Bud Selig Players Quotations

I wish to thank the Department of State and the Department of Treasury for their assistance in securing the approvals necessary for Cuba to participate in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March. The federal government thoughtfully and diligently helped us bring the application process to a successful conclusion. Now, with Cuba?s entry in the tournament approved, the World Baseball Classic promises to be an historic event and will guarantee our fans the greatest possible competition among the best players in the world.

New and old fans throughout the world will have the opportunity to enjoy our great game and see many of baseball's best players competing in this historic event.

The only response I received from the union is that they were in the process of talking to their players and collecting their feedback. Unfortunately, that was more than five months ago.

While I would prefer to resolve this problem directly to the Players Association and jointly implement a much stronger drug-testing policy, one modeled after our program in the minor leagues, I gladly will accept whatever help is offered by Senator McCain to achieve our ultimate goal,

With Cuba's entry in the tournament approved, the World Baseball Classic promises to be an historic event and will guarantee our fans the greatest possible competition among the best players in the world.

This is an important step to reaching our goal of ridding our sport of performance-enhancing substances and should restore the integrity of and public confidence in our great game. I appreciate the effort put forward by the players' association and our players in reaching this new agreement.

I'm very troubled by the alleged depth of the relationship between certain players and those involved in the illegal distribution of performance-enhancing substances.

The intensity that I feel about this issue is greater today than it has ever been and the time is past due for the Players Association to accept my proposal to eliminate steroids and other performance-enhancing substances from our game.

The federal government thoughtfully and diligently helped us bring the application process to a successful conclusion. Now, with Cuba's entry in the tournament approved, the World Baseball Classic promises to be an historic event and will guarantee our fans the greatest possible competition among the best players in the world.

I am pleased that Nippon Professional Baseball and its players' association have agreed to participate in the first ever World Baseball Classic, ... Japanese players are among the best in the world and their participation in this event is important to the global growth of the sport.