Bud Selig says baseball will play vital role in helping America find some normalcy

MILWAUKEE — Bud Selig is teaching his University of Wisconsin course — Baseball & Society Since WWII — online from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, as he and his wife do their part to slow the COVID-19 pandemic.

And, like everybody else, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball and ex-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers is waiting for the game to make its return.

MLB, along with all other professional sports in North America, is on indefinite hold during the public health emergency, marking just the third time in modern history that the game has been halted for reasons other than labor issues.

All games were canceled on June 6, 1944 after the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II and again in 2001, when games were postponed for a week following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Selig considers President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Green Light Letter” to then-commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis encouraging baseball to continue during World War II as one of his favorite artifacts in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The game helped the nation through one of the darkest times in its history, offering a much-needed mental break for those with loved ones on the front lines and also a way for those on the home front supporting the war to enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation ... not to mention something for the troops to keep tabs on as they battled their way across Europe and the Pacific.

A half-century later, baseball again provided therapy for a nation that was still reeling after the terror attacks of 9/11.

Selig had woken up that morning preparing to preside over a meeting of baseball owners at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee but those plans were scrapped quickly after terrorists slammed two planes into the World Trade Center in New York.

As owners scrambled to return home, Selig started working the phones, first making sure all teams, players and personnel were safe, then trying to figure out what to do with a full slate of 15 games scheduled for later that day.

Selig then reached out to a former member of the owners’ ranks, who thanks to his new job, would have the perfect perspective: President George W. Bush.

“There was no right thing to do,” Selig said. “I talked to (former UW athletic director Pat Richter), I talked to (former Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delaney) and I talked to President Bush. It was a very tense week.

Ultimately, Selig postponed games through the weekend with baseball returning to action on Monday, Sept. 17 with a six-game slate, including a matchup between the Brewers and Cardinals in St. Louis.

That game began with a pregame speech by legendary Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck, which he closed by asking “Should we be here today?”

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Selig recalled tears welling up in his eyes watching from home with his granddaughter — former UW hurdler Marissa (Savitch) Metzdorf — as a Busch Stadium crowd of 32,000 responded with a resounding “yes.”

“I spent that weekend feeling very nervous and when Monday came, you’re wondering if you’re doing the right thing and you’re hoping baseball can do something to help the country recover,” Selig said. “But I knew then that the decision was the right one.”

Those games marked a significant first step for a country still scarred by the sight of the crumbling towers, and five days later — 10 days after the attacks — the healing process took a giant step forward when the Mets hosted the Atlanta Braves in the first sporting event held in New York since the attacks.

Players from both teams took the field wearing hats honoring the New York Police and Fire departments, which had used Shea Stadium as a staging area in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

A sellout crowd of 41,235 was on hand for the game, a 3-2 Mets victory highlighted by Mike Piazza’s go-ahead home run in the eighth inning.

New York was still in the early stages of recovery six weeks later when the Yankees returned home to host the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the World Series. Brewers manager Craig Counsell was an infielder on that Diamondbacks squad and remembers the emotions he felt as he and his teammates arrived in the city.

“We were there for five or six days and the city just felt ... heavy,” Counsell said. “I don’t know if that translates very well but there was just a lot of emotion.”

Selig was in New York for that game, too, as was his friend, President Bush, who threw out the first pitch prior to Game 3 while the crowd roared and chanted “U-S-A.”

“It was incredible,” Selig said. “But in one of it’s toughest moments, baseball was able to play a small role in the country coming back.”

Counsell remembered the “surreal” sight of a massive police presence as the Diamondbacks arrived at Yankee Stadium and vividly recalled the sight of Bush walking out to the mound, a little more than 10 miles from Ground Zero.

“When President Bush walked to the mound, gave a thumbs-up and threw the first pitch ... that was a special moment,” Counsell said.

Counsell and Selig are both optimistic baseball can once again provide joy for a weary nation.

“We have a long way to go, but let’s hope so,” Selig said.