Sports commissioners

The PGA's Tim Finchem is IMHO the best commish in all of sports. He has held things together well. More on that later.

Next, I'd rank Goddell, though it's a distant 2nd. He's handling some issues fairly well but he's tinkering with Europe which I think hurt Stern and the NBA.

I have no idea who to put 3rd. Selig is awful. He's asleep at the wheel. Stern was good once, but I could've been commish during the best days of the NBA in recent years. Bettman is pulling levers left and right, and few of them seem to work. Stern has the NBA overexposed. Bettman has the NHL underexposed. France is squandering an enormous popularity, though NASCAR did eclipse the NBA last year. I'll give more ratings later.

Full disclosure...I helped hijack the thread too, and I have a spin-off thread to start too. More to come....

 

I think Selig is a mixed bag. Sometimes I think he is underrated, because of his demeanor. If he was a better communicator and had a charismatic personality, people would look on him much more favorably. Yes, he has the steroids issue, but he has also done some good things for the game.

I think Goodell has a chance to be a great one - too early to tell at this point.

 

Andy, Good to see you around in here friend. What would you consider some of Selig's good accomplishments?

 

Good labor management - no work stoppages for a long time now. The game is thriving for the most part. Revenue sharing has brought some parity to the game. Interleague play has been good for the most part.

 

I don't disagree about the work stoppage, the success of IL play, and the playoff expansion. However, I don't see baseball as thriving right now. Revenue sharing is helping, but teams are still on the chopping block. The WBC is not as successful as was thought. Baseball is out of the Olympics on his watch. African-Americans are leaving the game behind, and there's no plan to try to market to this demographic (other than parading Jackie Robinson tributes). The steroid issue will be his albatross, fair or not. And he will likely need to do some positive things..much more positive things, and more of them...to counter-balance what are viewed as his shortcomings.

Goddell has the makings of a great one but time will tell.

Finchem has taken stadium golf to a height Deane Beamen only dreamed of. He has handled pressures from civil rights groups over racial issues at country clubs and the Masters' issue well. He's on the verge of getting golf in the Olympics and has vowed to make it work with any possible tour issues (The fourth major and the Fed Ex cup). He has successfully branded his sport as a merchandising player. He's done just enough to keep his sport exposed but not overexposed. The FedEx cup hasn't quite materialized, but all in all, pound for pound, they don't come any better than Finchem.

 

That was precisely the word I was going to use, but since I used the word "hapless" to describe the NBA, I'm trying to be more measured.

It wasn't just the overreaction. In a way, I can sympathize with trying to add some meaning to the game since the players seem unwilling to add the meaning it used to have. But the inability to decide what to do or handle or forsee the circumstances surrounding the debacle in Milwaukee tells you all you need to know about this guy. (Btw, I still believe starting the All-Star break on Friday (last games are played on Thursday, have the game on Tues or Wed, then start up again on Fri, would solve the All-Star problem)

I'm not sure whose idea this is, but this is indeed horrible. 16 games in 17 weeks is enough. You could have two meaningless games at the end of the year. We don't need Peyton Manning taking five snaps in the last two weeks of a season before playoffs. I know fans say they don't like the pre-season, but that's a valuable testing time for the teams, and a great chance to see some former college stars have one last go-round before going to the CFL or Arena ball.

This is true of all of 'em now-a-days...except Finchem