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Selig’s Swan Song
Outside the Lines (Sunday 8 a.m. ET ESPN2; 9 a.m. ESPNEWS)
T.J Quinn interviews Bud Selig at the Commissioner’s favorite Milwaukee lunch spot: Gilles Frozen Custard
This month concludes Bud Selig’s final season as Commissioner of Major League Baseball, a job he’s held longer than all but one of his predecessors. The first team owner to become commissioner, Selig stepped into baseball’s bitter labor wars and the start of the scandalous steroids era. T.J. Quinn sat down with Selig to discuss the man and how he’s handled his signature challenges during 22 years on the job.
“People say, ‘Well, they should have known’. Well, how should they have known? Not one baseball personality had come to me — general manager, anybody — and said, ‘Gee, I think we have a problem’.” – Bud Selig, on criticism of MLB’s reaction to early PED suspicions
“All I can say is look at the sport today. And look at what it was in 1992. And I’ll let that record stand. And if there are people that underestimated me, that was their mistake. And (it) probably helped me.” – Bud Selig
“Believe me, I never controlled him, and there were times when I wished I had controlled him.” — Jerry Reinsdorf, Chicago White Sox Chairman since 1981, on Selig being labeled as Reinsdorf’s puppet
“It’s actually a known internal joke that everybody that talks to Bud, even if they’re on different sides of the issue, thinks he agrees with them. And what he’s usually done is he hasn’t committed to anybody and then, eventually, a consensus will arise.” — Donald Fehr, Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director, 1983-2009
The Third Coming Of Derrick Rose
ESPN The Magazine (“NBA Preview” issue on newsstands Friday)
ESPN.com
Two reconstructed knees later, the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose is not the same man he used to be. The former MVP has played a combined 49 games in the past three seasons, while watching his Bulls lose in the playoffs all three years — twice in the first round. But now, with the “Big Three” era over and with two healthy knees, the NBA is his for the taking. Wright Thompson reports.
The Shadow Life of Jim Irsay
ESPN.com
ESPN The Magazine (on newsstands October 31)
Colts owner Jim Irsay’s relapse extends further back than the March 2014 mug shot that shocked the NFL; it impacted three families, and involved his longtime girlfriend, who would die from a drug overdose. Shaun Assael reports.
Dale Jr. Candid
NASCAR Countdown (Sunday, 1 p.m. ESPN)
The son of a legend and NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed a resurgence in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year. In a visit to the remains of a North Carolina dirt track where his father and grandfather were stars, the normally guarded Earnhardt opens up like never before with ESPN’s Marty Smith on a variety of topics, including his career, maturity and family name.
“I look at myself back then and I’m like, ‘What were you thinking?’ And yeah, you know, it’s amazing we won what we did. And I had a lot of talent but I didn’t get it out of the car. I just rested on my legacy and last name.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“My own mood’s based off of how I perform. My family’s important to me, but not as important as my performance, and if that’s wrong, it’s wrong but right now, my performance drives everything in my life – everything.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jason Witten
E:60 (Tuesday 8 p.m., ESPN)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zGbNBPnvw&feature=youtu.be
Twelfth-year Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten has six All-Pro selections, played in nine Pro Bowls and owns the franchise record for receptions. But what sets him apart, are his toughness and resilience, traits he learned at an early age, although not by choice. Witten grew up haunted by an abusive father until, at the age of 11, he and his battered mother moved to live near their maternal grandfather, a legendary high school football coach who helped Witten heal and emerge as a star football player. Today, the Cowboy star has established a foundation that mentors boys whose mothers are victims of domestic violence. E:60’s Jeremy Schaap reports.
“His career has been exceptional. He’s hit every mark you could ever have, and he’s going to go down as the first- or second-greatest tight end of all time.” – Tony Romo, Cowboys’ quarterback