my question for the commish

On Tuesday afternoon, Major League Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, was a guest speaker at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

It was an event that was free and open to the public.  As you can see from the picture below, my seat (actually standing area) was at the very back of the room.

baseball commissioner Bud Selig at the UW-Madison campus on Tuesday

Selig spoke of his reign as commissioner and the role the media has played in it.  He also spoke of how the media has changed significantly since his era began in the 1990's.  In his opinion, the media has changed, but journalism has actually not gotten worse.

His presentation lasted a half hour, which left plenty of time for a general question and answer session with the attendees.

I have been hoping to ask a question about the length of baseball games.  The microphone slowly made its way to the back, and I was getting excited.....after someone had a quick question about the Oakland A's stadium situation, it was finally my turn.

Dan: "Commissioner, last night's Brewers/Cubs game ended at around 9:30PM, the unfortunate part is that the start of the game was at 6PM.  Now tonight's game is slated to start at 7PM, how many people here are going to stay up for a game that lasts until 10:30?"

Selig's hand immediately shoots up.....as does about half the room.  Oops, maybe I misread my crowd, or maybe everyone in the room is retired, or possibly many of them are lying.

Dan: "Is there any concern about the length of games, or the pace of play?"

Bud: "I get after Joe Torre (the former Yankee manager who now works for Selig) all the time about pace of play.  But if you look at our numbers, our attendance is up, radio and TV ratings are up, and if you ask our fans, the time of games is not a complaint that we get."

It was an answer that I knew I would get.  Lately, the attendance for MLB in a season has been around 75 million attendees, which is an astounding number.  Obviously if the length of game was an issue, that number would be declining.

Then Selig went on a small rant about how when Hank Aaron used to get in the batter's box, he was there until his at bat was over.  "Now, you have a player who takes a pitch, backs out of the batter's box, adjusts the velcro on his batting gloves, and he hasn't even swung the bat!"  The crowd really liked his response.  It is something that I'm happy even the commissioner has noticed.

As I sit here writing this blog, I'm privately hoping that tonight's Brewers/Cubs game goes late.  Bad pitching or not, I think it is a shame that games take so long.  As of now, it is 9PM, and we are about to enter the top of the 6th.  Maybe Bud will be sitting in his recliner thinking about the guy who asked the question in Madison, or maybe he will blame it on the bad pitching again, or maybe he'll be asleep.

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Note, last nights' Brewers game ended at 10:26.

As I turn on The Big 1070 radio station this morning, Van Edwards just lamented that the length of these baseball games are messing with his schedule.

where to put a super bowl?

The culmination of every NFL season is the Super Bowl, which pits the best team from the AFC against the NFC.  This year's Super Bowl will be in Indianapolis, hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis

The location of the Super Bowl is generally decided by the NFL 3 - 5 years prior to that year's Super Bowl.  Currently, there are known Super Bowl locations through 2015.

For the most part, Super Bowls are played in warm weather cities, but on occasion, like this year, a domed stadium in a northern climate can get the game.  The following year locations are in New Orleans, New York, and Phoenix.

I haven't been able to find a voting process for the Super Bowl, but cities vie to host a Super Bowl, and one would presume it is voted upon by the NFL owners and commissioner.  Non-NFL related sites say it is a secret ballot vote.  The NFL has not advertised the voting method online.

In many instances, cities are rewarded with a Super Bowl after the city has secured financing for a new stadium.  Last year's Super Bowl was in a new stadium in Dallas, as well as this year's Super Bowl in Indianapolis.  New Orleans has always been viewed as a good city for a Super Bowl because of the proximity of facilities and the personality of the city.  New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl the most of any city, six times.  New York was guaranteed to get a Super Bowl because of their new stadium and partly because of some 9/11 sentiment, and to try out a Super Bowl in a non-domed cold weather location.

Getting the Call

On Monday, former Cincinnati Reds player Barry Larkin received enough votes to be elected into baseball's hall of fame.  The ceremonies occur later this year, but no doubt this is a big day for Larkin.

Barry Larkin getting the call
photo from Yahoo! Sports

Larkin was the only player to be elected in 2012.  To get elected to the hall of fame, a player needs to be retired for 5 years, and has to receive over 75% of the vote.  If a player is not elected, they can remain on the hall of fame ballot for up to 15 years.  The player will fall off the ballot altogether if they receive less than 5% of the vote.

In this year's vote, Larkin received 495 of a possible 573 votes (86.4%).  Next up was pitcher Jack Morris, who received only 67% of the vote.  While Morris did not make it into the hall of fame this year, he will likely make it soon.  Even though his career is over, he is on the cusp of the hall, and will have momentum to make it in the next few years.  It isn't that their statistics have changed, but kind of how the voters (writers) will slowly elevate a player until they are in the hall.