Stinky Bud

Matt Welch | May 5, 2005

Proving that dumb sportswriting is not just for the sports pages anymore, Slate's Nicholas Thompson gives three cheers to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, of all the awful people in the world, arguing that the Human Comb-Over "deserves credit for restoring fiscal sanity to baseball," and for his "admirable handling of baseball's steroids crisis."

No mention that "restoring fiscal sanity" involved soaking taxpayers for several billion dollars (especially the poor bastards in Selig's Milwaukee), while falsely pleading poverty (to Congress, no less). And what, exactly, is "sane" about franchise valuations that are grossly inflated by government subsidies? As for playing National Scold John McCain like a fiddle in order to bring down the zillion-pound shithammer of the federal government on the side of Management against the Player's Union -- a publicity stunt that means your kids are likely to be drug-tested by order of Washington, D.C. -- if this is "admirable" I'd hate to see what "contemptible" looks like.