Bud Selig never won any popularity contests as commissioner of Major League Baseball. The best thing that could be said about Selig’s tenure, which began on an interim basis in 1992, became permanent in 1998, and lasted until February 2015, was that baseball’s revenues improved dramatically during it, going from $2 billion to $9 billion.
That alone is probably enough to get 82-year-old Selig into the Baseball Hall of Fame, overlooking his role in the 1994 strike or stopping the 2002 All Star Game or, in general, having all the charisma of a used car salesman. His selection could be coming in a few months, with the least-anticipated Hall of Fame speech in recent memory as early as next summer.