David Wells has made his most damning criticism of Bud Selig to date ; apparently, the Commissioner owes him dinner.

From the Hartford Courant’s David Heuschkel.

“Bud Selig needs to resign. That’s what he needs to do,” Wells said. “He needs to resign and bring someone in who’s capable of communicating with the players association and the owners, as well as the players, because there’s so much hatred against Bud right now. It’s a joke. Nobody likes him.”

Wells (above), who estimated 95 percent of the players dislike Selig, was set off by a New York Times story where the commissioner ordered the Yankees to remove sign at Legends Field in Tampa that apologized to fans because players such as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Johnny Damon are not playing in exhibition games.

“He’s entitled to that [opinion]. He pays a lot of money to these guys,” Wells said. “If he needs to apologize to the fans, so be it. They get a lot of traffic down there in Tampa to see the Yankees. People want to see Derek Jeter. So if he wants to post a sign that says I apologize for [him] not being here, he owns the place. If Bud has a problem with it, tell him to go take it down himself. And then I’d re-post it again.”

“This is just something where Bud is bored. He has no clue. He’s clueless,” Wells said. “If you say something derogatory toward Bud, he wants an apology. My question is, why is he even wasting his time on something like that? What’s the purpose? Does he have to let people know that he’s there? Tell him to come talk to me. I’ve had issues with him the last few years. He said, `Oh, we need to talk.’ He said, `I’ll take you to dinner when I come to Boston.’ Has he done it? [Heck] no. He’s a piece of [expletive]. And you can quote me on that.”

“He worries about what people say about him and he Googles himself. I’m sure he’s going to Google [his name] tomorrow and say, `Oh, there’s Dave talking about me.’ You know what? Be a man of your words. He’s ducked me for two years.”