SportsMLBMilwaukee Brewers

Actions

Bud Selig on the 2018 Brewers: 'I'm always nervous, but make no mistake, they're really good'

Posted at 10:19 PM, Oct 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-12 14:11:42-04

It was early afternoon at the University of Wisconsin, and students were bustling around campus. Inside a classroom in the Humanities Building, was someone most people would never expect to see, Bud Selig, the former Commissioner of Major League Baseball who is now teaching at his alma mater.

"My mom was a teacher," said Selig. "I'm 84, so it just took me a while to get there."

He teaches Baseball and Society Since World War II, two things in which he has a lot of experience.

"I've either lived it or participated in it," Selig said. "It's a perspective they wouldn't get anywhere else."

His students can't believe their teacher is essentially a celebrity.

"This is priceless!" Jake Gain said. "I call my dad every week and say, 'should I even be hearing these stories?'"

The 84-year-old Selig admits teaching kids one-fourth his age keeps him young.

"More than I ever thought," he said. "It keeps me young and active."

Now that he isn't the Commissioner of Baseball anymore, in his downtime he can cheer for his hometown team. 

"I'm always nervous," said Selig. "But make no mistake, they're really good.  When I think of the Brewers, and the struggle to keep them, there's no better story in the country."

Selig has high praise for slugger Christian Yelich, comparing him to Robin Yount.

"From what everybody tells me, Yelich is remarkable," he said. "He's a Milwaukee-type player."

And if a World Series returned to Milwaukee for the first time since 1982?

"This would be really big for Wisconsin, a time and occasion that no one will ever forget," Selig said.

For now, Selig is a teacher that not one of his students will ever forget.  And when asked if he'll never retire:

"I think that's true," he said. "It keeps me active and young."