If you want to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest as MLB Commissioner, you might not want to throw out the first pitch before a home playoff game of the team you used to own. But that’s exactly what the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL says Bud Selig did before Game 4 of the Brewers’ NLDS game against the Phillies. (Not that I trust the Commissioner to have the brains to fix a flat tire much less a playoff series, mind you.)

And he was cheered, loudly, by the fans after he threw a strike. Thus disproving the notion that he’s been such a clueless Commissioner that he would get booed out of any stadium in baseball. Unfortunately, after suspicions were aroused by his throw, he was subject to a random urine sample and found to have been doping by cutting his Metamucil with creatine.

Maybe the Brewers could have used Selig as their starting pitcher instead of Jeff Suppan. The veteran was tagged for five runs in three innings, as the Phillies rolled to a 6-2 victory and a four-game series win. Or maybe they could have just rolled CC Sabathia out there, game after game, inning after inning, until his arm literally exploded on the mound. Not like he’s coming back to the Brewers next year anyway.

So now we have the Phillies and the Dodgers, a shout out to one of the most compelling sports rivalries of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Dodgers had the Phillies’ number at first, much like the Red Sox do over the Angels today, having knocked Philadelphia out of the playoffs in 1977 and 1978. But the Phillies had their revenge in the 1983 NLCS winning in five games.

I just hope that Tommy Lasorda travels with the Dodgers to Philadelphia and meets up with his good friend the Phillie Phanatic. And please, please let someone have a camera.