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Baseball commissioner Bud Selig apparently thought he was talking with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in a 12-minute telephone conversation that aired on a Montreal radio station Tuesday.

 

They talked about the Expos and the commish wondered why the Canadian leader hadn't contacted him long before about the plight of the team.

 

In fact, Selig was talking to Marc-Antoine Audette of Les Justiciers Masques (Blind Justices), a group known to listeners of CKOI for its pranks. But Selig, who apparently knows of Chretien, obviously does not know of Audette and his Chretien impersonations.

 

According to various Canadian newspapers, Selig described saving the Expos for Montreal as "mission impossible." He also blamed the Expos' problems on former minority partners, calling their actions "appalling."

 

Major League Baseball spokesman Rich Levin apparently was not amused. He termed Audette's entertainment bit "a reprehensible example of journalism."

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1609891

:lol selig deserves that so much. I would of liked to hear it!

check this out, its Page 2's take on the situation

 

Everybody's favorite Bud

By Graham Hays

Page 2 staff

 

 

Editor's Note: On Tuesday, a Canadian radio prankster called Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, pretending to be Canadian prime minister Jean Chr?tien and wanting to talk about the state of the Montreal Expos. Selig fell for the gag and had a 12-minute conversation with "Chr?tien." Page 2 has transcribed the "conversation" for your pleasure.

 

Faux Chr?tien: Good morning, Commissioner Selig. I appreciate your willingness to take my call -- I usually have to pretend I'm Mike Myers or Alex Trebek. The White House switchboard just laughs at me when I call.

 

Selig: It's my pleasure, Mr. Prime Minister. Although to be honest, I thought we had installed Fay Vincent in the office after running him out of baseball -- sort of like sending Napoleon to Saint Helena. How's Ottawa, these days?

 

 

"What can I say? He really pulled off that Canadian accent. Who knew Canadian sounded so much like French?"

 

 

Faux Chr?tien: It's simply delightful.

 

Selig: Terrific. Would they like the Expos? All it will take is a publicly-funded retractable-roof stadium and a few hundred million dollars -- that's American dollars -- made out to Major League Baseball. Or just Bud, whichever is easier to spell.

 

Faux Chr?tien: Actually, we're having enough trouble keeping the Senators in town.

 

Selig: Political coup? Well, hang in there. I've had my own battles with senators. My advice? Just bring lots and lots of books filled with numbers. Doesn't matter what they say -- most of my testimony came right out of Wendy's high-school algebra books and I fooled those politicians. Numbers confuse people, and nobody has time to revolt when they're confused.

 

Faux Chr?tien: I meant the hockey club, Commissioner. The Ottawa Senators. Alexei Yashin, Patrick Lalime, Marian Hossa?

 

Selig: Gesundheit.

 

Faux Chr?tien: Right, well, I'm sure you're a busy man. And we do have a traffic report coming up in eight minutes ...

 

Selig: A traffic report?

 

Faux Chr?tien: Uh, did I say traffic report? Yeah, I have a meeting next with the transportation minister. Anyway, the Expos were part of the reason I was calling. As a native of Quebec, I'd very much like to see them stay in Montreal.

 

Selig: I thought you were Canadian? Don't you have citizenship requirements for Prime Minister?

 

Faux Chr?tien: It's a province, sir. Sort of like Wisconsin.

 

Selig: We don't speak French in Wisconsin. I mean, I may have tried it in school, but I never inhaled. Nope, we stick with the Queen's English. Thought you folks would as well.

 

Faux Chr?tien: Actually, we speak both. But back to the Expos, Commissioner. What needs to happen for them to stay in Montreal? It's a center of culture in North America. We have wonderful universities like McGill, a lively Latin Quarter, a clean, efficient subway, the second-biggest population in Canada and the second-largest French-speaking population in the world.

 

Selig: Right, but you people are all too busy soaking up life to go to the games. Have you been to Washington D.C. in the summer? It's C-Span reruns and Redskins training camp. People will be falling over themselves to buy baseball tickets.

 

Faux Chr?tien: But how can you fault people for not going to games when the former owners ran the team itno the ground and the current owners -- that's you, by the way, Mr. Commissioner -- won't put any money into the team? For cripes sakes, we've got someone named Rocky Biddle closing games and we're still in the playoff race.

 

 

"If the Expos leave Canada, we will invade Buffalo!"

 

Selig: Well, I'd love to help, I really would, but we're just a little strapped for cash at the moment. Do you have any idea how much all that champagne at the World Series costs?

 

Faux Chr?tien: So the ownership groups in questionable markets like Washington D.C. or Portland are more likely to come up with the money needed to keep Vladimir Guerrero around and bring in someone with more power than an Ohio substation to bat behind him? Didn't you learn anything from the Devil Rays and Marlins?

 

Selig: Oh, I don't know. The Marlins seem to be doing OK this year. That Jeffrey Loria really is a miracle worker, you know?

 

Faux Chr?tien: (Muffled screams)

 

Selig: Is everything all right, Mr. Prime Minister?

