Bug Selig Accepts Two Year Contract Extension, Will Remain League Commissioner Through 2014 Season

Sue Selig has said all along that there was no way husband Bug Selig would walk away from Major League Baseball (MLB) and now the man who will turn 80-years-old in July has agreed to extend his contract for two additional years, allowing Bud to lead the league through the 2014 season.

On Tuesday I reported that the offer was ready to be made and while Bud has said in recent years that he was ready to walk away from the sport he has run since 1992 pretty much everyone around him said he couldn’t give it up.

Selig became the interim commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1992 and the interim part of his title was then removed in 1998.

Speaking about his decision to remain at the top of baseballs control he said on Thursday:

“I’ve often said, and I believe this, for me personally in my life there’s no higher honor than being the commissioner of baseball.”

If he hadn’t agreed to the extension his rein as baseball commissioner would have ended on Dec. 31, 2012.

According to Bud Selig he would have loved to teach after leaving the position however team owners pleaded with him to stay.

“I started hearing a couple of weeks ago that there was a groundswell movement to do this,” he said. “‘You can’t leave now.’ I’d hear from various owners.”

“In the end, doing what’s in the best interest of baseball — if this many people believe that and feel that — is something that I felt I should do,” he said.

Should Bud Selig extend his contract two more years and continue to perform his duties through September 2016 he will become the longest serving baseball commissioner in league history, passing Kenesaw Mountain Landis who managed Major League Baseball from 1920-1944.

If he stays until September 2016, he would surpass Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-44) as the longest-serving baseball commissioner.

Do you think MLB owners made the right decision in extending Bud Selig’s contract through the 2014 season?