Bud Selig and his Big Mouth

[OrioleMagic]

Is anyone else infuriated by the pompous, "holier than thou" remarks about ARod's steroid admission by Bud Selig?

Granted the players stuck the needles in their buttocks, but I need the commissioner and some ownership to step up to the plate here and admit this was an epidemic that affected ALL of baseball. At least some responsibility for the "Steroid Era" flourishing for 15-20 years lies with the Commissioner's Office and Front Offices.

[geschinger]

Is anyone else infuriated by the pompous, "holier than thou" remarks about ARod's steroid admission by Bud Selig?

Granted the players stuck the needles in their buttocks, but I need the commissioner and some ownership to step up to the plate here and admit this was an epidemic that affected ALL of baseball. At least some responsibility for the "Steroid Era" flourishing for 15-20 years lies with the Commissioner's Office and Front Offices.

I think that the blame on ownership with this particular issue is overblown... I believe steroids have been against the rules for at least the last 10-15 years and MLB tried to initiate testing programs and were shot down by the Union. MLB certainly profited from cheating but what could have done differently to prevent cheating? We need to remember that anything they wanted to implement had to be approved by a Union that wanted nothing to get in the way of players being able to cheat.

[Dipper9]

I think that the blame on ownership with this particular issue is overblown... I believe steroids have been against the rules for at least the last 10-15 years and MLB tried to initiate testing programs and were shot down by the Union. MLB certainly profited from cheating but what could have done differently to prevent cheating? We need to remember that anything they wanted to implement had to be approved by a Union that wanted nothing to get in the way of players being able to cheat.

What we need is a strong commissioner who won't take any (poop) from either the owners or the Union. What we have instead os Selig. He has been awful for the game of baseball. He has allowed the game to be tainted by steroids. And then to have the gaul to call out ARod instead of accepting the responsibility for HIS league is astonishing. The guy needs to go...the sooner the better!

[sakata_catching]

And then to have the gaul to call out ARod instead of accepting the responsibility for HIS league is astonishing.

Yeah! Can you believe the Macedonias on that guy?

[geschinger]

What we need is a strong commissioner who won't take any (poop) from either the owners or the Union. What we have instead os Selig. He has been awful for the game of baseball. He has allowed the game to be tainted by steroids. And then to have the gaul to call out ARod instead of accepting the responsibility for HIS league is astonishing. The guy needs to go...the sooner the better!

From a PR persepective he has been awful but other than that the game is in significantly better shape after his years of stewardship relative to where the sport was under his predecessor.

But back to steroids, what should a strong commissioner have done to remove steroids from the game that could have actually been implemented without the Union's blessing?

[Migrant Redbird]

What we need is a strong commissioner who won't take any (poop) from either the owners or the Union. What we have instead os Selig. He has been awful for the game of baseball. He has allowed the game to be tainted by steroids. And then to have the gaul to call out ARod instead of accepting the responsibility for HIS league is astonishing. The guy needs to go...the sooner the better!

Let's face it. You will never have a "strong" commissioner like Keneshaw Mountain Landis again, and the game is probably a lot better off because of it. Not only was Landis apparently a crook, he apparently was instrumental in preventing blacks and Latin Americans from playing in MLB.

HAPPY CHANDLER: "For twenty-four years Judge Landis wouldn't let a black man play. I had his records, and I read them, and for twenty-four years Landis consistently blocked any attempts to put blacks and whites together on a big league field ...."

and ....

"[Landis] called Hornsby into his office to reproach him for playing the horses.... Hornsby recriminated Landis by pointing out that the commissioner was playing the stock market with funds from his office and this would cause a scandal if Hornsby exposed it."

Your ire at Selig seems a little misinformed. Selig gets a much worse rap than he deserves. He didn't "allow" the game to be "tainted by steroids". That began many years before he became commissioner, and his efforts to bring the problem under control have largely been thwarted by the Players Association.

