All Eyes On Bonds, Selig As Slugger Approaches Career HR Mark
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Selig Allows Reporter To Make
Notes From Conversations Public |
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, who over the past three months has had “a dozen telephone conversations" with USA TODAY’s Christine Brennan about Giants LF Barry Bonds and his pursuit of the career home run record, has allowed Brennan to report those discussions after initially requesting they be off the record. But Selig asked “not to be specifically quoted.” Brennan writes Selig “blames the [MLBPA] for blocking his initiatives to get [drug] testing into baseball sooner, but he also realizes that the lack of testing in baseball, whoever is to blame, will be part of his legacy.” Selig “often asks himself what he could and should have done to prevent [players] who are believed to have used performance-enhancing drugs from continuing to play in the major leagues.” Selig, who announced this week he will be in attendance as Bonds ties and surpasses Hank Aaron's record, subject to his commitment at the HOF induction ceremonies in Cooperstown this week, has been “resolute" on his stance that he will not participate in any on-field celebration. Selig "does not want to be seen in any photos with Bonds, at least in part because he is concerned about how history will judge the moment once all the facts finally come to light about Bonds and performance-enhancing drugs” (USA TODAY, 7/26). Selig appeared on HBO’s “Costas Now” this week, and was asked by Bob Costas whether he thinks the steroids issue will taint his legacy. Selig: “I don’t think so. I’m the first commissioner to ever get a drug-testing policy, and frankly, have taken this sport in directions on that issue that they were unable to get. And I’m proud of where we are. This game has never been this popular” (“Costas Now,” HBO, 7/24).
PANEL DISCUSSION: Last night ESPN aired a "Town Meeting” live from the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in S.F. The panel included author Juan Williams, ESPN’s Dusty Baker, ESPN’s Buster Olney, the S.F. Chronicle’s Lance Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell and former MLBers Ellis Burks and Kirk Rueter, who discussed Bonds, the home run record and steroids. Olney: “Selig clearly does not want to be touched by this scandal. That’s part of the reason he does not want to be around Barry Bonds. (But) if Bud Selig wanted to avoid any team or player in order to not touch the (steroids) scandal, he would have to limit his baseball watching to the Milwaukee Little League. It’s 30 teams that have been involved in this. It’s not just Barry Bonds.” Burwell said Selig has handled the home run chase “pretty much like I expected: a little clumsy, not quite right, a little awkward; and it’s not surprising because this has been his pattern of behavior” (ESPN, 7/25).
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| Bonds Questions Costas' Baseball Knowledge |
COSTAS STIRS THINGS UP: On his HBO show this week, Costas' guests included Red Sox P Curt Schilling and BALCO chemist Patrick Arnold, who both said they believed Bonds took steroids. In response, Bonds said of Costas, “You mean that little midget man who absolutely knows jack … about baseball, who never played the game before?" Bonds said of Arnold, who refuted his grand jury testimony that he unknowingly took steroids in ’01, “I've never seen the man in my entire life. I've never heard of the man" (L.A. TIMES, 7/26). Schilling, referring to “Game of Shadows,” the book detailing Bonds’ steroid use, said, "If someone wrote that stuff about me and I didn't sue their (butt) off, am I not admitting that there's some legitimacy to it?" Also during the program, Costas asked Arnold if Tigers DH Gary Sheffield “knows what he’s talking about … when (he) says, ‘I never took steroids because steroids are something you shoot in the butt.’” Arnold: “That’s some sort of weird rationalization. No, he took steroids” (“Costas Now,” HBO, 7/24). Sheffield, on Arnold: “I have never seen this person in my life. I don’t know him. He don’t know me – period” (DETROIT NEWS, 7/26).
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