15,000 Days of Bud Selig
From SABR member Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times on April 26:
15,000 days ago, baseball quietly entered a new era.
15,000 days ago, baseball quietly entered a new era. On that day, the Seattle Pilots franchise—after just one year of existence—ceased to exist. They were declared bankrupt.
The franchise is dead, long live the franchise!
You see, that same day, purchasing the club was a man who operated car dealerships in Wisconsin: Bud Selig, AKA the long time commissioner. And the former Seattle Pilots thus became the Milwaukee Brewers, and have remained so for over 40 seasons.
I don’t know if it happened before or after the sale, but the club also cut starting pitcher Steve Barber that day. If you’ve read Ball Four this fact won’t come as too much of a shock as arm injury addled Barber all 1969. It was either the last act of the Pilots or the first for the Brew Crew.
At any rate, that’s not the only “day-versary” on the day. And there are plenty of good ol’ fashioned anniversaries—the kind normal people track even. Here they are, day-versaries first.
Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/15000-days-of-bud-selig-4-26-11/
Originally published: April 26, 2011. Last Updated: April 26, 2011.