Daily Inspiration Quote by Bud Selig

Pragmatism disguised as inevitability: Selig’s line is the kind of corporate-sounding sentence that quietly picks winners. “The one thing we know today” narrows the field of debate to a single, supposedly self-evident truth. It’s not an argument so much as a pressure move, a way to imply that anyone resisting change is resisting reality itself. The phrase “do business” is telling, too. In a sport that sells myth, memory, and civic loyalty, Selig reaches for the language of the balance sheet. That choice signals the real audience: owners, sponsors, labor negotiators, and lawmakers - the people who can make or break baseball’s economics.

The subtext is less about reform than leverage. “We can’t continue” sounds like moral urgency, but it’s usually deployed to justify structural changes that redistribute risk: salary restraints, revenue sharing, realignment, public stadium financing, or new media strategies. It also smuggles in a convenient erasure of responsibility. If the past way of doing things is now impossible, then whatever comes next isn’t merely preferred; it’s necessary. Necessity is a powerful shield in a sport constantly accused of choosing profit over tradition.

In context, Selig’s tenure was defined by baseball trying to modernize without admitting it was being dragged there: labor wars, franchise instability, steroid-era credibility damage, and an accelerating shift toward national TV money. The line works because it frames upheaval as sober stewardship, letting baseball change its rules while pretending it’s simply keeping the lights on.