Baseball Commissioner

DETROIT - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig would love to use the sweeping powers of his office to rid the sport of performance- enhancing drugs if only his powers were as sweeping as some people would like to believe. Selig has asked the Major League Baseball Players Association to join him in adopting a much tougher steroid-testing program than the one that currently appears to be working just fine, because the fact that it seems to be working is only half the battle. "I believe this is an integ rity issue."

Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent was among the VIPs who attended the final game. He sat in a field box beside the Orioles dugout, and he spoke affectionately of the ballpark he visited often during the 1970s, when he worked in Washington."

NEW YORK -- Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent said yesterday that between eight and 10 of the 26 major-league teams lost money last year, and that the sport is headed for leaner times if player salaries continue to escalate.Vincent declined to identify the teams that operated in the red, but he said most play in smaller cities and make less from television contracts than teams in larger cities."No rational person can see what is going on in baseball and not have concerns," Vincent said.He acknowledged that a big problem facing the owners is convincing the players of the crisis at a time when teams are spending more freely than ever.

If you ever had any doubts about the hold drugs can have on a human being, the Otis Nixon case should put them to rest.Here's a 32-year-old man who was having the baseball season of his life. A .228 lifetime hitter, he was having a career year for the Atlanta Braves, batting .297 and leading the major leagues in stolen bases with 72. He was doing this for a first-place team that had taken the city of Atlanta by storm.From a purely personal standpoint, the timing of Nixon's fall could not have been worse.

Interim baseball commissioner Bud Selig insists that published reports of his impending coronation have been greatly exaggerated, which can only mean one thing.Selig, who often says no when he means yes, will soon put his ownership interest in the Milwaukee Brewers in trust and become the first baseball commissioner to serve a full term since, well, Bud Selig.In other words, nothing has changed and nothing will. Selig has been the world's highest-paid telephone operator since he filled the leadership vacuum left when the owners forced former commissioner Fay Vincent out of office six years ago. Selig rules by conference call, taking the pulse of ownership on every issue and taking the heat when the consensus becomes a curse -- as it did during the last labor war.It's no wonder that, among the owners, he might be the most popular commissioner in history.

Getting rid of Brian Billick? Let us count the whys Since Brian Billick was fired as Ravens coach, I have read and heard many comments by sportswriters and fans that owner Steve Bisciotti made a mistake. The reasons varied, but the fact that Billick won a Super Bowl and had a winning record were always part of their rationale. Those facts notwithstanding, here are reasons why Billick had to be fired: Terrible play-calling Horrendous time management Nonexistent team discipline Excessive number of penalties An offense that has been the laughingstock of the NFL for years He lost the respect of many veteran players The only mistake Bisciotti made was giving Billick a four-year contract.

WASHINGTON - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said yesterday that he remains committed to finding an economic framework that will bridge the huge revenue gap between Major League Baseball's richest and poorest teams, but he stopped well short of predicting another game of hardball with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Selig, speaking before a luncheon crowd at the National Press Club, restated the need for greater economic parity among the 30 major-league clubs and reasserted his commitment to find a solution that would restore hope to fans of the game's struggling franchises.

SAN FRANCISCO - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has a lot on his mind these days. Baseball is heading into another labor storm and the economics of the game soon might force him to make some painful decisions, but he is determined not to let anything get in the way of this season's feel-good finish. Barry Bonds will be in Houston tonight to continue his assault on Mark McGwire's single-season home run record. He needs one to tie Big Mac at 70 and another to erase a 3-year-old mark that was expected to stand a long, long time.

Edward Bennett Williams's greatest sporting ambition was to own a major league baseball team. The boy who had sold "ice colds and red hots" for the minor league Hartford Senators wanted to own the big league Washington Senators. He had bought into the football Redskins only after he failed to win a baseball franchise in Washington in 1961. In 1972, he had tried again to get a team in Washington but failed in an attempt to move the San Diego Padres. Undaunted, he kept searching for weak franchises that might want to move to the nation's capital.