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MLB MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 19, 2018Bud SeligQ. In the '82 ALCS when your team came home in sort of a similar position, must-win games, it was three must-win games. Can you share some memories of that and how that particular team responded to that kind of must-win pressure? BUD SELIG: Well, you know, we had won the big game in Baltimore the last Sunday, thank god. I was still nervous. And we played badly in California. And now we come home and we had to win all three, as you remember. We win on Friday, Sutton pitched. And Saturday I'll always remember, and it was raining. Lee MacPhail and Bowie Kuhn were here and they were in a big argument. Bowie thought we should call the game off. Lee said we've got to try to play. He was right. And finally we started. As I remember, if my memory serves me correctly, Brouhard had a big game that day, and we win the game 8-5. I can still remember Lee walking back in the office and said, Are you still mad that we played today? No, no. Sunday was really -- we were good. We were really good, but the Angels were really good. And all of you who know me well, which a lot of people in this room, I was very superstitious. I'd had Don Drysdale on Friday, got him to stay Saturday, I kept calling Jerry Reinsdorf, he was working for the White Sox, he said, We need him in Sarasota. Forget it, you're not getting him. After the Saturday game I called and said he can't leave. He's got to leave. This is important. It might be important, but it's more important to me. He's staying. So I had Earl Weaver's wife, Marianna, and Drysdale. There's so much I remember about that game, the place was rocking. Much I remember, but two out in the ninth inning, of course we don't have Rollie, we have Peter Ladd, he did a great job. But you look out, and who's hitting? Rod Carew. And I'm thinking to myself, smoking, I had two cigars, I had one here, I forgot, I had one over here, God knows what the hell I had. And I said to Drysdale, or no one in particular, Why the hell does it have to be the best hitter in baseball? Why can't it be some stiff who hits .230? And the rest is history. He hit a shot, but right at Rob. But it was just tremendous. It was a great game, right to the last pitch. It was the kind you never forget. Q. Very integral to your legacy as commissioner was the competitive balance we saw emerge in baseball. And this year in particular we saw some disparity between some teams, like these two who were trying very hard to win all season, and some teams that were trying to win in a future season. When you look at that aspect of the baseball landscape, what are your thoughts? What are your feelings? BUD SELIG: Well, I know people have said that. And people talk about rebuild, and "rebuild" goes back to Branch Rickey. But if you look at the teams that have rebuilt. Houston. I was down in Houston on 2013, they were killing Jim Crane and Jeff Luhnow. And I went to Chicago in '12, and oh, my goodness gracious, I mean they were killing them. I mean killing them. How can you allow this? This is terrible. They lost a hundred games. They're going to lose a hundred more. So it's hard to be critical. I mean this is remarkable here because in what people thought was a rebuild, is somebody had told you, and I will say this now, that this is remarkable. This team in its second year is in the 6th game of the League Championship Series. And I want to repeat it. I said this to Mark before, if anybody in Spring Training would have said, You're going to win 96 games, you're going to beat the Cubs, you're going to sweep Colorado, you're going to be in the 6th game of the League Championship Series, you would have signed up for that quickly. So I am never going to be critical of what clubs are doing because who knows what will happen. And I guess what I would say to you is what I've said to a lot of people -- you can tell Branch Rickey is a hero of mine for many reasons, not the least of which is Jackie Robinson -- but rebuilds, he said, take three to five years. Tell me another way, especially if you're in a medium to small market, but even in a big market club, that you can rebuild if you don't have a farm system that's producing top-notch talent. There is no other way. So all these people that bitch and yell and scream and holler, if you ask, What's your alternative, they don't have one. That's my answer. Q. You were gainfully employed still in 2008 and 2011. I know you were here for those playoff series, but now that you're quasi-retired, are you able to enjoy this more as a fan? And what have you noticed in and around the community? BUD SELIG: You know what I'll remember about the last day as the Commissioner, or at least my last day in an owners meeting, my last day came in New York, but more owners walked up to me and said, Well, now you can root openly for the Brewers. You know, I will say this with great emotion, when I think of the five and a half years it took to get this club, battling against odds that I was too young to understand, almost insurmountable, and all the years that have happened and then now with Mark running the club, and the guys are doing so well, it's a great story. And so what the hell, I can't sit here and tell you I'm not rooting for the Brewers, I'm paced, I'm worn out. This is only Game 6. I hope I'll be here tomorrow for Game 7. So it's been great for Milwaukee, great for Wisconsin, and I think great for baseball, I think that's the important thing. Really great for baseball. And I've heard from a surprising number of people and clubs who openly are enjoying this. Q. Every time I see you here I think about the roof. I don't think the open roof would be too pleasant tonight and I'm pretty sure it would not be tomorrow. BUD SELIG: Not with snow showers. Q. But just when you come and you see the place packed and the roof closed, what is your satisfaction level of this being done the way that you always hoped it would be? BUD SELIG: Well, I remember, and you remember well, you were covering this, a lot of you here, the roof became a very contentious issue. I can remember I took a group up to Madison, business leaders and Jack McDonough from Miller, and the roof was debatable. And they want to take the roof off. It was unpleasant, it was tough. But I'll let Mark and Rick and Tyler and everybody else talk about how important the roof is to this club. They see it on a day-to-day basis. And it's so good for Milwaukee, it's