Bud Selig Is An Idiot (Again)

If you are a big baseball fan like I am, you probably have a deep-seeded hatred for Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball. While the laundry list of problems for Selig is quite long, I want to focus on a recent episode involving Cubs player Tyler Colvin.

On Sunday, Colvin was hit in the chest by the remnants of a broken bat as he was heading home from third. A large, sharp piece of the bat hit him squarely in the chest, and was inches away from puncturing either his heart or his neck. Remarkably, Colvin got away relatively unscathed and was able to score before being removed from the game.

Colvin was then taken to the hospital and treated to prevent him from suffering a collapsed lung. He will now miss the final few weeks of the season but should otherwise be fine. But just because he got lucky does not mean there is not a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

Maple bats, such as the one that broke and speared Colvin, are known for shattering in large pieces. It is remarkable that there have not been more dangerous injuries related to the use of maple bats. When the bats break, there are usually a few large, sharp and pointed pieces that go flying in a bevy of directions: at baserunners, fielders, players in the dugouts, and into the stands.

This problem needs to be addressed before someone gets seriously injured. But judging from the reaction by Bud Selig, it looks like a major accident is what it is going to take to get much-needed changes. Selig commented on the Colvin incident, "It scared me. But we've been very vigorous in attacking the problem and will continue to be."

Here is the problem though: Selig did not address how the problem will be solved. He pointed to statistics showing that the number of broken maple bats have gone down over the last 2 years. And yet Colvin still got impaled one. Though there may be fewer broken bats, there is still a significant risk of injury.


A few years ago a minor league first base coach got struck by a foul ball and died. The next season Major League Baseball mandated that all base coaches wear helmets to protect themselves. This is a similar situation. If Colvin had gotten seriously injured (or worse), I am sure we would see swift action taken by Bud Selig to eliminate maple bats.


Unfortunately, Bud Selig is a terrible commissioner. He is not going to do anything about maple bats until it is too late. And that is typical Bud Selig: do nothing to stop a problem until it has gotten to a point where it is out of control and then step in. He took the same approach to eliminating steroids and nearly did irreparable harm to the game.


I hope he does the right thing, but I doubt he will. I am eagerly awaiting the day Bud Selig is no longer the commissioner of Major League Baseball.


Until next time, Orange Hat Guy