Selig Writes Letter to Fans About Drug Issue

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has written an open letter to baseball fans in which he says he was “disappointed and angered” by revelations that former Arizona pitcher Jason Grimsley admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs and pledged to “keep up with or even stay ahead of” players who “cheat the game to gain an advantage.”

The letter runs as a full-page advertisement today in several major publications, including The Times (on the back page of this section), the New York Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and Arizona Republic.

Major League Baseball has occasionally taken out ads to congratulate players on breaking records or reaching milestones, according to league officials, but rarely to address fans in a period of crisis.

According to a league source, Selig composed the letter from his Milwaukee office in order to “articulate his position with specificity” and to promote his funding of a program to develop a urine test to detect human growth hormone.

The study will be run by Dr. Don Catlin, director of the Olympic Analytical Laboratory at UCLA.

According to an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, Grimsley told federal agents many other players also used banned drugs, and he identified some by name.

In the ad, Selig assails players for using banned substances, in part for the public suspicion it creates.

” ... [T]hey unfairly raise questions about the integrity of their teammates who play by the rules,” the letter states, “and they violate the trust placed in them by you, the fans. These players who use performance-enhancing substances offend all of us.”

-- Tim Brown