Selig defends A-Rod's 211-game suspension

Bob Nightengale | USA TODAY Sports

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig informed owners Thursday how proud he was of their exhaustive Biogenesis investigation, and believed he made the proper decision suspending New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez for 211 games.

"I have to say I'm very comfortable with what our people have done,'' Selig said, "very comfortable. I have a job to do, and the job is to protect the integrity of the sport and enforce our program, and that's what I'm going to do.

"We made a commitment, and I made a commitment to a lot of people and a lot of entities, that we would do everything we can to clean up this sport. We have, we will and we will continue to do so."

Rodriguez was one of 14 players suspended in the now-shuttered South Florida wellness clinic, but every player but Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun (65 games) was suspended for 50 games.

Yet, MLB investigators believe that Rodriguez was using performance-enhancing drugs since 2010, and tried to impede the investigation by purchasing medical records from clinic director Tony Bosch, which Rodriguez denied.

"I spent many, many hours thinking about it, trying to be fair, trying to be logical and rational," Selig said. "I wouldn't second-guess it at all. I know why I did it and what I did. I thought it was eminently fair then. I think it's eminently fair today.

"All this business about personal likes and dislikes is just nonsense. You do what you think is in the best interest of the sport, based on the evidence that you have."