Schechter: Hall of Fame Honors Selig With Locked Door

Yet somehow it is perfectly fitting for this occasion and for this commissioner. The largest of the vacated offices will be available for meetings and conferences–but only involving VIPs. Even though the press released mentions photos (of the nine commissioners) and other items on display, it won’t be open to the public, nor will it be part of tours (except for VIPs). There is a skeletal collection of books in the “Center,” duplicates of Hall of Famer bios and so on. There’s nothing to do in there but sit and thumb through stuff not related to commissioners, which reportedly was exactly how Selig enjoyed himself for awhile after the unveiling. Maybe he was reading the secret documentation that Abner Doubleday really did invent baseball, as Selig still believes was the case. If he believes the Doubleday myth, no wonder he thinks that people will be able to see archives in this archival center.

So even though the place isn’t what Jane Clark pretended it was at the unveiling, it is what it is–empty, presumptuous, useless, and inaccessible–and therefore the most fitting tribute to Bud Selig’s legacy that I can imagine.