 |
| Wednesday, November 14 Miller says Selig should step down Associated Press |
||||||||||
|
MINNEAPOLIS -- A former head of the baseball players' union says Commissioner Bud Selig should resign because of the conflict of interest inherent in a plan to eliminate two teams. Marvin Miller, who turned the Major League Baseball Players Association into one of the strongest unions in the country in the 1960s and '70s, told the Star Tribune on Tuesday the Milwaukee Brewers stand to benefit directly in terms of attendance and television ratings if the Minnesota Twins fold. When Selig became commissioner, he had his controlling interests in the Brewers put into a trust, and his daughter, Wendy Selig-Prieb, became president and CEO. Selig told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that charges that he has a conflict of interest because of his holdings in the Brewers are "childish" and "inane." He also denied the Brewers would benefit if the Twins cease to exist, saying Milwaukee and the Twin Cities are too far apart. "It's so outrageous and not worthy of comment," he said. Also Tuesday, former commissioner Fay Vincent expressed surprise that the Twins are candidates for elimination. "I would not have listed Minneapolis high on my list of teams that would be eliminated," Vincent told Minnesota Public Radio. "I think there are other teams that seem to be more likely candidates. Tampa Bay has gone broke and the owner hasn't been able to keep the team intact. "I don't know why Minneapolis is different from Detroit or Kansas City or Anaheim or Houston or any number of franchises that are losing lots of money." Miller told the Star Tribune that Selig's conflict of interest isn't getting enough attention. "I think he ought to resign," Miller told the newspaper Tuesday. "Somebody has raised this question with me -- 'Which family that owns a club would most gain by closing down the Minnesota Twins?' "This is just like pushing a policy of small-market teams getting funds from large-market teams -- so-called revenue sharing. For a commissioner who's supposed to be a commissioner of all owners, it's a terrible conflict of interest. "It's really scandalous, and I think the only reason it hasn't risen to the level of national debate is because of the way newspapers cover these issues. The conflict of interest is so obvious. Picture somebody in public life who had this kind of conflict. He'd have trouble running for re-election." Laurel Prieb, the Brewers' vice president of marketing, team spokesman and Selig's son-in-law, said earlier this month there's no conflict of interest for Selig. "For anybody who truly knows the commissioner, and knows his passion for the game of baseball and for the job that he has to do, and the trust he has of all the owners, they know he's always doing what's in the best interest of the game. Anyone who knows him wouldn't question" the possibility of a conflict, Prieb said. Miller, who retired from the MLBPA in 1982 and now works as a consultant, said from New York that he views the owners' threat of contraction as a bargaining strategy aimed at the union and low-revenue teams. "On the one hand, they seem to want to hammer the union with the loss of jobs and on the other hand, they seem to want to hammer the various communities with the threat of relocation," Miller said. "This is a double-headed ploy." The Players Association has filed a grievance against the owners, claiming their labor contract was violated when owners decided on their own to eliminate two franchises. The hearing for that grievance is scheduled for Monday. The MLBPA is arguing that issues such as scheduling and the dispersal of players from contracted teams -- among many other issues -- are subject to negotiation, and cannot be imposed unilaterally. Vincent predicted that the union will win its case and is the key to fixing baseball's financial problems. "The players union is very powerful," he said. "Nothing very much can change without the union agreeing to it. And the union is not going to agree to change. ... Basically you have to make the union a partner and the owners obviously aren't willing to do that." |
| |||||||||
You might also like: video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video | video
