Selig Might Not Follow Bonds HR chase

[Senators2005]

Selig stays noncommital on following Bonds' HR chase
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds might get a telephone call from baseball commissioner Bud Selig instead of a handshake if the San Francisco Giants slugger breaks Hank Aaron's home run record.

Selig wouldn't say Thursday whether he would attend any Giants games if and when Bonds closes in on the mark.

Selig insisted that Major League Baseball would celebrate Bonds' potential feat exactly as it does any other major milestone, such as a pitcher's 300th win. Last year, Selig telephoned San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman when he became the career saves leader.

"I wasn't there when Roger Clemens won his 300th game. That's a matter I'll determine at some point in the future," Selig said at a baseball luncheon hosted by Fox Sports Bay Area. "Let me say it, and I'm not going to say anymore. That's it."

Does he even want Bonds to pass the 755 homers of Aaron, who played his final two seasons in 1975 and '76 with the Selig-owned Milwaukee Brewers?

"It is a fact Hank Aaron and I have been friends for 50 years, close friends," Selig said. "When you're the commissioner, you just don't think about that. I have said before if and when Barry Bonds breaks that record it will be handled the same way that every other record in baseball that's been broken was handled."

There has been wide speculation Selig would prefer that Bonds just retire now to avoid further scrutiny as the seven-time NL MVP pursues the mark of Hammerin' Hank. The 42-year-old Bonds, whose $15.8 million, one-year contract with the Giants remains unresolved less than a week before the team begins spring training, begins his 22nd major league season only 22 homers from passing Aaron -- and Bonds is healthier now than in recent seasons.

"This is a matter between the Giants and Barry," said Selig, who was treated to his favorite frozen custard dessert flown in from Milwaukee. "As far as I'm concerned, as long as things that are being done are in the best interest of the sport, whether it's contractual or anything else, I don't make those judgments."

Bonds and the Giants have differing views of certain language in the deal and Bonds has yet to sign a revised version that omits the promotional clause that runs afoul of baseball's new labor agreement. The version Bonds signed did contain a provision that says the Giants can terminate the contract if Bonds is indicted.

This season, there will be further speculation about whether his quest for the record was fueled by steroids. Bonds long has denied knowingly using steroids.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether Bonds perjured himself when he testified in 2003 in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid distribution case that he hadn't knowingly taken any performance-enhancing drugs.

If Bonds becomes the new home run king, Selig wasn't sure whether the mark would always be tainted by his alleged steroids use.

"Only history will tell us that. I'm not smart enough to make that judgment," Selig said.

Selig did say he likes Bonds.

"I do," he said. "Taking this job after running a team, I have lived with players all of my adult life. I think I understand players very, very well. There are very few players I have disliked for any particular reason. Today I can't think of any players."

New Giants manager Bruce Bochy, meanwhile, is determined to make sure his players don't let Bonds' issues affect his club as it looks to end a three-year playoff absence. Pitchers and catchers report to the team's Scottsdale, Ariz., complex Wednesday.

"We're going to try to stay from any distractions, even with Barry and his historic milestone," Bochy said. "Guys have to remind themselves, 'We're seeing history but we have to win a ballgame."'

[Nat of the Living Dead]

I guarntee Balco Bonds is the only one that is going to TiVo his "historic game."

[2k6nats]

I hate Barry Bonds.  There will be the hugest controversy ever if and when he gets close.  I would REALLY like to see every team walk him when he gets within a few HR of the title.  The only way I would truly accept him as the new HR champion of all-time is if he reduces 30 HR from his career HR total.  That 30 would equal the HR that he wouldn't have hit if he didn't do steroids.

Or how bout he just retires.  That would be so much easier.

[Senators2005]

Between Bonds and a hard place
By Jon Saraceno
Posted 2/11/2007 7:22 PM ET
LINK: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/saraceno/2007-02-11-saraceno-selig_x.htm

As spring training commences, we contemplate Bud Selig's long, awkward doubleheader this summer: slugger Barry Bonds bearing down on the sanctity of a cherished record and sleuth George Mitchell bearing up as he tries to uncover the truth regarding the steroid scandal that has rocked, if not rolled, baseball.
Late last week, Selig demurred when asked at a luncheon in San Francisco whether he plans to personally crown Bonds as baseball's all-time home run king, when and if the day occurs. "That's a matter I'll determine at some point in the future," he said.

