Christine Brennan wrote a really fascinating article in yesterday's USA Today that sort of seemed to fly under the radar (especially considering how topical Barry Bonds' homerun chase is and how inside she seemed to get with Bud Selig). The column is the product of a couple of months worth of conversations that she had with the commish which she was allowed to "write about what we discussed, although he asked not to be specifically quoted."
From the outset, Selig has been troubled by Bonds' march to the record and torn about the role that he has played in that quest. On Selig's watch, Major League Baseball began testing for performance-enhancing drugs in 2004, 32 years after steroid testing began at the Olympic Games. Selig blames the powerful players union for blocking his initiatives to get 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, and that frustrates him greatly.
He often asks himself what he could and should have done to prevent Bonds and others who are believed to have used performance-enhancing drugs from continuing to play in the major leagues. Yet he is proud of baseball's testing now, calling it the most stringent in U.S. sports, even though U.S. Anti-Doping Agency testing of U.S. Olympic-caliber athletes, for instance, is far more rigorous, comprehensive and state-of-the-art.
First of all: It's laughable that ANYONE thinks that Baseball's current testing policy is the most stringent in organized sports. However, after listening to Brennan on Todd Wright's overnight show on Sporting News Radio today, she (at least) believes that Selig honestly believes that.
That the Comissioner of Baseball is stating publicly that the testing protocol in place is not only sufficient but superlative is a reason for dismay but factor in that he truly believes that it's the best in place... well... it's hard to believe the league survived the strike years.
A couple of other notable items from the article:
--Selig hoped that he wouldn't have to make a decision on Barry Bonds starting a couple of years ago, hoping instead that a grand jury indictment would make the decision for him.
--Selig, the owner of the Milwakee Braves during the Hank Aaron record years, idolized Aaron and (as the article makes pretty clear, doesn't like that this record is being broken.
--He will attend the games in San Francisco, but he will simply sit in a suite, watch the game and then leave. He will not, however, be photographed on the field or with Bonds. This is because of an extreme concern over how history will judge him and his tenure over this era in baseball (the Kennesaw Mountain Landis effect).
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