Selig Discusses Manny, Economy, Hall of Fame and More in Luncheon

ST. LOUIS -- Bud Selig said Tuesday he'd like players suspended for performance-enhancing drugs, such as Manny Ramirez, not to be able to go on minor-league assignments while their suspensions are in force.

During his annual All-Star break question-and-answer session with members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the commissioner also touched on Pete Rose, the Nationals, collusion charges and the effect of the economy on baseball.

Ramirez played in seven minor-league games to tune up before his July 3 return to the majors. Some questioned why that was allowed, but such assignments are permitted by the agreement between baseball and the players' association on PEDs, so any change would have to be negotiated with the union.

"To be very candid," Selig said, "I believe that should be changed."

Philadelphia reliever J.C. Romero also played in the minors this year while waiting for his PED suspension to run out.

Selig said of more than 2,400 tests this year, Ramirez has been the only positive.

But Selig also seemed to caution Hall of Fame voters against weighing PED use too strongly in casting their votes. He used the cocaine scandal of the 1980s as a point of comparison.

"Here we have all that trauma in the '80s, of the worst kind," Selig said. "Illegal, immoral, unethical. Where was the outrage?

"So you've got to go back in baseball history and make your own judgments. It's impossible for someone else to do that. ... But understand the history of life is not, 'Well, this guy didn't do that.' How do you know?"

Selig said he is proud that, despite the economy, attendance is down only about 5 percent. He called it "maybe in a sense our greatest season," saying total attendance so far is 400,000 shy of his goal of 40 million.

While baseball uses the economy to explain why free-agent contracts were mostly lower last winter, the union is investigating whether to file collusion charges. But Selig was dismissive of such claims.

"They're entitled to their opinion," Selig said. "Given the world we live in and what's happened in the last 18 months, I think this is one sport where I cant even fathom that anyone would think that. Player compensation hasn't gone down.

"Some of us -- let me be as blunt as I can be -- have to live in the real world. Not in some make-believe little scenario that doesn't exist."

Selig also said:

• Rose's request to be reinstated (and thus eligible for the Hall of Fame) is "under review. I do spend some time discussing it, but it's not appropriate for me to say more."

• He doesn't mind quirky new ballparks such as the Mets' Citi Field: "I think it's great. I don't want to go back to where we were in the '60s in the '70s. I used to joke if you had too much to drink the night before and you woke up it would take you a half an hour to figure out if you were in Philadelphia, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. They all looked the same, felt the same and were all lousy."

• That the Cubs' possible bankruptcy filing "is only to clear the club, and then they can move forward" with a sale, and the loan of cash to the Rangers "is not the first time in our history we've done that and probably not the last."

• That age and name falsification among players from Latin America needs to be addressed, saying, "We've got a lot of work to do in the Dominican Republic. And we are doing it. That's one of the areas we need to get a much better handle on."

• And that the Pirates and Nationals are, to him, going in the right direction. Selig said "Frank [Coonelly, the Pirates team president] and Neal [Huntington, the GM] and Bob [Nutting, the chairman] are on the tight track, I really do [believe that]." And even though Washington now has an interim GM and an interim manager, Selig said, "They understand what they need to do. They're in the process of doing it."