Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig touted the positive results of the league's investigation into performance-enhancing drugs thus far while also expressing frustrations with the process Monday during a press conference at UW-Madison.
On campus to speak to undergraduate history majors as a UW-Madison alum from 1956. He addressed the press prior to his talk with the history department, focusing mainly on steroids and defending MLB's response to the problem.
I'm proud of where we are. I think people don't understand. We have the toughest testing program in American sports today,"" Selig said. ""We banned amphetamines, which, frankly, have been a significant factor in baseball for 80 years beforehand. We are funding a study at UCLA ... with the National Football League to find a reliable test for the Human Growth Hormone.""
Selig responded to critics of MLB's conduct in discovering and correcting the steroid problem with the facts that only three players tested positive for steroids last year and only two since 2006. Selig contended that the tough drug-testing policies and the ban on amphetamines in baseball are no small victories in comparison with problems that plagued baseball in other eras.
""If you go back in the history of baseball, every decade has had its problems. Back in the '80s we had a very significant cocaine problem, yet they couldn't get a drug-testing program. The players association ... fought us at every turn,"" Selig said.
""The fact that today we have the toughest drug-testing program in American sports, the fact that we've banned amphetamines, the fact that we're tightening our program as we speak ... I want to say it again because I think for some reason it gets lost in the translation. This sport has been very serious about this problem.""
Selig attributes some of MLB's success in drug-testing results from recent years to the policies he unilaterally implemented into the minor leagues in 2001, so many of the current young stars of the league have been subject to testing for up to seven years.
Despite MLB's recent success in combating the steroids problem, Selig admits challenges still loom, especially in fighting future performance-enhancing drugs to come and the more imminent and concerning use of HGH, which has no detectable test so far.
""Now there isn't a test for Human Growth Hormone. No one has it. That's why the National Football League and ourselves are funding this study at UCLA,"" Selig said. ""Let me say this very lucidly, there is not a commercially available test, and I hope there is one, because nobody is more frustrated by a lack of a test than I am.""
Selig declined to comment on the alleged HGH use by Roger Clemens or any other individual players, stating that he would deal with each case individually.
Selig did acknowledge the value and importance of the Senate Oversight Committee's investigation. He said he had already independently employed the first 15 steroids policy recommendations by the senators.
Selig said he was confident progress would continue against performance-enhancing drugs and that despite the perceived ""black cloud"" hanging over baseball, MLB has broken attendance records the last few years. He projected attendance at 81 million for 2008.
""I really feel from talking to our fans from all over that they're very comfortable with the knowledge that we care and we've done something about it,"" Selig said.
""The sport has never been healthier. As I said, if we can draw 81 million people here, that is just stunning by any historical perspective. I mean the sport has just exploded all over.""
Selig acknowledged the support and cooperation of the owners and the players' union in strengthening the drug-testing policies, saying that the ""program is really going to be tightened up by the time we start baseball on March 31.""
Although pleased with the progress against performance-enhancing drugs, Selig wanted to remind people that the steroids are not just a problem in baseball, but rather a larger societal issue that baseball can ""play at least a role in taking care of.
