Peter Gammons for commissioner doesn't make any sense, right? Commissioners are supposed to be head strong, overbearing, former stuff shirt lawyers who are looking out for the controling interests of their hiring parties.
The current baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, has been mired in a series of tough decisions and scandal over the past 20+ years. Selig has been MLB commissioner since 1992, when he was appointed the Acting Commissioner in the same year. A political science graduate of Wisconsin-Madison in the late 50's and the son of a business owner, Selig was a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. When the majority owners of the Brewers wanted to move the team to a larger money market, Selig faught them off in the courts. This braught Selig into the eyes of the small market owners in baseball and showed that he could lead. His political science background, which is essentially a lawyer, made him a strong candidate for the position.
However, was Selig the best choice? He is still an owner. He has negotiated the new collective bargining agreement where large market teams have to pay en excise tax to to MLB so that small market teams can compete in the battle for free agents. Being a small market owner himself this benefited his coleagues in areas such as Kansas City and Minnesota. Selig used his stauts to change the way baseball owners and players share the wealth.
Bud is also a baseball purist. He grew up in an era of baseball when Dizzy Dean and Sandy Koffax ruled the sport. An era when Jackie Robinson helped change the views of nation and all markets were small. He has a love of baseball that isn't based strickly in business. Because of that he has tried to make the game more of a fan sport again. Outside of the steriod scandal of this millenia Selig has tried to make baseball the national past time again in a era when baseball competes for television time with other sports. He created the World Baseball Champioships and has expanded the season. If and when Selig steppes down or retires, who would be the best choice to replace him?
Look at Donald Fehr for example, current MLBPA Executive Dorector. His job has been to negotiate and fight with the owners of baseball to get the best possible contractual agreements for the players each year. Fehr has lived on the edge ever since he bacame the MLBPA Executive Director. He has come to verbal blows at each of the winter meetings over salary amounts and the possiblity of salary caps with baseball owners, the major hot bed topic for baseball in this new era.
Fehr is a lawyer or at the least was trained as one. He was an arbitraitor* for the MLBPA as a young lawyer in the 70's. His goal was to litigate, then and now. Donald has done a great job of being a great negotiator for the players association. For his years of service Donald Fehr has gained resentment from baseball owners. They see him as a leech trying to suck as much money out of their pockets to line the pockets of the players. Many have seen Fehr as the legal voice box of the players handlers, the sports agents. Donald Fehr stepped down as MLBPA Executive Director just recently.
Would Donald Fehr be a good choice for commissioner instead of Gammons?
Some people in the know have said that Scott Boras, agent of agents to some of the top athletes in our country (including baseball) could be a candidate. Really? Not sure if that would go over well in the grand scheme of things. Boras' job the past few decades has been to make the most for his clients, now you want him to completely change his view points on making money. Players would rather have Boras take over the MLBPA Executive job.
Boras would be a great mistake!
Peter Gammons is a constant positive figure in the world of baseball. For the past twenty years as an analyst with ESPN Gammons has earned the right to be not just a baseball writer but a voice fot the sport. He has earned the respect of fans, owners, agents, and (most of all) players. No other sports writer has garnered such a praise. Peter Gammons is a baseball purist that understands the business of baseball. He has seen the sport evolve from a national past time in the 50's as a fan of the Red Sox; to watching calapse as a writer for the Boton Globe in the 1994 Strike; to its resergence in the late 1990's and early millenia into this new "Steroid" era. Gammons has been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Gammons has been one of baseball's best embassadors with his words and his knowledge and his ablity to be impartial in a time when choosing sides is the norm.
Gammons has shown an ability to make even the worst situation, steriods, seem not important and has kept the game as the focus. Peter moves over to MLB Network and back to NESN Sports to be an analyst for his beloved Red Sox. I feel that if baseball owners are smart (that includes Mr. Selig) they would look to making the best voice since Jack Buck and Vin Scully the next commissioner of baseball.
Well that is my opinion so for. Please let me know if you agree with the idea of Gammons becoming baseballs next great leader. If you agree with this opinion please feel free to voice your opinion. I will be posting YouTube video of Peter Gammons in action and hopefully posting links to Gammons' reports over the years.
Thank you.
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