Will George Will be the next baseball commissioner? Will there even be a next baseball commissioner? Fay Vincent, whom Selig succeeded as commissioner, wrote a book that carries the title “The Last Commissioner.” But at the rate he is going, Selig may really be the last because he may not let anyone else have the job.

But let me get back to George Will because I didn’t throw his name up there just to have a name.

Will, a nationally known political columnist and seemingly permanent member of Selig’s special committees, was one of three names mentioned the other day by a person in Major League Baseball in connection with the commissioner’s job. The other names were Bob DuPuy and Selig.

The way it was related, DuPuy was preparing to leave the position he has held for eight years as president and chief executive officer. Why? Because Selig had declined to support him as his successor but instead was preparing to endorse Will.

When I sought reaction from the principals, there were denials all around. Will accompanied his denial with hearty laughter.

“That’s my response,” Will said by telephone from Washington. “I’ve heard nothing about Bob leaving.” And, he said, he had had no discussion about the commissioner’s job. “No, none,” he said. “Absolutely none.”

Furthermore, Will added, “I love my job as much as Bud loves his.”

DuPuy also said he knew nothing about Will and the commissioner’s job.

“Wow,” he said when I recited the scenario to him. “I was not aware of the latter so it wouldn’t be tied to that. That would be an interesting endorsement.”

He referred to Selig’s reported support of Will to succeed him. But notice DuPuy didn’t deny he would be leaving baseball, which he first served as a Milwaukee lawyer hired by Selig. He didn’t exactly deny it either in an additional comment.

“I have not made any commitments,” DuPuy said in a telephone interview. “I have no plans to leave. I have a contract and I plan to honor that contract.”

When does the contract expire? DuPuy wouldn’t say. “That’s between me and the commissioner and the executive council,” he said.

DuPuy’s contract most likely runs out after the 2012 season. That’s when Selig’s contract expires, and that’s the last year of the contract held by another executive, Rob Manfred, executive vice president for labor and human resources.

“I’ve made no decision about leaving,” DuPuy said.

Often an executive in DuPuy’s position would be considered to be commissioner, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. But George Will? Asked why Will’s name would surface, DuPuy said that with Selig’s contract scheduled to expire soon, “people would start speculating.” And speculation about Will? “His name has been floated in the past,” DuPuy said.

Reading between the lines of DuPuy’s comments and adding other, non-specific comment I have heard off the record, I believe DuPuy will leave M.L.B. When I don’t know and why could very well be linked to DuPuy’s conclusion that he cannot become commissioner, whether Will or someone else is involved.

The No. 1 question is will baseball need a new commissioner after 2012. That’s when Selig’s contract expires. Remember, though, that he is working on his third contract extension.

Back in the early 1990s, when he was acting commissioner, Selig denied that he was the acting commissioner. He was chairman of the executive council, which ran baseball in the absence of a commissioner.

Vincent, who replaced A. Bartlett Giamatti after he died in September 1989, had resigned under pressure in September 1992. The pressure was applied by a group of owners led by Selig, then the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox. The owners planned to try to break the union in negotiations in 1994 for a new labor agreement, and they were afraid that Vincent would get in their way.

Though Selig denied that he was acting commissioner, everybody viewed him as such, and even his own office’s news releases subsequently referred to him by that title.

While he served as acting commissioner, Selig repeatedly denied having any interest in becoming commissioner, and woe to anyone who took him at his word. One was Len Coleman, the National League president, who expressed interest in the job and immediately landed on Selig’s unfriendly list.

In July 1998 Selig was elected to the position for a five-year term, and he was given three-year extensions in 2001, 2004 and 2008, the last taking him through 2012. His salary, set by the executive council, rose through the years to where it now is very likely over $20 million a year.

Throughout his extensions, Selig talked of retirement, but as long as he was healthy no one ever expected him to retire.

A day after the Brewers unveiled a seven-foot statue of Selig at Miller Park, I told him what I had heard about his good friend Will.

“Oh my,” he responded on the phone, “isn’t that an interesting rumor” and quickly added, “It’s not true.”

Selig, who acts and looks younger than his 76 years, doesn’t like to talk about his status or his plans, but when I asked if he thought he would retire after the 2012 season, he said, “I really believe I am going to leave. I believe I am finished after 2012. Does Sue Selig think I will be? No. Do the owners think so? No.”

I don’t think so either. But the idea of Selig endorsing George Will? “It’s absurd,” he said. “That is patently absurd.”

Will himself doesn’t believe Selig is going anywhere.

“I think most people who know Bud are convinced Bud will not leave. He’s well, he’s healthy, the industry is healthy.”