Newsreal: How does Commissioner George Will sound?

Mon, 20 Oct 1997 19:00:00 +0000

it's been five years since the lords of baseball, the 28 major league owners, ousted their commissioner, Fay Vincent. The league has fumbled and bickered its way through every crisis since, from labor strife and public disaffection to last year's spit spat between Baltimore Oriole Roberto Alomar and umpire John Hirschbeck. At a time when the league desperately needs a strong, principled leader, it has instead "acting commissioner" Bud Selig, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. Selig might be a nice guy -- his many critics say he's not -- but as a commissioner, he really is just acting.

For the sake of the game, this nonsense must stop. The owners should hire a new commissioner immediately after the final out of the World Series. And the best man for the job is none other than George Will, conservative columnist, TV pundit and baseball's biggest booster.

Naming Will commissioner is not a new idea. The Texas-Louisiana minor league did it in 1995, partly as a publicity stunt but also as a statement that it aimed to serve up a purer, better brand of hardball than the majors. Will took the job, but not before consulting with Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Angelos' response: "Why would you want to do that when you could just be the major league commissioner?"

Salon.com > Drew Lindsay

Newsreal: How does Commissioner George Will sound?