Residue of steroid era falls on MLB in fight with San Jose

If politics make strange bedfellows, so does the law. In his final years as baseball commissioner, Bud Selig has devoted enormous amounts of time and energy toward ridding his sport of steroids.

Selig has another battle on his hands now. The city of San Jose has sued Major League Baseball, challenging the sport’s cherished antitrust exemption in an effort to become the new home of the Oakland Athletics.

In an indication of how seriously MLB takes this matter, the league put out a news release Wednesday, announcing it had hired prominent San Francisco attorney John Keker as its lead counsel.

The release noted that Keker was the chief prosecutor in the Oliver North trial that came out of the Iran-Contra affair. It also noted that Keker served as lead counsel to “Ecuadorian citizens who successfully won an $18 billion judgment against a corporation over environmental damage ... the largest single pollution judgment ever imposed.”

However, the release did not mention that Keker had worked with Lance Armstrong in the now-disgraced cyclist’s fight against allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong, of course, has since acknowledged his use of PEDs.

And, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, Keker was in discussions to represent Barry Bonds. Keker ultimately did not go to work for Bonds. But for Selig, who stuffed his hands in pockets at the moment Bonds tied Hank Aaron’s all-time home-run record, this quote from Keker ought to sting:

“Do I care if Bonds used steroids? Is that what you are asking?” Keker told the Chronicle. “I actually don’t care. Should we take Ray Charles’ Grammys away because he puffed a little before the performance? Should we have blood-tested Keith Richards in the old days when he was playing the guitar? I just think it’s an overblown deal.”

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