Bud Selig says he doesn't deserve blame for steroids era - ESPN

When it comes to baseball's steroids abuse, Bud Selig says everyone is to blame but him

"I honestly don't know how anyone could have done more than we've already done."

Sadly, he is probably right. He could have TRIED to do more, but couldn't actually have done it, because he would have been removed if he had tried, to be replaced by somebody who would have agreed to be a doormat for the owners.

A strong commissioner, one who was looking out for the long-term health and integrity of the game, could have prevented the steroid era by nipping it in the bud. Hell, I could have done it, and so could many of you. But the owners didn't want that kind of man. They once had such a man in Fay Vincent, Giamatti's hand-picked successor, and kicked his ass out - and replaced him with a man that Vincent had called a thief! (Exact quote: "Collusion was a $280 million theft by Selig and Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents. They got caught. They paid $280 million to the players. And I think that’s polluted labor relations in baseball ever since it happened.")

Money was flowing nicely for everyone after the Sosa/McGwire summer of '98, and nobody wanted to rock the boat. If Selig had suddenly found a pair and decided to clean up the sport right then and there (thus casting a terrible pall upon the two new heroes who had brought new life to the game), the owners would have given him a no-confidence vote, and would have dismissed him as "high-handed, arbitrary, and draconian" - precisely the same things they said about Vincent when he dealt quickly and sternly with drugs, gambling, owner collusion, and Steinbrenner's misadventures. Never mind that Vincent was right in pretty much everything he did - that sumbitch was rockin' the boat and costing the owners money in the short term, and the arrogant little prick had to go! In his place, the owners got precisely what they wanted and therefore deserved - Air Bud.

Was that good for the sport? In the short term, yes, it was good financially. Everyone made out on the deal, players, owners, media ...

But looking back on it ... ?