Selig has some difficult issues as baseball's storm clouds accumulate. One is his enduring, half-century-long friendship with the honorable man whose all-time home run record is under siege ? Henry Aaron. Selig has gone on record as saying he likes Barry. But he likes, and has enormous respect for, Hank.

Aaron isn't fond of how a generation of artificially pumped-up Popeyes tainted statistics, the lifeblood of the game. Aaron said last fall he has no intentions of shadowing Bonds on his chase, though he gave the giant home-run hitter benefit of the doubt when he said, "The reason I don't want to get involved is everybody is innocent until proven guilty ? until there's proof, I have no comment."

It's the proof part that has Selig hedging.

With Mitchell's investigation creeping along like a caterpillar because of lack of cooperation ? so slowly that the former Senate majority leader has rattled the congressional intervention saber at owners ? Selig understands time is on his side. Why commit to a Bonds home-run party appearance now, in case something else is revealed? If somehow the San Francisco outfielder is cleared, then Selig could present the record-smashing slugger to the world and offer a smile as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge.

One man who doesn't think the second scenario will occur is Fay Vincent. Baseball's eighth commissioner opined Sunday that, "I think the widespread belief that Bonds has been cheating probably is going to be substantiated."

"My expectation would be that (Selig) would not be there when the record is broken," Vincent said by phone from Vero Beach, Fla. "I think he'll send a message: 'We acknowledge it, but we won't acknowledge it the same way we would have if Bonds had not been (allegedly) cheating.' I think he has got it just right."

He said Mitchell's report is critical for several reasons: "He has to tell us what did baseball know? What were the federal authorities telling baseball, if anything? What did the security people know?"

Baseball knew something as far back as 1991. "Look, when I was in baseball there were rumors that (Jose) Canseco was taking steroids," Vincent said. "Baseball knew ? at least I did. I put out a decree banning steroids. But we really didn't know what we were talking about. I don't think we understood. We didn't realize it was going to be as big a problem for baseball as it was."

My view is that the commissioner should not appear in any coronation ceremony. Some fans undoubtedly would enjoy watching him squirm at such a momentous occasion. Selig's mere presence would trigger public derision, leaving him the most ridiculed captain of any sports industry. Then again, not appearing will trigger an avalanche of criticism. I wonder if he has the stomach to face either nuclear fallout.

However hypocritical it might be, Selig should boycott Bonds because to do otherwise would stamp official approval of the record. It will be one of rather dubious merit, given the overwhelming circumstantial evidence involving Bonds and his alleged intentional use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. (Remember, Bonds already has admitted in court that he unknowingly used steroids given him).

None of this ceremony stuff has anything to do with precedence. Selig made a point of saying he wasn't there when Roger Clemens won his 300th game (a milestone), nor was he present when reliever Trevor Hoffman broke the career saves mark (really, who cares?). Neither compare to the enormity of the standard of achievement set by Aaron.

The commissioner says the right things. For far too long, the lords of the game failed to pursue a prudent course that would have uncovered the depths of steroid abuse. Baseball couldn't unilaterally impose a drug-testing policy without the union, but it was too complacent and, therefore, equally culpable.

Earlier this month, Selig was a keynote speaker at Ripon College in Wisconsin. The topic: "Ethics in Sports." He spoke of the game's "integrity," about baseball's "enormous social responsibilities," as an American institution.

"I always say to people that if anybody goes to a game and there's scintilla of doubt, then we have no sport ? it's done," Selig told his listeners, perhaps not sensing that the damage already has been done.

[AuRevoirExpos]

Selig is incredibly weak actually. In my view if a player is under such a huge cloud of suspicion about the use of performance enhancing drugs (and other possibly illegal stuff like the perjury accusations) that he can spark off not one but two huge investigations (without Bonds there would be no Mitchell investigation) then that player should be suspended from the game pending the outcome of the investigation, so the question of Bonds and the home run record wouldn't arise, at least for now.

Bonds is massively tainted in so many ways no matter what they discover about him. Steroids, amphetamines, the perjury investigation, BALCO, it goes on and on. The guys is a one-man 'CSI San Francisco' TV series. It's no wonder nobody wanted to touch him when he came up for free-agancy. Most fans will never accept him breaking the record because they think he's a crook. One day hopefully he will be exposed, and any record he creates wiped-clean. I accept I don't have a very open mind on this - I've read 'Game of Shadows' and the evidence against Bonds is overwhelming.