Bud Selig has been the commissioner of Major League Baseball for about as long as most of us care to remember. Now, after 20 years at the helm, he is hinting that he may be retiring after the 2014…..hinting. Las Vegas line makers are probably scratching their heads trying to figure out the futures spread on this one.
Remember that Selig has said before that he would be stepping down….but it never happened.
In1970 Selig bought the infant Seattle Pilots baseball team out of bankruptcy for over $10,000,000 and quickly announced that the team would move to Milwaukee, which is Selig’s’ home town, and thereafter be known as the Brewers. The move gained him much popularity in Milwaukee since the Braves had departed for Atlanta leaving Wisconsin without a major league baseball team.
In 1992 Selig was named “Acting Commissioner” of MLB, the first team owner ever to hold the post. It was a controversial move and some fans feared for the integrity of the game. Selig weathered the storm and in 1998 was finally promoted from acting to official Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
In a recent conversation with MLB.com’s Mike Bauman, Commissioner Selig stated, “The MLB playoffs are golden at 10 teams and will remain at 10 for the next 2 years, and then they can do what they want to do. After that, I’m going back to my alma mater at the University of Wisconsin to teach History. I’ll be 80 years old and that will be enough”.
The New York Yankees baseball team has been hit with an $18,900,000 luxury tax by Major League Baseball. This will mark 10 years in a row that the Yankees will have to pay a penalty for overspending their budget. Apparently they don’t care.
The Yanks will finish with a $222,500,000 payroll exceeding the $178,000,000 threshold set by MLB. The extravagant Bronx Bombers have run up a luxury tax bill of $224,200,000 over the past 10 years. Other MLB teams approaching the limits are the Boston Red Sox who slipped in just $47,000 under the threshold.
The LA Angeles and the Philadelphia Phillies just barely made the cut. The figures include the average annual values of contracts for players on the current 40 player rosters. Currently, free agent trading is underway and could raise these numbers even higher.
