MLB Acting Commissioner Bud Selig issued a statement
yesterday calling for more effective penalties for players
who participate in on-field fights. Selig said that recent
MLB brawls have "reflected poorly on that large majority of
players who respect and maintain the tradition of
sportsmanship." Selig named MLB COO Paul Beeston, NL
President Len Coleman and AL President Gene Budig to meet
with the MLBPA and "immediately devise new and more
effective penalties for those players and managers who leave
the dugout or their on-field positions to incite or further
inflame violence of any sort." Selig added that current
fines and suspensions -- which do not include losses of pay
-- "should be revised or reformed to deter" any violent
behavior (MLB). In N.Y., Murray Chass reports that MLBPA
Exec Dir Donald Fehr said that he "would listen" to any
proposals that MLB officials make (N.Y. TIMES, 6/9). ESPN's
Peter Gammons reported that "one of the things they would
like to do is heavy fines if you come out of the bullpen,
heavy fines if you leave the bench, heavy fines if you leave
your position on the field" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 6/8).
BAY CITY BLUES: In Oakland, Dave Newhouse on MLB: "You
won't find baseball in the Bay Area. Yet we hear it is
thriving elsewhere. ... In truth, baseball crowds are
flourishing only where the most recently built ballparks are
-- Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver, Phoenix. Baseball isn't
the big attraction; it's the facility" (OAK. TRIBUNE, 6/8).
