COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says he did the right thing in suspending Alex Rodriguez for more than one season.
Selig says he “can’t control what people are saying.” He adds that he has “a job to do, and that’s protecting the integrity of the game and enforcing it.”
The commissioner says he’s very comfortable with what his staff has done, calling it the toughest drug-testing program in American sports. But to have an effective program, he says it has to be enforced.
Selig made his comments Thursday in Cooperstown while announcing a major expansion of video replay for next season.
Rodriguez was among 13 players suspended Aug. 5. The New York Yankees slugger received a 211-game ban, by far the longest, and has appealed it.
Instant replay system to be expanded in 2014
Menatime, Major League Baseball is poised to expand its video review process next season in what Commissioner Bud Selig described as an “historic” move following two days of meetings with representatives from all 30 teams.
The proposal, which would dramatically increase the number of plays that can be reviewed from the current limit to boundary calls involving home runs, will be voted upon by team owners in November.
A 75 percent vote by the owners is needed for approval while the changes must also be negotiated with both the Major League Baseball Players Association and the World Umpires Association,
“I couldn’t help but sense in the room the acceptance and excitement,” Selig told a news conference in Cooperstown, New York, on Thursday after the replay committee had presented its findings.
“People understood they were sitting in on something that was historic. This has struck me over the last two or three weeks. There’s no question about it.
“In the last 25 years, the sport has changed a lot, and I think for the better. This was something we did very carefully.”
Under the proposed new system, managers will be allowed one challenge over the first six innings of games and a further two from the seventh through the end of the game.
If the manager wins his appeal, he retains the challenge, though a challenge from the first six innings does not carry over. Not all plays are reviewable.
All replays will be reviewed by umpires at MLB headquarters in New York, where technicians will be available to provide the necessary video.
“Reviewable plays will cover 89 percent of those incorrect calls that were made in the past,” said Braves president John Schuerholz, who formed the replay committee with former major league managers Joe Torre and Tony La Russa.
“The 11 percent remaining are in the non-reviewable (category), which can still be argued by the manager. And the manager can still request that the umpires get together and discuss it to see if anybody else on the crew saw it differently. But it’s not reviewable.”
Selig says he did the right thing with A-Rod
