For the Good of the Game

June 15, 2019
A former commissioner of baseball rehearses his years and achievements in the game. After a foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Selig begins with a difficult year for him and baseball--2007, a year dominated by Barry Bonds' chase for the all-time home run record and steroid scandals--before settling in to a fairly conventional chronological (and sometimes clichéd) summary of his experiences as a fan, owner (Milwaukee Brewers), and commissioner, the job that earned him a Baseball Hall of Fame induction in 2017. Although the author focuses almost entirely on his baseball life, he briefly discusses his marriage, his daughter's management of the Brewers, and his friendships, especially with Hank Aaron, whose record Bonds broke, and George W. Bush. Selig provides a fairly extensive account of 9/11, how baseball contributed to public healing, and how then-President Bush was, in the author's view, a hero. He also includes a tribute to the late Sen. John McCain, whom he greatly admired (he offers no comment about Donald Trump, who has publicly denigrated McCain). Baseball fans will appreciate Selig's coverage of the key issues that arose during his tenure, including the introduction of the "wild card" teams, the Pete Rose gambling case (Selig believes Rose's banishment from baseball remains just), the rise of the players' union, the destructive battle about steroids and other drugs, the notion of revenue-sharing among the teams (a concept borrowed from the NFL and its former commissioner Pete Rozelle, whom Selig praises extensively), the financial resurgence of baseball, and the spread of the game around the world. Selig does not express a lot of modesty or offer much in the way of confessions of failure, human or professional; in all, he maintained "clear eyes, an open mind, and a willingness to make personal sacrifices for the good of the game." A broken-bat blooper that falls for a double.

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Starred review from July 1, 2019

Selig, the controversial ninth commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1992 to 2015, offers a captivating look at the evolution of the game of baseball throughout his tenure. During the steroid era of the 1990s and 2000s, Selig endured misery and ridicule but persevered through it all. He ended up fostering much-needed changes to the game, which now has some of the toughest steroid policies in all of sports, and financially turned the game around to enormous profits. In this telling, Selig's passion for baseball was evident from an early age; his love for the sport was dear to him and only grew stronger as he aged. He recounts conversations with players, coaches, and managers while describing his efforts at business dealings, labor relations, and managerial practices. The result is a fascinating memoir that touches on sports and business from one of baseball's top executives. VERDICT Selig's extraordinary time as commissioner is a story worth telling. All baseball fans, especially those interested in how the sport overcame the steroid era, owe it to themselves to take a look.--Gus Palas, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 9, 2019
Selig, who served as the ninth commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1998 to 2015, delivers a straightforward, insightful account of his life and how he dealt with challenges in a quickly changing sport. Starting with his ownership of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers in 1970, through his becoming commissioner after the resignation of Fay Vincent, Selig gives an honest account of his struggles with what he believed were owners “stuck in the past” and “planted on the wrong side of history” when it came to modernizing the league’s economic system and forging a partnership with the Players Association. Selig praises union negotiator Marvin Miller, who understood “that the union, and not management, controlled the players.” After the baseball strike of 1994, Selig was hard on team owners, who he felt needed “to see that they could not rely on a union-based solution” to fix the economic problems they faced, but instead “had to look beyond the players and union for ways to increase revenue and ensure their teams’ solvency.” Selig doesn’t shy from the many controversies in MLB, and is equally hard on the players—and himself—especially his role during the league’s widespread steroid issues that lasted until the end of his tenure. Baseball fans looking for a straight-talking, insider look into the business of the sport will delight in this outing.