Selig gets elite briefing on asterisks, instant replay

WASHINGTON - Never let it be said that Bud Selig is opposed to hearing new ideas.

The commissioner of baseball welcomed a committee of Hall of Famers to his office earlier this week, a group of 13 headed by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Ryne Sandberg.

The committee intends to meet three or four times a year, and Sandberg said that in the exchange with Selig this week, four major questions were asked, including one involving the records from the steroid era.

Before you get too excited, the general consensus was there's not much that can be done.

"It's just some early talk, about what might be done with the records from that era, but it's going to be difficult to draw the line anywhere,'' said Sandberg, who was at the White House Wednesday for a tee-ball game, and a social dinner with the president and Mrs. Bush. "We talked about it, is really all I can say. We didn't come to any conclusions or come up with any answers.''

What they did learn was that replay is likely to be implemented by Aug. 1 for home runs, but that it might be expanded in the future.

"It's going to be home runs calls, fair or foul, and with the new stadiums, fans reaching over the yellow lines,'' Sandberg said. "The next thing that could be added is for trapped balls in the outfield.

"The question we asked was where does it end? And when do you stop taking the human element out it? I think most of us felt like the umpires do a good job and we liked the human part of it, even the arguments and the excitement of the call itself.

"I'm not sure we wanted to see replay go too far and change the game.''

The players definitely disagreed with the commissioner on the issue of length of games.

"Bud thinks it's a problem,'' Sandberg said. "He said he watched a 2-1 game and it took 3 hours, 5 minutes.

"The guys said, 'What's wrong with that?' The difference from 1999 to now is like 2 minutes. I don't think it's a problem.''

Especially with ticket prices the way they are, most fans don't care how long the game takes, some believing the longer it takes, the more they get for their considerable purchase.

"Yeah, I think it's a minor issue,'' Sandberg said. "One thing we do in the minors is a batter has to keep one foot in the box and that kind of keeps the pace going.''

The final issue was the controversy surrounding the danger of maple bats, and the cost to players' batting averages.

"More than anything I'd say it's a safety issue. Bats are flying all over the ballpark, including over my head,'' said Sandberg, who manages from the third base coach's box at Class-A Peoria. "I'm ducking bats all the time, and I've seen fielders have to bail out on a ball because there's splinters coming right at his head.

"It's no joke. It's really dangerous, and it's only a matter of time before someone gets nailed. There was one time a pitcher nearly took a bat in the face trying to field a bunt. It's scary.''

Among the others who met with Selig were Mike Schmidt, Phil Niekro, Frank Robinson, Dave Winfield and Rod Carew.

"The commissioner was all ears and, I think, really interested in what we had to say,'' Sandberg said. "He hopes to incorporate some of our suggestions into the game, and one thing he's going to look at seriously is the bats, so we feel like the time was well spent.''