Bud's Reply

Sorry for the long absence everyone. I have no good excuse.

So get this. You remember the open letter to Bud Selig that I wrote? Well, I actually printed it out and sent it to him, as well as emailed to a few newspapers, none of which printed it (pricks). Well guess what? Bud responded. I kid you not. This is what he wrote:

September 16, 2005

Ms. (name witheld)

Dear Ms. (name),

Thank you for your letter of September 3, 2005. Even though the tone of your letter is both disappointing and inaccurate, I will answer you anyway.

The fact of the matter is that I think baseball has been extraordinarily sensitive to the recent tragedy. We have not only raised a lot of money, but we have sent a lot of supplies to that area. We have also cut public service announcements to help raise money. I am sure you will note with interest that the National Football league nor anyone else has stopped playing games. I don't believe anything would have been gained by that, and in fact, I watched some of the people who were dislocated who watched the New Orleans Saints game on television and said it was a great thing they were able to continue to watch sports. Your observations about my commissionership are interesting. You are entitled to your opinion, despite the fact that baseball is having its greatest year with record revenues and creating excitement like it hasn't done in many years. People now refer to this era as the golden era, so your observations are both ludicrous and unfortunate. To question baseball's sincerity and sensitivity is really inappropriate.

Sincerely,

Allan H. Selig, commissioner of Baseball

Now I realize I spell my name in a weird way, but he assumed I was female, which is funny because I thought my rudeness and mockery of him came across as very male. I should have cursed more. I guess I need to sign my letters "Mr. (my name)" from now on. But the best part of this is his "the NFL isn't doing it either" defense of what I wrote to him, and ignoring my question why he stopped games for the World Trade Center attacks but not for New Orleans. If it is such a great thing for people to still be able to watch sports after a tragedy why did he stop for six days after September 11, 2001? But the best is his defense of his commissioner. Selig has always been defensive when people criticize the crappy job he's done, but I had no idea he would get that way when jabbed by someone completely inconsequential(me). So that gave me a wonderful laugh. I would love him to name me one person who calls this the "golden era" of baseball. I can't believe he really believes that. Stuff doesn't get called the golden era of anything while it's going on, that happens like 20 years later when people are nostalgic. I can't believe there is anyone besides MLB's marketing department who refers to this season as the golden age. And how can someone's tone be inaccurate?

I may not have accomplished much with my little letter, but at least I got a rise out of Bud Selig. So that's cool. I'll probably write him again.