to be clear, I don't agree that the situations are at all the same and I'm not saying that there are any grounds for indicting Selig. Certainly there aren't any I know of. The accusations against McMahon were that he played a role in distribution of steroids, not just that he knew wrestlers were using them.

[oriole^]

Well, I didn't know about McMahon's history, and I don't think Selig distributed steroids to ballplayers. Beyond that, anything goes...you could possibly get him for obstruction of justice, if the investigation reveals that there was an effort by the Commissioner's office to conceal the evidence of felony drug abuse.

There's also the matter of his stumbling, bumbling appearances before Congress; that could be a perjury charge, though it'd be difficult to bring charges on something that incoherent.

I mean, yeah, this is wishful thinking. I'm not seriously thinking it might happen, but a boy can dream, can't he? We'd all probably have more agreement over the fact that Selig is a dingbat who led a coup against the last legitimate Commissioner of Baseball, Fay Vincent, and who has mismanaged and bumbled his way through the job ever since.

Unfortunately, the way to express displeasure with a product in a capitalist society is to stop buying it, and that would mean boycotting baseball for something done by an idiot who has never played the game. Hoping for action by government or law enforcement is the next best thing, I think.

[JayC]

The vast majority of the players involved don't even work for Selig - unlike the situation with McMahon.

That's an important distinction. McMahon, as CEO and majority shareholder of the single corporation with which all the wrestlers have contracts is much more positioned to profit directly. Selig, OK maybe he got a raise. But I look at him as more a tool of the owners (from whose ranks, of course, he came) than anything else -- and not just on the steroids issue.

[ragecage]

He does make a good point, I agree with Ventura.