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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - The class was held just last week in Professor Bud Seligs classroom at the University of Wisconsin. The topic of the day, in the professors Baseball in American Society curriculum, was a whopper: steroids and baseball.Oh, if only there had been a camera rolling in that classroom that day. It was not Professor Seligs most comfortable lecture of the school year. Hes the first to admit that.His students werent easy on him, baseballs commissioner emeritus said Monday, the day after learning hed been elected to his sports Hall of Fame. In fact, they kept raising their hands to grill him at every turn.Did they ever, Selig told ESPN, in a candid conversation on one of his least favorite subjects. They were tough.And the toughest question they asked, he said, was one that millions of baseball fans have wondered about for nearly two decades, one that hung over the celebration of Seligs election to Cooperstown this week.They asked me, When were you aware of it? Selig recalled Monday, and, Why didnt you do more?Amid all the change and all the growth and all the innovations that propelled this former commissioner into the Hall of Fame, it is still that question about that era that never seems to stop lurking in the shadows. So how does Selig answer it? Heres how:In 1998, he said, he went to St. Louis to watch the Cardinals play the Cubs, as Mark McGwire dueled Sammy Sosa for what was then baseballs most beloved record -- Roger Maris 61 homers, which for 27 years had stood as the single-season home run mark.I talked to the Cubs about Sammy, Selig recalled. The Cardinals were thrilled with McGwire. It was a big civic celebration.And no one on either team mentioned a word, he said, about what was really driving those two men toward the threshold of history. So Selig said he turned to his baseball people in the commissioners office.He says he asked, Whats causing this? And they reeled off what we would now describe as the usual, everything-but-the-elephant-in-the-room, theories: Expansion. The dilution of pitching. Questions about whether there was something different about the baseball.They gave me a whole bunch of reasons, Selig said. And I kept asking about steroids.He said he then went to see one of his favorite Milwaukee Brewers, the recently retired Robin Yount, and asked him the same question: What about steroids?And he said, Commissioner, the only guy I knew [who was taking them] was [Jose] Canseco, Selig said. But he said, I dont know whats going on now.And I talked to a lot of baseball people, Selig went on, over and over and over again. But you know, by 2000, I moved (to impose testing and suspensions) in the minor leagues, which I could do unilaterally. So thats 15 years ago. So this idea that we didnt do anything just isnt accurate.You know, Ive thought about it a hundred times, because Im pretty tough on myself, Selig said, finally. And I honestly dont know what else I could have done. Thats my answer.But that wasnt his final answer. He also wanted to make it clear that once everyone in his office was ready to admit they had a huge problem on their hands, it was the players association that stood squarely in the way.He told tales of raging fights at the bargaining table that went on for hours. And as he heaped blame on the players association, he vented his frustration in a way he had never vented it before.I never understood, Selig said. Why would you defend a bunch of cheaters?And that is how Professor Selig laid out this controversial saga to his students last week, how he remembers those times to this day. He firmly believes he did what he could.I went back through the whole negotiations, Selig said he told his class. I went through everything. And I told them, There was nothing I could do. Its collectively bargained.But was it really that simple? Is it ever that simple? Clearly, Bud Selig wrestles with those doubts to this day, because after giving his side of this story for 11 minutes, he then turned to me.Now let me ask you a question, he said. And Im being serious. If you had been me then, what would you have done?Frankly, I was amazed that he asked. But I also had no trouble admitting to the commissioner emeritus that I thought back on those times a lot. And like a lot of members of the media, I carry a deep sense of guilt about that era and the way it was covered. I told him I wish Id done more. I wish Id asked more questions. I wish Id learned more. I wished Id said and written more.So that, I told him, was what I thought he could have done. He was the commissioner. So the one thing he could have done, without needing a bargaining table to do it, was raise this issue, speak about it more, admit to it earlier and bring it to the forefront.Thats fair, Selig replied. Thats very fair.A moment later, he looked me right in the eye again. Maybe youre right, he said. Maybe I should have said more.It is now many, many years later, of course. Eighteen years since McGwire and