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MLB commissioner will not stop play for Olympics

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 09:32 CDT

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Commissioner Bud Selig has no plans to stop Major League Baseball play so top athletes can compete in the Olympics.

"That's just not practical. In the heart of pennant races, this is just absurd," Selig told reporters in Detroit Tuesday in response to IOC President Jacques Rogge's comments about why baseball was dropped from the Games program in 2012.

Rogge said concerns over doping and the lack of top players at past Games were the main reasons International Olympic Committee (IOC) members voted last week to oust baseball.

"I'm not going to stop the season," Selig said.

"There is no set of circumstances for me to be able to say to teams in late August, 'Well, now, take two weeks off, guys. We'll see you all except 20 or 25 people, whatever numbers there are that are going to play for either the United States or for the other countries'."

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jason Bay called the IOC decision a setback for baseball.

"International play is the way to go for baseball, it will grow the game. With no baseball in the Olympics, that's a setback," the Canadian said at Tuesday's All-Star Game.

"There's no doubt that a lot of players in Canada look forward to the chance of being in an Olympics."

Selig said he was saddened by the decision but the steroids issue was not a valid reason for the sport's ejection.

IMAGE HURT

Baseball's image in the United States has been tarnished in the past year after a number of leading players were linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) steroids scandal.

Selig acknowledged steroids was a concern but he criticized those who were unhappy with the major leagues' new drugs policy.

"Is the current program working? It is," Selig said. "But I believe there is a deeper issue. I believe there is an integrity issue involved.

"We must create everywhere the understanding that we mean to rid this sport of steroids."

Six players, none prominent, have been suspended for testing positive under the new policy, which came into effect in March.

In the face of U.S. congressional criticism, Selig has proposed tougher standards, including the suspension of first-time offenders for 50 games. Under the current policy first-time offenders are suspended for 10 days.

Even stricter legislation has passed a U.S. House committee. It would create minimum standards for drug testing of U.S. professional sports and would provide for a lifetime suspension for a third offense.

(Additional reporting by Roger Lajoie in Detroit)

Source: REUTERS

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