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Bud Selig blows his top when the Mets take the "hat controversy" public

Hey, Selig, here's some free advice: it doesn't matter which private matters become public if you don't act like a dick in private.

Steroid Selig once again protects the game. This office steps in to prevent the Mets from disgracing baseball with 9-11 first responder caps. What a guy!

Every single person who paid any attention to baseball knew by 2001 that many players were juicing. For God's sake, Barry Bonds had a head bigger than Zardoz. So there are only two possibilities. Either Selig (1) is a total idiot and was the only person in the country who wasn't aware of the problem, or (2) he knew about the problem from day one and passively allowed it to continue because everybody - both players and owners - enjoyed a short-term economic gain. I think it's pretty obvious that it's number two. Obviously he thought that it was in the best interest of baseball not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. And if he had actively tried to kill that goose, the owners probably would have fired his ass, just as Selig and his buddies had fired Fay Vincent for actually caring about the integrity of the game. (Technically Vincent resigned after an 18-9 no-confidence vote.)

Owners ultimately employ a commissioner to protect their financial interests, not their integrity. Here's what the previous commissioner of baseball, an honest, blunt-speaking man, said about Selig: "The Union basically doesn’t trust the ownership because collusion was a $280 million theft by Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents. They got caught. They paid $280 million to the players. And I think that’s polluted labor relations in baseball ever since it happened. I think it’s the reason MLBPA executive director Donald Fehr has no trust in Selig."

So the previous commissioner said Selig was a thief who was stealing from the players. The owners promptly fired that guy and placed their thief in his place.

You can't deposit integrity in the bank.

Of course the owners would have had full support of the players in trying to keep steroids quiet. Everyone was getting rich from the Sosa-McGwire show. So Selig buried his head in the sand. Let's be fair. Most other people would have done the same thing in his position. Not Vincent, but lots of other guys. Why would Selig jeopardize his lucrative job when both the owners and the players were rolling in money like Scrooge McDuck? (Selig made $14.5 million in the 12-month period ending Oct. 31, 2005. That makes integrity very expensive indeed.)

So, let's see if I understand how Selig protects baseball: steroids were good for the game, but wearing 9-11 first responder caps in New York for one game on the anniversary of the tragedy is bad.

Got it.