If anyone is to blame, it is the players who allowed their labor union to block any effective measures to control steroids until Congress weighed in and broke the standoff. It is the players who either were using steroids themselves or were tolerant of their fellow users. And it is the fans who have long been uninformed and tolerant of steroids abuse, a situation which still exists with most other professional sports.

[Jimbo81]

I personally like how he is considering suspending ARod. Question Bud, what about the other 103 players who tested positive?

Why is Arod the only player getting trashed by this boner Commish?

[OrioleMagic]

Let's face it. You will never have a "strong" commissioner like Keneshaw Mountain Landis again, and the game is probably a lot better off because of it. Not only was Landis apparently a crook, he apparently was instrumental in preventing blacks and Latin Americans from playing in MLB.

HAPPY CHANDLER: "For twenty-four years Judge Landis wouldn't let a black man play. I had his records, and I read them, and for twenty-four years Landis consistently blocked any attempts to put blacks and whites together on a big league field ...."

and ....

"[Landis] called Hornsby into his office to reproach him for playing the horses.... Hornsby recriminated Landis by pointing out that the commissioner was playing the stock market with funds from his office and this would cause a scandal if Hornsby exposed it."

Your ire at Selig seems a little misinformed. Selig gets a much worse rap than he deserves. He didn't "allow" the game to be "tainted by steroids". That began many years before he became commissioner, and his efforts to bring the problem under control have largely been thwarted by the Players Association.

If anyone is to blame, it is the players who allowed their labor union to block any effective measures to control steroids until Congress weighed in and broke the standoff. It is the players who either were using steroids themselves or were tolerant of their fellow users. And it is the fans who have long been uninformed and tolerant of steroids abuse, a situation which still exists with most other professional sports.

You have always been one of the posters here that I respect the most. I just can't find a way to grasp this perspective though.

I do agree that the players ultimately are to blame, but I cannot give Selig and the owners a free pass. I probably don't know everything I should to properly comment on this, but I can think of a few better responses than the comments he made about ARod.

[geschinger]

I do agree that the players ultimately are to blame, but I cannot give Selig and the owners a free pass. I probably don't know everything I should to properly comment on this, but I can think of a few better responses than the comments he made about ARod.

If you were Selig what actions would you have taken (that would have even a remote chance of being acceptable to the players Union) to prevent the steroid issue? I don't think the owners/Selig should get a free pass but at the same time I have a hard time coming up with anything they could have done to prevent it considering the Union was deadset against anything that limited a players' ability to use without penalties.

[RShack]

If you were Selig what actions would you have taken (that would have even a remote chance of being acceptable to the players Union) to prevent the steroid issue? I don't think the owners/Selig should get a free pass but at the same time I have a hard time coming up with anything they could have done to prevent it considering the Union was deadset against anything that limited a players' ability to use without penalties.

What the union is dead set against is having the owners cram things down their throat.

As for what Bud should have done, that's easy. Instead of all the Mitchell Report BS, he should have just told everybody the truth: it was a colossal failure of MLB as a whole. When it started, nobody really understood it, so everybody let it slide. The owners, the FO, the players as a whole, everydamnbody. He should have said that the players who didn't do it are to be commended, but even they played along with it, just like the owners, the FO, and the commissioner did. Which means nobody is innocent and everybody's guilty. He should have said there's no way to undo what happened, there's no way to straighten out exactly what effect it had on everybody's numbers, and that that's part of the crime that all parties participated in, including the owners and himself.

And, if he really wanted to establish a foundation for future cooperation with the union, he should have gone farther than that: he should have said that the ultimate responsibility lies with the owners and himself, because they run the sport and they let it happen. Downplaying the whole blame-the-union thing would have been infinitely better than what he did. The way he mishandled it only deepened the level of mistrust and suspicion. Had he done it right, he could have changed that whole tone. But, since he works for the owners, he didn't want to do that. So, instead, he let the owners off the hook completely and blamed everybody else but them. Which is BS, but the owners love him for it.