good -- everybody talks about it. I was listening to a Chicago station the other day and they were talking about the roof here. But it was painful to get, but well worth it. And I'm glad we have it. Q. Throughout the postseason Bob Uecker has gotten a lot of attention for the way he's celebrating with the guys and part of the team. Do you take pleasure seeing him still with the organization and still beloved by the players as he was back in the day? BUD SELIG: He's the franchise in many ways. He's the guy, as Mark and I both know, who millions of people all over listened to every day. When I hired him in 1971, and you know I hired him as a scout, I think most of you heard this story, because the broadcast was sponsored by Schlitz in those days, and they didn't have any openings. The Schlitz people liked him. So I hired him as a scout, I sent him up to the Northern League, Frank Lane, bombastic Frank Lane was our general manager, and two weeks later he storms into my office, What the hell is with this guy Uecker you hired? What's the matter? What do you want me to do with this? What are you talking about? It's a scouting report, but it had mashed potatoes and gravy all over it. So the next year I got Schlitz to take him, part-time, but we had to pay half. And it was okay. And you talk about all the things Bob has done, never wanted to leave Milwaukee, and above all he made himself into a great play-by-play announcer. That's what he did. So he's everything to this franchise and loves every minute of it. His voice, I've heard that a hundred times now when Lorenzo Cain catches that ball in Denver to win that series, wow. He did a great broadcast. Q. There's been a lot of attention since you retired on how long the games take now to be played and especially so in the postseason. And I wanted to ask you to look at that from two perspectives: No. 1, do you think that needs to be addressed in terms of getting casual fans that maybe don't follow baseball? And No. 2, why do you think it is that a three-hour game in baseball is too long but in the NFL it is not? BUD SELIG: You know me pretty well, so you know that's a favorite subject of mine. Those games are three and a half or whatever. You know, we spent a lot of time 10, 12 years ago, we got it down to 2:45, 2:47. I used to tell the story -- Joe Torre reminded me today, I tell the same story that they got sick of hearing, sick of me telling -- but I said when I was a kid growing up here, Bob Buhl, who beat the Dodgers six times, the Brooklyn Dodgers, you could set your watch, the game was at 8:00, at quarter to 10:00 you were on your way home, an hour and 45 minutes. Now, I know a lot of things have changed, and you're right about the NFL, and by the way, NBA games take a long time today, but I know that our guys are determined to do something about it. And there are a lot of things that they can do, which we talked about and are talked about now. I keep being reminded by guys who played the game for years, they never stepped out of the box, nobody ever allowed them to step out of the box. There were things that we did that I didn't like, and I worried about what it would do to the game, like pitch clocks, but we're living in a different generation. They're very sensitive. If we can get back to 2:45 I'd be very happy. Q. How would you like your legacy as Commissioner to be? How would you like it to be remembered? BUD SELIG: Well, I've said this for years, Bill's heard it and Tom's heard it, it was 22 years of more change than ever before. Revenue sharing to Wild Cards to everything. But now that I'm a history professor, I'm going to let the historians write that. I thought with the Hall of Fame, when I went in the Hall of Fame was really quite germane to all that. But it's a tough job. I learned early on no matter what you do, somebody was going to be mad. You can almost count on that. And I've seen some people write things which, as those of you who know covered me for a long time, in my younger days I'd call you, right, Bill? Tom? Drew? You're all shaking your heads yes. So I understand that. But overall the game is really in damn good shape. But can there be room for improvement? You bet there can. And they'll continue to do that, I'm satisfied. But as for my legacy, I know what I'd write, but I'm going to let the historians do that. Q. We talked many times over the years of Brewers versus Packers, and what people want to talk about. But I was just wondering in your recent memory can you remember the town being as crazy about the Brewers as they are right now? I know you go out a lot and your trips to Gilly's, and getting to talk to people. I'm guessing you didn't go to George Webb, because the people at Gilly's wouldn't like that. BUD SELIG: That's true. Q. What can you say about just the way the town has gone nuts about it? BUD SELIG: It's been amazing. Q. What would another World Series do? BUD SELIG: I've lived here all my life, '82 was tremendous. And there were other years that were big, and '08 and '11 and that. But this is, wow, wherever I go, I mean, what I've seen. And I'm told it's this way all over the state of Wisconsin. You know, all of me have heard you say that this reminds me again of why I had believed all my life that this is a social institution, because it has a way of binding a community together, has a way of doing something that today is unheard of in any other facet of our life. People are mad. People are fighting with each other. But there's something about this that -- I know I was over at the Fiserv arena, and Wendy was speaking there, and the Brewers had just beaten the Cubs in a playoff game. You'd have thought we just won World War II. People were waving and yelling. It's really, it's been remarkable. Yes, it has been great for this community. But it's been a great experience. If I can leave with one story. Joe Torre reminded me we were at the '01 World Series after 9-11, very dramatic third game in Yankee Stadium. I went down to see the President and Joe was there, and Joe was kidding me about throwing out the first ball. Remember what Derek told the President? I said, Yes, I do. Derek walked by and George said to him, Hello, Derek. Nice to see you. Thank you, Mr. President, nice to see you. He took two more steps, and said, Don't bounce it tonight, they'll boo you right out of it. That's my advice for tonight. But I make no promises. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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