Highly Placed MLB Source Says Selig Will Investigate Bonds

Selig To Launch Investigation Into Bonds’ Steroid Use?

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig “has decided he cannot ignore the allegations” put forth in two new books about Giants LF Barry Bonds, according to a “highly placed MLB source” cited by Phil Rogers of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The source said, “We have to do something.” The source said that Selig “hoped to have the details put together by next week,” but is “unclear if it will be an independent study of Bonds or a joint review” including MLB Senior VP/Security Kevin Hallinan. Rogers writes by appointing an individual or a committee to investigate Bonds, Selig “will be conceding he lacks the grounds to discipline Bonds at this time.” The source: “We have no empirical data.” While Selig has “insisted MLB has not investigated Bonds,” the league reportedly has “worked many of the same sources” as “Game of Shadows” authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams since Bonds was called to testify in the BALCO grand jury investigation in December ‘03 (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/16).

CAN SELIG SUSPEND BONDS? Player agent Alan Hendricks said if Selig tries to suspend Bonds, “the union would squash him.” Hendricks: “It may be all right to make Bonds uncomfortable, but it’s not right to suspend him” (USA TODAY, 3/16). But SI’s Tom Verducci writes Selig could suspend Bonds, “knowing the issue could wind up being decided by arbitrator Shyam Das.” That would put the MLBPA “in the position of defending a steroid cheat who dropped out of their licensing program.” Selig would be suspending Bonds “not for a violation of the drug policy but for conduct detrimental to baseball. Whether Das would uphold the suspension is almost incidental to Selig’s establishing an official condemnation of Bonds” (SI, 3/20 issue).

Stearns Inquiring About Commissioner’s Role In Policing Steroids

LETTER OF THE LAW: U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) sent a letter to Selig on Wednesday asking him “about his role in policing steroid use [in MLB] from 1998 to 2002.” Stearns “asked Selig for information about a 2004 meeting with Bonds, baseball’s policy for addressing alleged steroid use if a player doesn’t fail a drug test, and what Selig’s authority is to investigate alleged steroid use.” Stearns sponsored legislation last year calling for tougher drug testing in sports (AP, 3/16).

FOLLOWING PROTOCOL: MLB President & COO Bob DuPuy in his World Baseball Classic blog responded to an ESPN report that said a drug testing memo sent to players on the preliminary rosters for the WBC did not include several popular performance-enhancers. DuPuy writes, “ESPN the Magazine is just plain wrong in stating that somehow our drug testing protocol for this event is less that the WADA standards, or is in some way deficient. From the very start, it was imperative that we have a drug testing program that complied with international standards (i.e., WADA).” He adds the testing program “is being run and administered by the International Baseball Federation. This list of substances that was submitted to the players was taken off the WADA web site. That the list may now have been amended is frankly irrelevant and a red herring, and not our responsibility” (MLBLOGS.com, 3/16).