As an owner, Selig deserves credit for keeping Milwaukee a viable major league city in the wake of the Braves' relocation to Atlanta. If you look at what a disaster the Seattle Pilots were, his hard work not only allowed that franchise to survive in Milwaukee, but saved MLB from the embarrassment of having a team fold just before Opening Day.

But as a commissioner, the accolades he's receiving are unwarranted. Forget the PED mess and the 1994 strike for a minute. On his watch, he's let Jeffrey Loria gut two franchises, demonstrated disparate treatment of the Mets and Dodgers during their respective financial troubles, let conflicts of interest benefit his team, as well as the contraction controversy in 2001-02. Television revenues have skyrocketed, but I question whether that is sustainable, especially if more consumers ditch cable/satellite.

It will be interesting to see if Rob Manfred will try to set himself apart from Selig, part of which could be re-examining the Pete Rose situation. In the NBA, Adam Silver won praise by demonstrating a different approach than David Stern had, particularly with the Clippers mess.