PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Baseball commissioner Bud Selig received a contract extension through 2009 Thursday as owners praised his 12-year reign.

Selig, who has presided over revolutionary changes in the most traditional of major U.S. sports, was given the three-year extension in a unanimous vote of the 30 teams. If he serves out the new term, he will have held the job for 19 years – the second-longest tenure behind Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who became the first commissioner in 1920 and held the job until he died in 1944.

The 70-year-old Selig, whose family controls the Milwaukee Brewers, became acting commissioner in 1992 after leading the group that forced Fay Vincent’s resignation. Selig was given a five-year term in July 1998, and three years later owners extended it through 2006.

“In September 1992, I told my wife when I got on off the plane, she asked how long it would be, and I said, “Two to four months,”‘ Selig recalled. “It’s got to be the longest two to four months in history.”

In April 2003, he said his current term would be his last.

“I had a series of owners who asked me after that time not to close my mind, and they were a little surprised that I had said that,” Selig said. “Once they have articulated that, I believe that my responsibility and my feeling for the sport is such that I want to do what they think is in the best interests of the sport. … I finally felt it was the right thing to do.”

Selig could be commissioner-for-life if he wanted to, according to several owners.

“At this point, yes,” the New York Mets’ Fred Wilpon said. “God willing, Bud’s health will be good. His own interest may change. But right now I’d say yes.”

Colorado Rockies vice chairman Jerry McMorris said the group would have extended Selig’s term for however long he desired.

“If he had wanted six years, seven years, 10 years, I think he would have gotten it today,” McMorris said.

City threatens to shut Wrigley Field down

CHICAGO (AP) – City officials ordered a new round of inspections at Wrigley Field on Thursday and threatened to block Monday night’s game if the team can’t prove the ballpark is safe.

Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek said he ordered the review after a reporter noted during an interview Wednesday that some repairs at the ballpark were “shoddy.”

“I said that certainly the reports we received from the Cubs don’t indicate that,” Kaderbek said, but he said he was concerned enough that he ordered new inspections.

Chunks of concrete have fallen from Wrigley Field’s upper deck on at least three occasions since June, forcing stadium officials to install nets to protect Cubs fans and to conduct full inspections of the upper deck and mezzanine levels in July.

Kaderbek said the Cubs have until noon Monday to show that 90-year-old Wrigley is safe.

“If we can’t get independent verification, to my satisfaction, that the repairs were made and that they were made correctly, and that it is not an issue of shoddy workmanship, we will not have a game on Monday night at Wrigley Field,” he said.

The Cubs are scheduled to play the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.

A spokesman for the Tribune Co., which owns the Cubs and the ballpark, referred all calls on the matter to the team. A phone message left with the Cubs was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

AP-ES-08-19-04 1919EDT