MLB owners convince Selig to stay three more years

PHOTO: AP

Bud Selig was given a three-year extension as Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner through the 2012 season.

The unanimous decision made at Thursday's owners' meeting came two days after Selig and union head Donald Fehr testified before a US congressional committee that both criticized MLB for its steroids problem and praised the league for strides made during the past three years.

"I'm proud of what we've accomplished, but there's much work to be done in many areas," Selig said.

Selig will become MLB's second-longest-serving leader behind Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was the first commissioner from 1920 to 1944. Selig had said repeatedly since December 2006 that he intended to retire after the 2009 season, but many in baseball didn't believe him.

"I did wrestle with it. I spent a lot of time agonizing over it, mainly with myself," Selig said. "But they really convinced me."

He said he won't accept any more extensions -- although that is what he said after the previous one.

"By the time I leave, you won't recognize the sport."

Bud Selig, Major League Baseball commissioner

"This is clearly it," he said.

"I could say this without equivocation," Selig said.

He became acting commissioner in September 1992, when clubs forced out Fay Vincent. After saying he wouldn't take the job, Selig was elected to a five-year term as permanent commissioner in 1998 and gave up running the Milwaukee Brewers, the team he bought in 1970 and his family sold in 2005.

Owners voted in November 2001 to extend his term through 2006, then voted in August 2004 to extend it through next year. He will be 78 by the end of the latest extension.

"This was coming completely from the clubs," Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said.

Selig, who pushed for interleague play and wild cards in the postseason, predicted more change over the next five years.

"By the time I leave, you won't recognize the sport," he said.

Selig received US$14.5 million in the 12-month period ending Oct. 31, 2005, MLB's last available tax return shows.

MLB's labor contract runs through the 2011 season and its national television deals with Fox, Turner Broadcasting and ESPN run through 2013.

Revenue, which was US$1.66 billion when Selig became acting commissioner, topped US$6 billion last year. He projects it will top US$6.5 billion this year.

"This is the perfect person at the perfect time," Oakland owner Lew Wolff said.

When the Mitchell Report on doping in MLB was released last month, congressman Cliff Stearns called on Selig to resign.

"Certainly, a lack of leadership and oversight in MLB enabled these abuses to continue," Stearns said then. "After 15 years of slow action, a new commissioner is needed to guide the league out of this era of drug abuse."