Selig to get a statue

[Invader3K]

I just can't wrap my head around this. It's just weird, and there must be some reason for the team wanting to kiss his butt (there always is), and it likely is coming from the top.

Hehe. Maybe Mark Attanasio is thinking, "I can give him a statue, and then really push for a salary cap and additional revenue sharing!"

[RightFieldCoder]

I think Attanasio might be setting a precedent of giving a statue to an owner several years after he sells the team.

[Patrick425]

I'm really not understanding why people are having such a hard time with the statue idea. I don't get all this talk about "it should just be a bust" or "put it down the 3rd base line somewhere". Hey, I know, why don't we just put a portrait of him in one of the elevators or in a utility closet?

Geez. The guy is the Brewers. No Bud Selig. No Brewers. No Miller Park. No Yount statue. No Aaron statue (not in front of Miller Park anyways). If anyone who has ever been part of the organization deserves a statue, It's Bud Selig. He deserves a statue, a street, a parking section, and a day in his honor. There's a whole stadium named after the founder of an organization about about 115 miles north of Milwaukee. Yes I realize that man was also a player and a coach, but we are just talking about a statue, not a hallowed shrine.

 

What is it, because you don't like the way he looks? If he looked more like Vince Lombardi would you be ok with it?

[milwaukeesportsfan]

I agree that Bud deserves the honor for many reasons, but Miller park is the clincher, simply due to the fact that you are guaranteed to see a baseball game. This allows fans to make the drive from anywhere in the state of Wisconsin and be confident that they're going to see baseball. That simple fact made it so much easier to be a Brewer fan if you lived up north. There is nothing worse than driving 2-1/2 hours and having to turn around and go back home because the game was rained out.

[Invader3K]

Most of the criticism seems to be based around a relatively myopic view that "Selig held the tax payers hostage in order to get Miller Park built." Of course, most of these people don't mind actually going to Miller Park and being guaranteed to see an MLB game, or watching the games on TV (or listening to Uecker on the radio). They also ignore the number of people employed at Miller Park, the economic benefits of having an MLB team, the entertainment value, etc. It's just a bit disingenuous to try and break the criticism down to a very minimal tax increase, one that only happened after numerous other alternative avenues had been explored.

 

I heard a certain local talk radio host using this same tired argument today to take a jab at Bud Selig, and I just had to shake my head in disgust.

[Patrick425]

5..4...3...

 

Countdown till someone mentions some study that suggests that a professional sports team adds no economic value to the surrounding community. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/eyes.gif

I can't fathom how that could be true, but if somehow it is, what about just a basic quality of live value that it brings to the community?

 

[Invader3K]

Any study like that is going to be somewhat flawed. How many cities in America the size of Milwaukee have no major sports teams? A small handful, perhaps? And then there are so many other factors aside from having a sports team that contribute to a particular city's economy, that I would be very hesistant to trust such an analysis.

 

But yes, the prestige and pride that a sports team bring to a community is often way overlooked. I know it's sort of apples and oranges, but what would Green Bay really be without the Packers? By all accounts, the years without baseball in Milwaukee were pretty dreary. Must have been some pretty boring summer months for sports fans, I'd wager.

[endaround]

Most cities the size of Milwaukee don't have a major sports team.

[Invader3K]

Most cities the size of Milwaukee don't have a major sports team.

Well, there you go.

[logan82]

They have it coming up as a discussion topic on 1st and 10, ESPN 2.

[1992casey]

Rather than a statue, I think the more creative solution would have been to arrange for a state historical marker and place it somewhere in the plaza area.

[Invader3K]

Rather than a statue, I think the more creative solution would have been to arrange for a state historical marker and place it somewhere in the plaza area.

And I guess I would say that he deserves more than that. The statue, with relation to his accomplishments regarding the Brewers, is quite fitting in my mind.

 

[Tbadder]

Not in favor of this. I like minor league baseball better, so I guess--yeah, no Bud no baseball might have been better for me. AAA would've been in Milwaukee with little doubt given the size of the city, its history, and resources. Except for his unquestioned love for baseball there's nothing I really like too much about him. And what it continues to cost the taxpayers--well--they deserve a statue just as much. Bud and his unwilling minions, now that's a statue I could get behind.

[Invader3K]

For those whining about the tax payers, I do believe credit is given to the five counties on that plaque facing the home plate entrance.

 

And yeah, excuse me if I find the prospect of Milwaukee being a AAA town quite a bit less exciting. If I want to see minor league ball I'll drive to down Beloit or up to the Fox Valley.

