Selig worked for his father’s auto leasing business and became a minority owner of his hometown Milwaukee Braves. After the Braves left for Atlanta, he worked tirelessly to bring the big leagues back to the city. He succeeded in 1970, buying the bankrupt Seattle Pilots and christening them the Brewers.
Twenty-two years later, when the owners ousted Fay Vincent as commissioner, Selig took over and stayed on the job longer than any commissioner except the first, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Selig oversaw baseball through periods of not only strife — the 1994 strike, which canceled the World Series, and the steroids scandal that mutated the record book — but also modernization, making several sweeping changes.
Some of those were reflected in the final World Series of his tenure, between the Royals and the San Francisco Giants, both of whom reached the postseason as wild cards. Selig had expanded the playoffs to include wild-card teams, and pushed for an economic system that helped small-market teams like the Royals become more competitive.
The Royals had not appeared in the World Series since 1985, when a team built largely by Schuerholz won its first championship….
