IS BUYING CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
Will there be more replay? No . . . probably.
Will the postseason ever end earlier? No . . . probably.
How does he feel about the return to baseball of Mark McGwire?
Strongly, for a change.
Selig offered a fiery endorsement of McGwire's return next season as the hitting coach for Tony La Russa and the Cardinals.
Always a favorite of Selig's, Big Mac was baseball's gigantic messiah in the poststrike years in the 1990s, then became its shrunken pariah after he was linked to use of substances that were not even banned when he was bashing.
McGwire's uncomfortable testimony in front of a congressional committee cast him as an evasive, poorly spoken cheater.
And, since then, he has virtually disappeared.
Now, he's back. And Bud's glad.
"I know how badly the Cardinals wanted to do it. I know that Tony La Russa - who's been talking to me about it - I know how close they are," Selig said yesterday at a news conference before Game 2 of the World Series. "I know how much [Cards president] Bill DeWitt wanted to do it."
Selig understands that, since this is baseball's postseason, McGwire's return has been muted. Come spring training, it will explode. McGwire is that big.
McGwire's home-run battles with Sammy Sosa, his prodigious shots and batting-practice crowds - stadiums routinely opened early so fans could watch him swat - renewed interest in the sport, gave the game a consistent, identifiable story line. All of which happened during Selig's regime.
So, too, did the outrage that followed confessionals from admitted juicers Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco. Baseball was undressed as a major league joke that turned a blind eye to obvious and rampant performance-enhancement use, even as football sprinted past it in popularity and testing policies.
The implications of a legion of baseball's top players - Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, Roger Clemens and, more recently, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez - often falls back on the once-broad back of McGwire, who, three times, has not come close to receiving the necessary votes to earn a place in the Hall of Fame.
Selig warmed to defend what he considers great advances in the past few years in the areas of testing by Major League Baseball, saying MLB now features "the toughest testing program in sports."
Selig made it clear, however, that McGwire will suffer nothing for whatever sins he might have committed in the past.
"I can only deal with the present and the future," Selig said. "Over the years, I develop affection for players I get to know. When he comes back, [the press] will have a lot of opportunities to talk to him and question him about a lot of things. The fact that he's coming back gives you an opportunity you wouldn't have had.
"Think about that," Selig said, hotly. "Think about that." *
|
|
|
|
|
|
