For the Good of the Game: The Inside Story of the Surprising and Dramatic Transformation of Major League Baseball

A New York Times bestseller

Foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The longtime Commissioner of Major League Baseball provides an unprecedented look inside professional baseball today, focusing on how he helped bring the game into the modern age and revealing his interactions with players, managers, fellow owners, and fans nationwide.

More than a century old, the game of baseball is resistant to change—owners, managers, players, and fans all hate it. Yet, now more than ever, baseball needs to evolve—to compete with other professional sports, stay relevant, and remain America’s Pastime it must adapt. Perhaps no one knows this better than Bud Selig who, as the head of MLB for more than twenty years, ushered in some of the most important, and controversial, changes in the game’s history—modernizing a sport that had remained unchanged since the 1960s.

In this enlightening and surprising book, Selig goes inside the most difficult decisions and moments of his career, looking at how he worked to balance baseball’s storied history with the pressures of the twenty-first century to ensure its future. Part baseball story, part business saga, and part memoir, For the Good of the Game chronicles Selig’s career, takes fans inside locker rooms and board rooms, and offers an intimate, fascinating account of the frequently messy process involved in transforming an American institution. Featuring an all-star lineup of the biggest names from the last forty years of baseball, Selig recalls the vital games, private moments, and tense conversations he’s shared with Hall of Fame players and managers and the contentious calls he’s made. He also speaks candidly about hot-button issues the steroid scandal that threatened to destroy the game, telling his side of the story in full and for the first time.

As he looks back and forward, Selig outlines the stakes for baseball’s continued transformation—and why the changes he helped usher in must only be the beginning.

Illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs.

For more than a century, the game of baseball was resistant to change&;owners, managers, players, and fans were all against it. No one knew this better than Bud Selig, who as the former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and the ninth commissioner of Major League Baseball for more than twenty years, brought about more change during his tenure than his eight predecessors combined. He ushered in some of the most important, and controversial, innovations in the game&;s history&;modernizing a sport that had remained virtually stagnant since the 1950s, and putting the league on sound financial footing for the first time in a generation.

In this illuminating and surprising book, Selig goes inside the most difficult decisions and moments of his career, looking at how he worked to balance baseball&;s storied history with the pressures of the twenty-first century to ensure its future. A fan to the core and a man who came to baseball ownership because of his unwavering faith that baseball belonged in Milwaukee, Selig recounts how these twin forces cemented his belief in the unifying power of baseball, guiding him through his most contentious moments and allowing him to make his hardest calls, always with an eye on the future of the sport. Featuring an all-star lineup of the biggest names from the past forty years of baseball, Selig recalls the vital games, private moments, and tense conversations he&;s shared with owners, the players union, and Hall of Fame players and managers. He also speaks candidly about the steroid scandal that threatened to destroy the game, telling his side of the story in full for the first time.

At once a baseball story, a business saga, and a memoir, For the Good of the Game chronicles Selig&;s life in the stands, takes fans inside locker rooms and boardrooms, and offers an intimate, fascinating account of the frequently messy process involved in transforming an American institution. What emerges is an invigorating portrait of the intersections within baseball&;from the players to the owners to the teams themselves&;and what it takes to make the toughest decisions. With his trademark honesty and bluntness, Selig&;s story provides an unprecedented look at how baseball faced its demons and became stronger and smarter than ever.