Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The former baseball boss says the slugger hasn’t owned up to his questionable past.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fay Vincent has this advice for Bud Selig: Stay away!
Vincent said the man who succeeded him as baseball commissioner should not be in the ballpark if and when Bonds hits his 756th home run to break Hank Aaron’s career record.
“He has every right to say: I’m willing to congratulate him but I don’t honor him by presence,” Vincent said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press during spring training.
Selig, a good friend of Aaron, has refused to say whether he’ll attend games as Bonds nears the record. Bonds was 10 home runs shy of Aaron going into Tuesday night’s game.
Bonds has been the target of a federal grand jury investigating whether he perjured himself when he reportedly testified in 2003 that he never knowingly used steroids.
“I think if nothing changes ... I would say to Bonds: Because you haven’t told us what you did, because we assume and because we believe you cheated and because you haven’t helped clean baseball up, we will recognize your record but we will not honor you,” Vincent said. “It’s sort of an asterisk in the public eye.”
Tainted achievement
Vincent thinks Bonds’ achievement will be tainted in the minds of many because of the questions of steroids use.
“I think the commissioner would say: We’re not going to put an asterisk there but everybody knows what happened, everybody recognizes what the circumstances are,” Vincent said.
Peter Ueberroth, the other living former commissioner, indicated he would have acted long before Bonds approached Aaron’s mark. In 1986, Ueberroth suspended 11 players implicated in drug use but allowed them to keep playing if they donated parts of their salaries to drug prevention.
“My policy is to support, not second guess, any sitting commissioner,” he said Tuesday. “As far as the player in question is concerned, I would not have had the issue. Hank Aaron is the record-holder.”
In 1974, commissioner Bowie Kuhn was criticized when he wasn’t at the ballpark the night Aaron hit No. 715 to break Babe Ruth’s record. Kuhn attended the game when Aaron hit No. 714.
Selig said during spring training that if Bonds surpasses Aaron, “it will be handled the same way that every other record in baseball that’s been broken was handled.”
Vincent sent a memo to clubs in June 1991 stating that players possessing, selling or using illegal drugs — including steroids — were subject to discipline, but any penalty imposed on a player prior to the 2002 agreement likely would not have withstood a union challenge.
In light of the steroids accusations, Vincent believes praising Bonds would be bad for the sport.
“I think honoring Bonds is not going to play well in the present record. If Bonds were to change his mind, hire a very good lawyer, go public, and say: ‘Look, I did what I did, I’m sorry,’ a la Bill Clinton or Jason Giambi, the American public would turn immediately supportive, and Bud’s situation would have to change,” Vincent said. “I keep hoping that Bonds will do that. I think the odds of him doing it are very, very low.”