Boone's early afternoon comments landed on the news wires and prompted an evening counterpunch by Selig.

"The commissioner shouldn't be the owner of a team," Boone said, adding sarcastically, "Oh, I'm sorry, it's in his daughter's name. Yeah, right. That's the No. 1 thing wrong with the game."

Selig's family has controlled the Milwaukee Brewers since 1970. He became acting commissioner in September 1992, then took the job permanently in July 1998.

Selig then turned operation of the Brewers over to his daughter, Wendy Selig-Prieb.

"I don't want somebody that's going to do what's best for the players. I don't want somebody that's going to do what's best for the owners," Boone told a group of reporters. "I want somebody to make the decisions based on what's best for the game of baseball."

Hours later, Bob DuPuy, baseball's president and chief operating officer, blasted Boone's comments in an interview with The Associated Press.

"His comments show a very unfortunate lack of understanding as to what the game is all about," DuPuy said. "To impugn the efforts of the commissioner over the last 11 years is ludicrous. We're trying to market the game to fans, and his comments show ignorance."

Selig showed up in the press box at U.S. Cellular Field during the Home Run Derby, and the resulting scrum was an impromptu news conference. He said he'd heard of Boone's comments.

"People commenting, especially on things they have no clue about, just isn't worth responding to," Selig said. "I've got a lot of people who would be glad to rip a lot of things, but why do that? The guy paying to come into the ballpark doesn't care."

After the Derby, in which he finished last, Boone expressed surprise that his comments had become a hot topic but didn't back down.

"I stand by that," he said. "It's nothing personal against Bud Selig. I'm not here to cause controversy, but I think the best person for the job is someone unbiased with no vested interest in it.

"For Bob DuPuy to call me ignorant, he doesn't know me. One thing I'm not is ignorant."

Finally, someone asked him to sum up his first day of All-Star festivities in Chicago.

He sighed.

"Tough day at the ballpark."

ALL-STAR GAME

P-I reporter David Andriesen can be reached at 206-448-8061 or davidandriesen@seattlepi.com

Add P-I Baseball headlines to
My web site My Yahoo! Google More options