What can you get that retiring commissioner who already has everything? An award named after himself, of course.
MLB announced on Tuesday, Jan. 21 that current commissioner Bud Selig will be the first recipient of the Commissioner Bud Selig Leadership Award, per SportsCenter:
Selig is planning to retire after the 2014 season. By the time he steps down, he will have spent 22 years in the role. During his tenure, he’s had his fair share of ups and downs.
There’s no question that Selig has done a lot right during his time as commissioner. The wild card helped create more excitement for the postseason race, he persuaded the MLBPA to agree to drug testing and teams are making untold millions more than they did before Selig took over.
Of course, there has been plenty of bad, whether it was the strike of 1994 that canceled the World Series, the infamous tie at the 2002 All-Star Game or the steroid era, of which the impact is still heavily felt.
Through it all, Selig has weathered the storm, and now that he’s on his way out as commissioner, he’s looking to pad his legacy.
News of his most recent award comes after he revealed he wanted to have a lengthy victory lap at every MLB stadium during his final season as commissioner, per ESPN’s Jayson Stark:
In fact, Selig said he would like to spend his last year as commissioner on a Mariano Rivera-type tour of all 30 major league parks, speaking not with baseball dignitaries but with fans and people who work in his sport behind the scenes.
“I want to talk to season-ticket holders and fans,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of people to thank.”
It’s unlikely that many fans will be rolling out the red carpet for Selig like they did for Rivera, but that’s not going to stop it from happening. When you run the league, you can do whatever you want.
And when there aren’t any more awards for a person to win, you just make some up.
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