"BY THE TIME I LEAVE, YOU WON'T RECOGNIZE THE SPORT." Selig's warning.

• Hearing about "Bud's" renewal through 2012, I thought to myself I won't recognize baseball by the time he leaves. And he'll say he was "anguished" about the decision. It turns out, "Bud" Selig today boasts about what I feared:

""I spent a lot of time agonizing over it, mainly with myself," Selig said. "But they really convinced me."

• "By the time I leave, you won't recognize the sport," he said.

"I have great dreams about internationalization," Selig said. "I feel comfortable telling you that we will do some very dramatic things internationally.""

• Reference, "Baseball Owners Extend Selig's Contract," by Eric Fisher, Sports Business Journal, published on SportingNews.com, 1/17/08

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• 4 biggest points in my opinion:

First, somehow separate AL and NL presidents must be installed as soon as possible.

• Second, like the stock market and the general economy, things change. At first people cut out Starbucks, next baseball tickets. Ticket sales will not keep up. Revenue will fall, it has to by common sense. This isn't the federal government where you can just print money.

Third, reports are some players dropped out of baseball after increased drug testing (mentioned by Kevin Kennedy yesterday on XM). If that's so, the number will increase, not decrease. There already aren't enough good players for 30 teams. And neither Florida team can survive with all this. 24/7 Yankee bashing will not help.

• Fourth, adding the enormous stress of international play--at least one pitcher said a Japan trip threw him off for half a season--is a joke no one will speak about at the moment. Foreign travel with American players will not survive on top of their already ridiculous schedule. You say they can't even take diet pills/amphetamines which many have to use today for a day game after a night game? It's physically impossible.

P.S. Will a new stat be created--as it actually should--for players who've performed under more stressful conditions created by international travel, bad air in airplanes, air pollution and bad food in foreign countries, etc.?

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