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Minnesota Twins fans HATE Bud Selig because of what happened today in 2001

By Benjamin Chase

MILWAUKEE, WI - APRIL 03: Former MLB Commissioner and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers Bud Selig throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the MLB opening day game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Colorado Rockies at Miller Park on April 3, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WI - APRIL 03: Former MLB Commissioner and owner of the Milwaukee Brewers Bud Selig throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the MLB opening day game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Colorado Rockies at Miller Park on April 3, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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The Minnesota Twins fan base have not been fans of Bud Selig, and what transpired beginning on this day in 2001 is the primary reason

The Minnesota Twins recently made the playoffs for the first time after a 7-year layoff. In 2001, the team was on a similar trajectory, with a young core that was on the way up, having just gone 85-77 (interestingly, the same exact record as the 2017 team had) and finishing 2nd in the AL Central with their first season above .500 since 1992.

Then Bud Selig almost stepped in and ended it all.

Timeline (much of this taken from an article by David Schoenfield of ESPN)

Major League Baseball was coming off a season with plenty of highlights. Barry Bonds had hit 73 home runs. The Seattle Mariners had won 116 games (without Griffey, A-Rod, and Big Unit). The country in part rallied around the game after the tragic events of 9/11, and the World Series was a thriller between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

However, the owners of the league were crying poverty. The first hints that something was amiss was a report from the Ontario paper in the last week of October that the league was going to buy out the Expos and contract the organization along with the Marlins. A few days later, a source told a paper in Miami that the Twins were more likely going to be part of the plan than the Marlins, but the league denied both reports.

On October 29th, before game 2 of the World Series, Selig gave an interview where he stated that contraction would be a possibility for the 2002 season. He announced that the subject of contraction would be discussed during the owners meetings in the first week of November.

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Fall out for the Minnesota Twins

Very possibly the biggest thing that came out of all of this was that long-time manager Tom Kelly retired, citing lack of surety about the Twins’ future as a franchise. When he retired, Kelly was still a young man, as far as managers go. Just 51 at the end of the 2001 season, Kelly likely had 5-10 more seasons of managing ahead of him if he wanted it, especially after having survived the rough mid-1990s era.

Many quotes came out in the legal battles that ensued throughout the offseason from the MLBPA and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission over forcing the 2002 season to be played in order to get more time to plan for the possibility of contraction rather than having it simply sprung on these affected bodies over an offseason. The most damning quote for Bud Selig came in an interview with the Star Tribune in mid-November, when he said the following about Minnesota fans (emphasis mine):

"… (A)t some point in the past decade, despite 26 or so stadium proposals, there were chances to do something, and nothing got done. So there are a lot of people up there who have to look themselves in the mirror,"

The 2001-2002 offseason would bring the most real threat to MLB’s antitrust exemption as well, as Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone was part of introducing a bill that would allow for an “injured party” to sue for antitrust violations. As contraction was dropped in February 2002, the bill was let die as well.

Next: Twins Hire Garvin Alston

The last thing that really was a mess on the whole 2001-2002 offseason was the transition of sales of the Expos to the league, the Marlins to former Expos owner Jeffrey Loria, and the Red Sox to former Marlins owner John Henry. All the moves were very dirty, to say the least, heavily influenced by the league, so much so that Henry’s group had to make somewhere between $30M and $55M in charitable donations as part of their purchase in order to be legally approved according to Massachusetts law.

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