Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig visited UW-Madison Tuesday, where he discussed media’s role in today’s sports and some of the major public relations challenges he has faced as commissioner.
Selig, a 1956 UW-Madison graduate, said he values the sports media because he sees it as the “primary conduit between fans and teams.” For this reason, he said he allows baseball media the highest level of media access than any other sport so newspapers and baseball can continue their historically strong relationship.
“I appreciate the work that baseball writers do,” Selig said. “They serve as a direct line to our fans. How you conduct yourself with the media is how the fans will perceive you.”
But despite the strong relationship between baseball and the media, Selig said today’s sports coverage has been hurt by modern day media’s emphasis on immediacy in the news.
The added medium of the Internet, according to Selig, has led to a “24-minute news cycle” that fosters stories without depth, formed without proper analysis. As an example, Selig pointed to the heightened coverage of rumors in sports, which has created sensationalism throughout sports media.
Selig has had a tumultuous reign as commissioner of baseball and many of his decisions have been passionately debated in the media.
One particularly contentious event during Selig’s tenure was at the 2002 All-Star Game, where Selig decided to end the game in a tie after both teams ran out of pitchers, an event that Selig called “one of [his] more unpleasant memories.”
“The criticism in the aftermath was brutal. You’d have thought I’d robbed a bank or committed an unpardonable sin,” Selig said.
Although Selig added he understood the media’s criticism, he felt they should have offered a solution.
While answering questions, Selig fielded an inquiry about UW-Madison’s lack of a baseball program, which was eliminated in 1991 to balance the budget and comply with a rule that requires the university to have an equal number of men’s and women’s sports.
He said he understands the economic issues, but “would love Wisconsin to be back playing baseball” and is “hopeful that somehow, someway in the future we can rectify that.”
