Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
JANIE McCAULEY
Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig isn't about to guess whether Barry Bonds will cooperate with George Mitchell's steroids investigation. "I don't know that," Selig said Friday. "I'm going to see how the Mitchell investigation plays out."
Selig, sitting in the press box at Scottsdale Stadium during the Milwaukee Brewers-San Francisco Giants spring training game, happened to show up in Arizona in time for Bonds' first exhibition contest.
"It is incidental," said Selig, who was meeting with a group of bankers.
The commissioner had no plans to speak to the 42-year-old Bonds, who begins the 2007 season 22 home runs from breaking Hank Aaron's career record of 755. Bonds still faces allegations that performance-enhancing drugs fueled his chase and a report that he failed an amphetamines test last season.
Selig, who had lunch with Giants executive vice president Larry Baer, has not said whether he plans to attend any games if and when Bonds closes in on Aaron's mark. Bonds declined to comment when asked whether he would like Selig to witness such a milestone.
"I'm not here to answer those questions," Bonds said after an 0-for-2 day with a strikeout and first-pitch groundout.
Selig briefly addressed a meeting Thursday between Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, and Detroit Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield in Lakeland, Fla.
They discussed Sheffield's conflicting comments recently on whether he would cooperate with Mitchell, appointed last March by Selig to head the sport's investigation into steroids. The meeting also included Bob Lenaghan of the players' union.
"It went OK. Rob did what he had to do," Selig said. "Gary was cooperative and forthcoming."
Selig said Mitchell, the former Senate Majority Leader, is getting more cooperation from clubs in his probe.
The commissioner had no plans to speak with Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., who was allegedly sent human growth hormone from a pharmacy that's part of a widespread steroids investigation.
"I don't have any comment on that until I find out more about it, talk to all the parties," Selig said. "Let's see what develops there. Really what I know about Gary Matthews Jr. is what I've read in the media."
Selig vowed to spend "a lot of money" to find a test for human growth hormone, saying he is satisfied with baseball's testing programs for everything but HGH.
"There are a lot of alleged people involved in this," Selig said. "Do I wish there were a test for the human growth hormone? Of course I do. ... There is no test for the human growth hormone today. It would fill in everything else that we've done."
Also Friday, Selig announced that Frank Robinson, fired by the Washington Nationals as manager after last season, has been hired as a special adviser to Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office. For Robinson, it will be a return to baseball's top office.
"Yes, we did bring Frank back into the fold. I'm very happy," Selig said. "Frank didn't want to retire and I really didn't want him to retire. I kept telling Jimmie Lee, 'We've got to find something for Frank.' I have a great affinity for him. He did a tough job. He was doing great in our office as a disciplinarian and I sent him to Montreal. He never complained and went and did his job, and did it very well."