Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman concluded two days of explanations Thursday by apologizing to Selig for an earlier allegation that Major League Baseball “extorted” an agreement from new Houston Astros owner Jim Crane to move the franchise from the National League Central to the American League West next season.
“It was a good conversation,” Berkman said Thursday night. “I basically apologized for using the word ‘extortion.’ I had a chance to tell him where I was coming from and he had a chance to explain where he was coming from.”
Berkman phoned Selig shortly after being advised to do so by one of his agents, Scott Sanderson.
The loquacious Berkman and Selig exchanged views for about 10 minutes. Berkman said the conversation ended amicably after he sensed the commissioner was “a little disappointed and maybe a little hurt” over his usage of a word suggesting a felony.
“A lot of things sound better in your head than they read in print,” Berkman said. “It’s certainly a situation in which I was trying to express a pretty strong emotion. For me, it’s water under the bridge now. I’m more than happy to make amends. I don’t carry any ill will or animosity. That’s not me.”
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1. Chris Needham Posted: March 23, 2012 at 08:06 AM (#4087347)If he's a good agent he can put his personal feelings aside and advise the client to do what is best for the client. There is no benefit that I can see for Berkman to make these statements and having Selig/MLB pissed at him could bite him in the ass if he gets involved in a situation where league discipline becomes an issue (PEDs, charging the mound, etc...).
but he's up against bud selig so he was forced to "apologise" before bud made his life difficult - to put it PC
because hey, maybe berkman's name was on that list along with sammy sosa and anyone else who people want to tar with an unprovable accusation of steroid use
Don't see how those two things are remotely the same. One phrase is clearly being used as a figure of speech, one is clearly not.
We all know how you feel about the Astros moving to the AL, but as I said in the original thread, I don't see how this is true at all. MLB made the move part of the negotiation, but a negotiation is still all that it was. A person being extorted doesn't get to walk away from the deal with no negative consequences for them.
Yeah, Crane could say "no", but if MLB makes it a tacit requirement of the purchase, how does it not end with the Stros in the AL?
I have to admit that I found this sentence amusing. Sports writing rarely amuses me any more, so that's noteworthy in and of itself.
And I still think that bribe is a better description than extort for what MLB did to Crane.
The Astros ultimately ending up in the AL doesn't make anything extortion. If you are trying to sell your house and garden as one packages, ultimately they are going to be sold together if that's what you want. The fact that I wasn't able to buy the house without the garden, does not mean I was extorted.
MLB making the move part of the approval is their prerogative as the holder of those rights. Them not being able to exercise those rights as part of the negotiation in the way they choose would actually be much closer to extortion than what actually happened.
That's not good enough. As spokesman for the extortionists, I would have given the Astros the choice of the American League or the Venezuelan Summer League. That'd learn those ####### cowboys.
Oh, and The Scott Sanderson -- really, he is an agent? The one-time Expos/Cubs/Yankees chronically sore-backed pitcher?
Selig is devious, first he forces a public apology from Berkman, then he arranges for somebody to beat the crap out of him.
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