Selig proud of baseball's battle against PEDs

MILWAUKEE — Baseball is cleaner than it's ever been, according to Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

In an appearance at Milwaukee's PLAY campaign event Tuesday morning, encouraging local children to live a healthy lifestyle, Selig spoke on the state of the game in the post-steroids era. He did so while announcing the launch of a drug education program called BASE in conjunction with the Baseball Hall of Fame; the program encourages children to avoid performance-enhancing drugs and live a healthy lifestyle.

And with an MLB drug prevention system Selig called "the toughest program in American sports," the new education-based initiative will continue to move baseball in a direction to rid the game of PEDs entirely, he said.

"I'm very proud of where we are," Selig said. "The sport has been cleaned up. No amphetamines anymore, which played a role in all sports for 50, 60, 70 years. The sport, I think, is cleaner than it's ever been. I have enormous respect for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the program we're doing with them now is another example of how serious we are."

With the league's thorough drug-testing policy in place since 2003, Selig expressed a clear sense of pride in how the program has changed the landscape of the game so far. And with more preventive measures likely on the way — the BASE program has been in the works for a few years — Selig spoke positively of the progress made in the game he's overseen for two decades.

"This is really quite a turnaround," he said.

The BASE program will not attempt to affect the Baseball Writers Association of America and the voting for the Hall of Fame — that's up to the writers, according to Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson. But Idelson was clear that he hopes the program will put questions of whether certain players should be in the Hall of Fame to rest in the future. Such a future, he hopes, will start with the education of young players across the country.

"Baseball is a social institution, and the Hall of Fame is probably the pinnacle of that, helping people understand the relationship between baseball and culture and society," Idelson said. "Steroids are prevalent in society, and baseball simply is showing its mettle by assuring it's no longer a part of its sport and living a healthy lifestyle is important for kids and people of all ages."

Part of the incentive for kids to take part in the program is a national registry the Hall of Fame will establish for those who choose to pledge to living a life free of performance-enhancing drugs. That registry will be a permanent part of the Hall of Fame as kids and adults alike will be able to see their picture and name in Cooperstown as part of it.

On Tuesday, the BASE program finally became a reality when Selig provided the funding necessary to get the program off the ground. But it wasn't the only thing Selig spoke about during his appearance.

Asked whether baseball would ever consider returning to the Olympics and including major league players, the commissioner expressed doubt that MLB players would ever take part in the event, even if it returned to the Olympics.

"I love the Olympics, and I'd like to be in it, but we can't take two weeks off in August to go to the Olympics," Selig said. "It's just as simple as that. ... Number one, it's not fair to a lot of the players, it wouldn't be fair to the clubs. And I can't imagine with the pennant races we have today, telling the players, 'See you in two or three weeks.' ... I'm satisfied. We're growing internationally, and we're doing everything to continue doing that."

Selig also mentioned that he expects the World Baseball Classic to be a hit in its next go-round, as several television networks are currently vying for the rights to the event.

Additionally, Selig seemed pleased with the outcome so far of adding a second wild-card team in each league this season, a decision he sees already as a success.

"All the critics of the wild card seemed to have disappeared," Selig said. "It's fun every morning; you see there's about eight or nine clubs within a game or game in a half, so this is going to be a great August and September, which was exactly our intention."


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