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If you ever have cause to wonder why baseball is in such bad shape, consider the “man” leading our national pastime.

This week it came to light that Bud Selig, while he was the owner of the Brewers, (as if he still isn’t now, he claims his daughter owns the team-and THAT isn’t a conflict of interest?), accepted an illegal loan from Twins owner Carl Pohlad.

Of course Selig is now Major League Baseball’s commissioner. And he has decided that contraction is the cure to baseball’s ills. So Selig has elected to contract Pohlad’s Twins. And in so doing, baseball will pay Pohlad tens of millions more than Pohlad would have received had Pohlad sold the franchise on the open market.

Selig has not explained why baseball must pay such a premium to contract a franchise, as opposed to simply paying Pohlad the team’s fair market value. Nor has Selig explained why he chose to contract the Twins, instead of a less successful and traditional franchise such as the hideous Devil Rays, a team devoid of fans that plays its games in a warehouse.

Couldn’t have anything to do with Selig wanting to take care of one of his old buddies, could it? And it bothers Selig not a bit that by scratching his pal’s back, he is depriving Minnesota and baseball fans everywhere of a young, exciting team that could easily win the AL Central this coming year.

Selig killed the buzz of the amazing 2001 postseason by announcing his disgraceful contraction plans before the Diamondbacks had slept off their World Series hangovers. He has made absolutely no inroads on the labor front, and as a result this coming season is in jeopardy. And we won’t get into his role in the fixed, sham of a sale involving the Boston Red Sox to a group many believe Selig has in his back pocket.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan has it right. Selig, and his awful toupee, should resign. For, as Selig has said on many occasions, such a move would be in “the best interests of baseball.”

Ozzie Smith was a great shortstop and deserved to be inducted despite his .261 career average. But it says here that his overwhelming support from the voters is somewhat hard to fathom. Dwight Evans was one of the two best outfielders of the 1970’s-80’s, as well as a B+ hitter, but he didn’t get any consideration when he was up for induction.

And closers get no love. Both Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage deserved to get in. Those guys were dominating.

How great is it that Gary Carter threw a party for himself and then got rejected by the voters? He, Jim Rice and Dale Murphy all merited consideration, but it was not a travesty that they did not get in.

The writers who vote for guys who clearly don’t deserve to get elected, like whoever cast a ballot for Mike Greenwell, are not giving their duty the respect it deserves. Those individuals should cede their duties to someone else who will take voting seriously. One wonders if one of the two voters who voted for Greenwell did not vote for Carter, who missed enshrinement by a mere 11 votes. Does that mean they honestly believe Greenwell is a more deserving candidate than Carter? Or are they making a mockery of the process? Either way, they should not be allowed to vote.

NFL Random Musings

As you might expect, the Critic is furious over the outrageous firing of Jim Mora. His press conferences will be missed.

The Critic can’t wait for Steve Spurrier, the NFL’s answer to Rick Pitino, to fail somewhere. Hopefully it will be in Indianapolis, although it likely will be in Tampa.

Jacksonville deserves credit for sticking with Tom Coughlin. Let’s see what that team does next year when Tony Boselli and Fred Taylor are healthy.

Than again, Fred Taylor is healthy less often than a man eating week-old fish at a Chinese restaurant.

Terry Glenn must have been doing something important to skip practice in preparation for the playoffs. Like freebasing or pimpslapping his ho.

The Vikings may hire George O’Leary as an assistant coach. They are looking for their defense to be more imaginative.

This has nothing to do with the NFL and it may not be very PC to point this out, but Tyrone Willingham’s record at Stanford wasn’t all that impressive.

Spurgeon Wynn has as much business playing quarterback in the NFL as Dieter Brock did.

The Michael Strahan-Brett Favre sack sham was a joke. Favre’s linemen must have wondered what the hell they busted their collective asses for all game long. The only good thing that came out of the whole debacle was that Mark Gastineau brought Brigette Nielsen to the Critic’s mind, and what a piece of ass she is.

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The Critic finished his handicapping year from hell with a respectable 8-7 week, which is the equivalent of an abbreviated 1-800-collect Alyssa Milano ad.

By: Scott Shuster