Baseball getting its man

     Baseball's long-term search for a new leader ended with its old leader. Bud's still the one. The only one. 

     After six years without a commissioner, the sport will finally elect one Thursday, and the lone candidate is the man who said early and often that he didn't want the job -- Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig. 

      "I really meant that,'' Selig said as he prepared to travel to tonight's All-Star game.  " I love what I was doing. Many had said to me they wanted me to stay in some capacity. We argued. The rest is history.'' 

      So Allan Huber Selig won't be acting commissioner for life, after all.

      His detractors say he's indecisive.

      His supporters say he's not impulsive.

     Having watched Bowie Kuhn, Peter Ueberroth and Fay Vincent enrage owners with controversial actions, and A. Bartlett Giamatti become bogged down with Pete Rose, Selig decided the best decisions are often no decisions. He preferred to wait for a consensus to develop. Sometimes, that meant problems festered and opportunities were lost. 

      " I don't accept that criticism,'' he said. " When you look back at the last five years, it's been the most active five years in baseball history.''

     Going into Thursday's meeting in Chicago, he was still avoiding direct questions regarding why he changed his mind about the job. It's clear, though, why owners want him.

      Baseball, a most conservative sport, has been transformed from one-man rule to an owner-friendly consensus government during Selig's reign as chairman of the 10-man executive council. This group seized power following Vincent's forced resignation on Sept. 7, 1992 and installed Selig two days later.

      Some of the highlights:

-- For the first time since professional major leagues began in 1871, the sport adopted regular-season interleague play, which began last year.

-- Each league split into three divisions, wild-card teams were added to the postseason and an extra round of playoffs began in 1995.

-- Selig's Brewers began the first major league team this century to switch leagues, moving to the NL this season.

-- After years of contentious debate, large-market teams agreed to share a higher percentage of their local revenue with the small markets.

Some of the lowlights:

-- A catastrophic 230-day strike by players that wiped out the final 669 games of the 1994 season, led to the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years and shortened the '95 season by 252 games.

-- A 20 percent drop in attendance from 31,612 per game in 1994 to 25,260 in 1995. The average this year probably will be around 28,750, still 9 percent blew its prestrike level.

-- An operating loss of more than $850 million from 1994-96.

     Given those negatives, why Selig? 

     Because he listens, often spending 12 hours a day talking to owners on the telephone.

     "And because there are no surprises with him. By the time he takes action, every owner knows what he's going to do and an overwhelming majority backs him. If there's more than token opposition, he waits. 

      "These issues are contentious,'' he said. " The stakes today are clearly higher than they've ever been. You're better off trying to develop an understanding in people, so when you get to a meeting, they understand the issue. I understand it when people say it takes too long -- I'm an impatient person myself. But times are different. People have a lot at stake. For people to think you can come in and arbitrarily make a decision -- you can't.''