MLB Commissioner Bud Selig Dodges Questions On A's Stadium, Domestic Violence During AT&T Park Visit
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – Outgoing Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig continued his farewell tour of ballparks, making a stop at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Thursday.
During a news conference, he refused to commit to a resolution of the Oakland ballpark situation, though he admits the A's desperately need a new place to play.
"It is a very complicated situation and what you always try to do is to try to be fair," Selig said. "There's equity on all sides and you try to balance those equities out and then do as you have to do. But until the litigation is resolved, there isn't anything that we can do, there's no reason to talk about it because there's nothing to talk about."
The litigation refers to the city of San Jose suing Major League Baseball because the San Francisco Giants won't let the A's move there.
Major League Baseball has been studying the A's-Giants stalemate for over five years, with no real resolution in sight.
Selig also addressed the issue of domestic violence in sports, in lieu of the Ray Rice/NFL case. He said it would be inappropriate to comment on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell or football's domestic violence program, but MLB handles such matters on a case-by-case basis.
"We haven't had any cases I'm happy to say in a long, long time. I can't remember when the last time was," said Selig. "I'm grateful for that. But we deal with situations as they occur. The only thing I want to say to you is we are a social institution and I'm proud of our record in dealing with a myriad of subjects. And we deal with them quite effectively."
Selig is touring all 30 Major League Baseball ballparks before he steps down on January 25 and turns over the commissioner job to Rob Manfred.