PIT Post-Gazette: Baseball commissioner takes no issue with Pirates’ finances

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said today that he has no issues with the Pirates’ finances or commitment to winning in light of the team recently divulging $35 million in profits from 2007-09 and a $20.4 million distribution to ownership.
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Selig told the Post-Gazette last September that he had no issue with the Pirates’ finances and that he never received a complaint from a team owner or the players’ union. He reiterated both Friday, adding that the teams and the union had access to all teams’ figures teams before the recent leaks of five teams’ books to the Associated Press and Deadspin.com.

Selig cited as evidence on the union front a meeting between the Pirates and the union’s new chief, Mike Weiner, during spring training in Bradenton, Fla. That was aimed—and succeeded—at heading off a union complaint similar to the one that prompted the Florida Marlins to pass the Pirates in spending this year.

“I feel comfortable with telling you that the union wanted to talk about Pittsburgh six months ago. They did and left satisfied,” Selig said. ““Let me say this to you: We constantly check everything. The players association has all the numbers. You have to look at the long view of numbers, not just a year or two.”
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[Selig] applauded the Pirates’ investment in the draft, which has been highest in the majors over the past three years at $30.7 million and was second-highest this season at $11.9 million: “I follow the draft intimately, and I think they’ve done a good job of signing players the past two or three years. I think they’re on the right track. I really do. I evaluate everything that goes on, and people tell me the kids that they’re signing are good. I know there’s frustration, and I understand that. And I’m not unsympathetic. But I really think they’re on the right track.”