[scOtt]

What we need is a strong commissioner who won't take any (poop) from either the owners or the Union. What we have instead os Selig. He has been awful for the game of baseball. He has allowed the game to be tainted by steroids. And then to have the gaul to call out ARod instead of accepting the responsibility for HIS league is astonishing. The guy needs to go...the sooner the better!

The owners don't want a strong commissioner. They have never wanted one. KML was the only strong commissioner ever. The rest have all been puppets. Some more successful than others.

Still, the point stands. The Office of Commissioner has a responsibility to take some of the blame for this whole steroid era. It has an impact on the history of the game. Steroid era.

[Mark Carver]

According to Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle... so any player that tests positive in the 2003 testing procedure was using an illegal substance.

Time now for the name-calling portion of our program, aka, I had the guts to read a few of the posts on this blog.

You mentioned that steroids were put on the banned list in 1991. There seem to be conflicting reports on when steroids were banned. Many news outlets say 2002. I think they are confusing testing with it actually being banned. Anyways, any chance you can provide a source showing that they were banned in 1991?

Commissioner Fay Vincent sent the clubs a memo in 1991 reminding them that players were forbidden from taking any illegal substance. He specifically mention steroids in the memo and encouraged the clubs to take a get-tough policy on players thought to be using steroids.

What could a team have done if it suspected a player of using steroids? Probably nothing.

Vincent simply wanted to be on the record as letting the clubs know that steroid use was against the rules and that they shouldn't be afraid to confront a player.

There was no testing for steroids until 2003 (after being part of the 2002 labor agreement).

The notion that Bonds wasn't breaking any rules is ridiculous. He was. He knew he was.

[Mad Mark]

Whatever Bud Selig's title may be is irrelevant. In his heart and mind he is an owner, and speaks as such. The owner's script is simple and to the point: "The players (and their rotten, stinking union) are the enemy. We shall forever treat them as such."

It's a pretty stupid way to run a sports league, but one that falls squarely into the owners' 19th century view of labor relations. They're still pining for a return of the reserve clause...

[OrioleMagic]

If you were Selig what actions would you have taken (that would have even a remote chance of being acceptable to the players Union) to prevent the steroid issue? I don't think the owners/Selig should get a free pass but at the same time I have a hard time coming up with anything they could have done to prevent it considering the Union was deadset against anything that limited a players' ability to use without penalties.

rshackleford gave a very good in-depth answer.

I am going to give a simple answer...

He should have acknowledged the truth (that steroids were a problem) from the start.

How long ago did Canseco come out with his allegations? Didn't Caminiti die a roids related death? Wasn't Lyle Alzado and his health in the press many years ago?

The players shot themselves in the butt and are inidividually responsible for their actions. The owners buried their heads in the sand... or some call it "willful ignorance"... This willful ignorance is exacerbated by the their obvious motive, which was MONEY!

Everyone gained from steroids use, including the fans (myself included) who got so wrapped up in the season HR record race between McGwire and Sosa, the 7 Cy Youngs of the Rocket, Bonds chasing Mayes, then Ruth, then Aaron...

When I take all these things into consideration, I get livid at Bud Selig and the audacity of his remarks.

[Migrant Redbird]

What could a team have done if it suspected a player of using steroids? Probably nothing.

On mere suspicion? Absolutely nothing in the way of disciplinary action. They could have benched the player, released him, or -- as Whitey Herzog did with Keith Hernandez in 1983 when he "knew" Hernandez was sniffing cocaine but had no proof -- trade him off to the Mets or another team.

However, if a player had been arrested for trafficking in or using steroids, baseball could have and would have suspended him, just as they suspended Steve Howe a total of seven times between 1984 and 1992 for cocaine arrests.

The commissioner and owners were essentially helpless unless they were willing to lock the players out over the PEDs issue. Disciplinary actions are absolutely limited by the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Players Association. Steve Howe was actually banned for life by MLB, but the PA appealed and an arbitrator threw out the punishment.

When we remember how upset fans were over the 1994 strike, should we really blame the owners for not being willing to go to the mat to force the PA to submit to a strong drug testing program?