756*

I didn't think it was actually possible. Allan "Bud" Selig made the right choice and still screwed it up.

Selig was there in the city by the bay for the Giants game against the fightin' Mark Teixeira's (sorry...not yet), he should have been there...he had to be there.

"All citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty" Selig said in a press release before the game, adding "except for Bonds, I mean that guy is terrible and evil and mean and a cheater and he stole my milk money and he's not nice to me like Hank Aaron is." (I paraphrased that last part from what was going through the Commissioner's head)

I'm really glad that the head of the sport I love is willing to throw player about to break a cherished record under the bus.

Selig doesn't want Bonds to have the record because he's linked with steroids...look in the mirror pal. You were on watch when this thing escalated. You were the captain when the ship hit the iceberg, the passangers aren't going to blame the iceberg. Blame goes up, and it stops with you.

Selig can't admit that. He has let his personal feelings for Bonds/intertwined with his own deep seated personal insecurities get in the way of his job. The Commissioner ought to be there at major/historic baseball events. He ought to be sitting front row, by the Giants dugout, standing and cheering for Bonds...for history...for baseball.

Selig doesn't want Bonds to pass Aaron, a man he greatly admires and respects. Ford Frick didn't want Maris to pass Ruth, a man he greatly admired and respected. Frick called for the establishment of multiple record books (the astericks.) Frick did this as a means of delegitamizing Maris' accomplishments in the public/and histories eyes.

Selig doesn't want Bonds to pass Hammerin' Hank because he thinks people will link Bonds with power, power with steroids, steroids with cheating, cheating with baseball, and baseball with Selig.

To understand why this linkage bothers Selig so tremendously that he cannot do his job properly it is necessary to understand more about Selig, the man. Bud Selig is and will always be a nerd. Allan Huber Selig was that incredibly awkward kid in class who was, analytically, smarter than most but lacking in social development. His facial features are too deep set to be considered classically handsome. Selig couldn't talk to girls, he's a nerd. But, like all nerds he just wants to be loved. Why else would a seventy year old man go by "Bud"? He wants to be your friend. He wants to be remembered fondly. He wants to get to second base with a cheerleader!

Because his schoolmates rejected him, Allan (I will not call him "Bud" anymore...he is not my Bud, he is ruining the game I love... he's a nerd) did what all good nerds do, he found a fantasy that would not reject him. If he were a little younger he'd be a Star Wars Geek. Selig fixated on something cool, baseball. He fixated on one team, the Milwaukee Braves. As he got older fixated on a player, Hank Aaron.

What Selig doesn't get, what Ford Frick didn't get, is that just because one player passes another player on a list the player that got passed is not erased from history. Roger Maris is not a better player than Babe Ruth. Bonds is a better player than Aaron, but that's not the point. The history of baseball is big enough for Aaron and Bonds, no asterisks is necessary.

Selig wants to diminish Bonds accomplishments because he's afraid of condoning Bonds (who, btw, has still never failed a drug test) and harming Hank Aaron's legacy. The only legacy Allan Selig is harming is his own.