 

Faux Chr?tien: I'm fine, Commissioner. Just, uh, choking on some poutine.

 

Selig: Some what?

 

Faux Chr?tien: Poutine. It's a French-Canadian dish. Fries, gravy and melted cheese.

 

Selig: Good God, I haven't done that kind of damage to my arteries since that day in '86 when I ate five brats.

 

Faux Chr?tien: So you don't think Montreal is a viable baseball market? What about the history? Jackie Robinson played his first games as a member of the Dodgers organization here. Doesn't that mean anything?

 

Selig: There are just too many built-in costs. Outfield distances in both feet and meters, two national anthems in two languages, and health insurance for Youppi doesn't come cheap when you work in a building where the roof tends to collapse from time to time.

 

Faux Chr?tien: We have nationalized health care in Canada.

 

Selig: Really? Good thing we didn't go through with that Ken Griffey Jr. deal then.

 

Faux Chr?tien: Commissioner, you don't seem to know much about the situation in Montreal. Did you ever really give the city a chance?

 

Selig: Well, we did give you Frank Robinson instead of Pete Rose.

 

Faux Chr?tien: Have you ever even been to Montreal?

 

Selig: Not as such, no. But I watch all the games on television.

 

Faux Chr?tien: They don't even have English-language television broadcasts!

 

Selig: Right, I knew that. Just wanted to make sure you were really Canadian. Look, I'll level with you. I don't know the first thing about Canada, other than you folks seem to win an inordinate number of medals in curling at the Winter Olympics. But you'll still have a team in Toronto, and that's not so far from Quebec. You guys and Ontario are neighbors, surely you get along well enough to share a team.

 

Selig: Mr. Prime Minister? I'm sorry, I've got to take this call. My boss is on the other line, and he sounds pretty upset about Derek Jeter's injury. George is so hard to please.

 

Graham Hays writes 'Out of the Box,' the inside scoop on yesterday's box scores, five days a week.

 

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/hays/030905.html

:lol selig deserves that so much. I would of liked to hear it!

So your saying you wish their never was a wildcard and that The Marlins instead would just be finishing up another season with no playoff hopes?

I feel kind of bad for Bud. He doesn't deserve that, Chavez does, Castro does, Bud is not evil. the man is just burnt out.

 

Background: CKOI is a French language station in Montreal. It is owned by a "private" company. It is the top Francophone FM station in the Montreal market.

No Bud = No 1997 Championship, I don't see why people hate him so much. The man has good ideas, just bad execution. Nobody's perfect, but at least he is trying. He did something no one else has done, he got a labor agreement without a stoppage of play and you can't fault him for that.

No Bud = No 1997 Championship, I don't see why people hate him so much. The man has good ideas, just bad execution. Nobody's perfect, but at least he is trying. He did something no one else has done, he got a labor agreement without a stoppage of play and you can't fault him for that.

no one gives him for credit for that or anything, all people talk about is the all-star debacle and the dominace of the larger markets (which wouldve happened anyway)

The All Star game wasn't his fault, neither was the dominance of the Yankees. Remember, Steinbrenner is the owner and he spends HIS money on HIS team, to win games. He has the perfect right to do that. What you need to do is place salary caps for individual players, not teams and a payroll minimum.

 

So far, I think MLB is doing well. The Marlins are competing and so are many other low revenue teams. I think Bud has done us a good job.

Shocking as it may seems I am a professional prank caller and I give that dude some props. He must of kept him on the phone for a damn while and thats tough to do

I've heard parts of it.

 

Bud really got fooled because the guy really did not sound all that much like Chretien.

The All Star game wasn't his fault, neither was the dominance of the Yankees. Remember, Steinbrenner is the owner and he spends HIS money on HIS team, to win games. He has the perfect right to do that. What you need to do is place salary caps for individual players, not teams and a payroll minimum.

 

So far, I think MLB is doing well. The Marlins are competing and so are many other low revenue teams. I think Bud has done us a good job.

i know it wasnt his fault, im just saying that people make it sound like its his fault. the thing about the Yankees, thats the union. the union is to damn strong, he's the only commissioner that was able to take concessions from the Union. the cap will never happen

who cares about page 2. Does anybody have THE REAL TRANSCRIPT?

who cares about page 2. Does anybody have THE REAL TRANSCRIPT?

well im sorry, it was the best i could do and i thought it was pretty funny. why do you got to be a b*tch about it?

Because I was confused throughout reading the whole thing and it was way too long to be funny. I wasted my time reading that crap thinking it was the real thing. The real thing should be even funnier. You should have mentioned this was fake on top.

check this out, its Page 2's take on the situation

 

Page 2 is not exactly the most serious writing you'll ever see, and it does say it is their 'take' on it.

 

Sorry dude, but it was pretty obvious it wasn't real.

Page 2 is not exactly the most serious writing you'll ever see, and it does say it is their 'take' on it.

 

Sorry dude, but it was pretty obvious it wasn't real.

thanks cgator for pointing it out

LOL

 

:w00t