King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Steroids? No comment. Bonds? No decision. Selig reasserts himself as the commissioner who can really get nothing done.

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May 18, 2007 | Thank goodness for Bud Selig.

In a week in which NBA commissioner David Stern has earned criticism for the iron-fisted, nuance-free management style that resulted in two key players being suspended from a key playoff game for essentially jaywalking, Selig has risen to the occasion, rallying to remind us what a first-class boob in charge of a major American sport really looks like.

Selig stepped up to the microphones in Boston Thursday after a two-day owners meeting with two issues dwarfing all others for his office: The ongoing steroids issue and how baseball generally and Selig specifically will respond to the impending moment when Barry Bonds will tie and then pass Henry Aaron's career home run record.

And Selig made it clear he would discuss any issue except two: The ongoing steroids issue and how baseball generally and Selig specifically will respond to the impending moment when Barry Bonds will tie and then pass Henry Aaron's career home run record.

Asked for the eleventy billionth time whether he plans to be at the ballpark when Bonds hits his 756th career homer, breaking Aaron's 33-year-old record of 755, one of the sport's most honored marks, Selig said, "I don't have any different thoughts than I have had the last month or so" and "I'll make up my mind at some appropriate time, and nothing has changed" and "I'm really not going to comment on it anymore."

Any more than what? He has been avoiding this question for years. And when would the appropriate time be? Assuming Bonds stays healthy, he could break the record any time after about mid-June. He's halfway to the 22 he needed at the start of the year to break the record, though he's without a home run in his last seven games, his longest such drought of the season.

"I understand everyone wants to know where I'm going to be and where Hank Aaron is going to be, but we will just let that go until I finally make a decision," Selig said.

We'll be over here holding our breath, Bud. The only decisions Selig makes quickly are the ones about money. Anything that raises revenue today, no matter the cost to tomorrow or anything else, Selig says yes. Everything else, we wait. If it were up to Selig, he'd still have a few more years to decide what to do about the Montreal Expos, never mind how to handle the 12th inning of the 2002 All-Star Game.

Next page: Hey Bud, this one's easy: You go