MLB Commissioner Bud Selig yesterday said the league and MLBPA continue to press on creating a more defined and stringent league policy for domestic violence issues, and are involving outside organizations. Foremost in the discussions have been Commissioner-elect Rob Manfred, MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark, and MLB VP/Labor Relations Dan Halem. Selig said, “We’ve been having meetings with various organizations -- two a day actually starting last Friday. And had a couple more (yesterday). And talking to Players Association about it. And we’re going to be very proactive in that area, no question about it.” MLB’s current CBA calls for a voluntary treatment program for several off-field player issues, including domestic violence, and the commissioner holds power to impose discipline for conduct detrimental to the best interests of baseball (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer). MLB Exec VP/Baseball Operations Joe Torre said the league going to come up with a rule concerning domestic violence that is "going to make sense." Torre: "It's a very complicated issue. It's not as easy to say that, ‘If you do this, you do that,’ because if somebody accuses somebody, you still have to have some kind of proof that it’s happened. Trust me, we're in rooms every day talking with different groups about the best way to go about this” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 9/24).
KEEPING PACE: Torre said the league's new pace-of-play committee needs to “work with the players' association, have the players understand that we can cut some time here and there. He said cutting “15 minutes off this game … would satisfy everybody" ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 9/24). But ESPN.com's Buster Olney wrote the composition of the committee "is a head-scratcher." Olney: "Is there a current player (or two) on the committee who might lend some in-the-trenches perspective on what could work and what might not work as well? ... Is there a current manager, someone who has a strong sense of where and how the game can be accelerated? ... Is there a veteran umpire?" Not "one person on the committee has had on-field experience in the past four years." A lot of "thought needs to go into this; a lot of perspective could be useful." There "needs to be more voices on the conference calls and in the meetings" so MLB does "not cycle back to the point when someone is saying: We didn't think about that possibility. We probably should have" (ESPN.com, 9/23). In Boston, Eric Wilbur wrote MLB "once again whiffed when deciding who would be the most important factors in determining a problem." Committee members Clark, Manfred, Torre, Sandy Alderson and John Schuerholz are "all baseball lifers, who'll defend the crown if they have to lunge at the sword to do so." Wilbur: "Try bringing up pitch clocks to that crowd and they'll have you in the brig within seconds" (BOSTON.com, 9/23).
SO LONG, FAREWELL: Selig yesterday said of retiring Yankees SS Derek Jeter, "I cannot tell you how much Derek Jeter has meant to this sport and to me personally." On Long Island, David Lennon notes MLB "already has found its successor to Selig in Manfred," but who "can the sport look to for a Jeter replacement?" That answer "wasn't readily available" yesterday. Lennon: "All we do know is that as Jeter heads for the door, A-Rod looms large on the horizon." Selig's timing "could not be any better" (NEWSDAY, 9/24).