[berniebrewer4life]

If it wasn't for Bud, we all might be Cubs fans. For that alone, Bud deserves this statue.

[Teatoe993]

I don't see what all the drama is about. He is the biggest reason for the existence of the Milwaukee Brewers. What he has done as commissioner of the MLB should have no influence as to why there will be a statue of the man at Miller Park. Now if we were debating his credentials for an induction into Cooperstown, please feel free to go over the merits of his entire body of work.

 

I'm surprised about how much flack Selig takes for the 2002 All Star Game decision. What was the man supposed to do? Leave Padilla and Garcia out there until they threw their arms out in an exhibition game? I'm sure the Phillies and Mariners would have been big fans of that. It's the All Star Game. It means nothing. The fans should be happy that they got to witness 3 extra innings of world class players.

[Invader3K]

The discussion about this topic on WSSP this afternoon just about made my brain explode. I guess that's what I get for turning on that station though.

[dlk9s]

Not in favor of this. I like minor league baseball better, so I guess--yeah, no Bud no baseball might have been better for me.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/1379/garycoleman.gif

[dlk9s]

Any study like that is going to be somewhat flawed. How many cities in America the size of Milwaukee have no major sports teams? A small handful, perhaps? And then there are so many other factors aside from having a sports team that contribute to a particular city's economy, that I would be very hesistant to trust such an analysis.

 

But yes, the prestige and pride that a sports team bring to a community is often way overlooked. I know it's sort of apples and oranges, but what would Green Bay really be without the Packers? By all accounts, the years without baseball in Milwaukee were pretty dreary. Must have been some pretty boring summer months for sports fans, I'd wager.

I actually did a special project while I was getting my MBA at Emory University in which I, along with a handful of my classmates, tried to determine the economic impact the Carolina Panthers had on Charlotte/Charlotte metro area. It was REALLY hard to do and in the end, we weren't all that confident about our numbers. I'd have to dig out the report from the archives to remember the dollar amount, but we did address the non-monetary impact of the team and decided it was greater than any dollar figure. Yeah, cop out, I know.

 

It was cool to meet the Panthers' president and get to go in the Panthers locker room, weight room, and on the field, though!

[Mr QL]

Well, without Bud there would be no Brewers or Miller Park so he deserves the recognition in my opinion.

 

Gotta admit tho, this is going to be an ugly statue lol.

[SeriesFinale]

TH is on KNBR right now here in SF talking on a local show and defending Bud and the statue and it's really something else--it's getting pretty chippy.

[Invader3K]

TH is on KNBR right now here in SF talking on a local show and defending Bud and the statue and it's really something else--it's getting pretty chippy.

Let me guess, the hosts basically boiled their argument down to: "Bud is an evil commissioner who allowed steroids to run rampant", right?

[dlk9s]

TH is on KNBR right now here in SF talking on a local show and defending Bud and the statue and it's really something else--it's getting pretty chippy.

Let me guess, the hosts basically boiled their argument down to: "Bud is an evil commissioner who allowed steroids to run rampant", right?

Don't forget the All-Star Game tie!

[JimH5]

I'm in favor of the statue. I owe a lifetime of baseball fandom (since that first team in 1970) to Bud Selig.

 

There have been LOTS of rocky roads along the way, but he's the only reason we have a team at all.

[SeriesFinale]

TH is on KNBR right now here in SF talking on a local show and defending Bud and the statue and it's really something else--it's getting pretty chippy.

Let me guess, the hosts basically boiled their argument down to: "Bud is an evil commissioner who allowed steroids to run rampant", right?

Yep, pretty much. One of the two goes on rants about Selig relatively often, and so when this news came over the wire, they were having kinda a laugh about it and wanted to bring TH on to find out "what the heck Milwaukee is thinking" (to paraphrase). It especially ticks me off because he never rants anywhere near as much about the well-documented steroids issue that was borne out of the Bay Area. It almost seemed like he was backtracking with TH a bit yesterday--"I just want him to take some responsibility, but he lies and says that he had no idea,"--when usually he leans so hard on Selig you'd think he was the only responsible party.

 

TH acquitted himself well, I thought: discussing Don Fehr and the union as well as Selig's accomplishments as owner and commissioner.

 

I also think TH feels like I do: Bud may be a schlub, but he's our schlub, so back off. [The radio show guys out here, for what it's worth, tried to make it seem like TH was defending him because him and Selig were personal buddies.]

 

To expand on that, I'm not a big Selig fan, but I can respect what he did to bring baseball here and I can respect what I think has been an under-rated job as commissioner. I have no problem with the statue.