COOPERSTOWN — In imposing a 211-game suspension on Alex Rodriguez, commissioner Bud Selig brought forth nearly as much scrutiny on himself and his intentions as there has been on the Yankees’ beleaguered third baseman.
Nevertheless, as he wrapped up the quarterly owners’ meetings today at the Otesaga Resort and Hotel, Selig shared no doubts over his decision.
“I wouldn’t second-guess it today at all,” Selig said during a news conference. “I know why I did it and what I did. I thought it was eminently fair then, and I think it’s eminently fair today.”
The sentence is historic in his length, as the longest previous punishment for an illegal performance-enhancing drug offense is 100 games (for Guillermo Mota and Manny Ramirez). In his August 5 announcement of A-Rod’s suspension, Selig alleged that A-Rod 1) used and possessed illegal PEDs in multiple years; and 2) obstructed MLB’s investigation of Biogenesis, the now-shuttered anti-aging clinic in South Florida.
The Players Association has vehemently disagreed with MLB’s assessment and has loudly backed A-Rod, and a significant population of fans also has questioned whether Selig took policy and made it personal, given his well-known contempt for Rodriguez.
“I can’t control what other people say and do,” Selig said. “I have a job to do. The job is to protect the integrity of the sport and enforce our program, and that’s what I’m going to do. It’s no more involved than that. It’s exactly what it is.”
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The Tampa Bay Rays, successful on the field and dreadful in the attendance rankings, could be getting some help from Selig’s office.
Because the Rays have made no progress in their efforts to find a new home — their lease with the poorly-located Tropicana Field goes through 2027 — Selig said yesterday, “It’s serious enough that in the last 48 hours I am giving very strong consideration to assigning someone from MLB to intervene in this process, go down there and find out frankly what the hell is going on.”
While that sounds vaguely threatening, it sounds as though it would just be a case of a Selig appointee aid and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg in working with area politicians to work on a solution.
“There’s a frustration at the league level that, quite frankly, I haven’t been able to get this done,” Sternberg said. “…It’s recognized widely, even within the Tampa Bay area, that something needs to get done. Nothing has happened.”
Entering last night’s home game against Seattle, the Rays ranked 29th in baseball, ahead of only Miami, with an average attendance of 18,330 per game.