Seattle Pilots fans who demonize Bud Selig for stealing our team should remember that, over the years, our civic leaders went to great lengths to try to lure away the Indians, A's, Padres and White Sox. Nor was it Selig who undercut the funding on Fred Danz's effort to buy the Pilots, nor did he shoot down Eddie Carlson's proposal to run it as a public trust. He was just in the right place, at the right time, with a dump truck full of money.

Selig, who grew up around his father's auto leasing business, was also a baseball fan and stockholder in the Milwaukee Braves. After that team left, Selig started an organization called Teams, Inc., to try to bring in another major league team. He even arranged to have eleven Chicago White Sox 'home' games played in Milwaukee, including, somewhat ironically, one where the visiting team was the Pilots. Selig, of course, was later named Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

This deposition was taken at Milwaukee County Stadium, in June of 1973, at the insistence of the plaintiffs. Selig was asked about the ownership structure of the Brewers; his efforts to bring a team to Milwaukee after the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966; his relationship with Sportservice and the events that led up to his purchase of the Seattle Pilots. He recounts all of these in detail, demonstrating excellent recall.

For more information about Bud Selig, see Wikipedia or his official biography at mlb.com.