Sosa. Way too late to jump in a time machine and go back to those days when so much more could have, and should have, been done and said.Selig constantly tells himself that, ultimately, baseball dealt with the problem. It took too long. But in the end, he said, baseball wound up with not just the toughest testing in sports, but in America.But did it come with a lot of pain? Selig asked, rhetorically. You bet it did.And this was the true measure of just how much pain. Even on one of the greatest days of his life in baseball, that pain was impossible to dismiss, just as these questions are impossible to dismiss. Even in a college classroom in Madison, Wisconsin. Adidas Originals Shoes Nz . The quest begins with what is supposed to be an easy one, although Germany has traditionally been a stubborn opponent to Canadian teams at international tournaments. Adidas Shoes Wholesale Nz . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. http://www.wholesaleadidasshoesnz.com/ . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. Adidas Shoes Nz Sale . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Cheap Adidas Shoes Nz . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. Dav Whatmore is not a happy man. More than seven weeks after he was fired as Zimbabwes coach, his pulse still quickens in anger as he talks of never having been treated as poorly in his 21 years of coaching at international level as he was in his Zimbabwe stint.According to Whatmore, there was nothing about the teams lack of performance under the termination clauses in his contract. He says that the end came suddenly, without warning, during a training camp in Bulawayo at the end of May, when managing director Wilfred Mukondiwa delivered the news while ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani stared at the floor.Mukuhlani declined to comment on the specifics of Whatmores sacking, pointing to a signed agreement between the parties that he believes is confidential. We have never commented on our parting with him in the media based on that agreement, he says.Whatmore believes he was on notice from the time Mukuhlani became chairman last August, taking over from Wilson Manase, whose overtures in December 2014, Whatmore says, were the main reason he decided to take a job that looked increasingly like a poisoned chalice.These challenges are nothing new to me - taking on sides that are struggling, Whatmore says. But more than that, this chairman [Manase] followed up every call and every email and he wanted me, which was a great motivational factor.ZC had at the time recently sacked coach Stephen Mangongo after a tenure that culminated in a poor tour of Bangladesh, where Zimbabwe lost all eight of their matches. Whatmore believes that tour had a knock-on influence on his own poor results as Zimbabwe coach.We were competitive in all the World Cup matches [in 2015] after I took over, he says. But the afternoon of the Pakistan match in Queensland, when Brendan Taylor told me, Dav, Im sorry but Im leaving, I felt so dejected. I knew then that was the beginning of the end for that team. He was the only player who was able to win some games for you. When he told me that, it was a horrible feeling.When hed made that decision to leave, he hadnt known that I was going to be around, he didnt know that there were going to be so many matches to be played in 2015, and he didnt realise that the environment would be so much healthier for the whole team. So we were competitive in all of those games, but after he left, thats when it became really difficult.Whatmores assertion that Taylor would have stayed on in Zimbabwe is backed up by an interview the batsman gave in January this year, when he said: If it wasnt for the tour to Bangladesh at the end of 2014, I would probably have seen myself still playing for Zimbabwe - certainly for another year.Ive never hated cricket so much as on that tour. The way the players were handled and treated, especially spoken to, I couldnt comprehend it. I think with the change of coach and the change of atmosphere, the way the players were so confident and relaxed when changes were made, I think thats why I felt I could play my best cricket again at the World Cup, whereas in Bangladesh it was a torrid seven weeks.Despite Taylors superb World Cup, where he was the fourth highest run scorer, Zimbabwe only beat the UAE. They did, however, run South Africa, Pakistan and India close, and lost to Ireland by just five runs. Without Taylor, Whatmores Zimbabwe continued to struggle, but they did beat India in a T20I and won one-day games against New Zealand and Pakistan. Overall they won nine out of 33 completed ODIs under Whatmore, and six out of 20 T20Is, giving him win percentages that were slightly higher than Zimbabwes all-time records, and very similar to those of other coaches over the past six years.But it was the twin series defeats to Afghanistan that irked Mukuhlani and his board. If Dav Whatmore was coaching India and he lost three times in a row to Afghanistan, would he have survived? asks Mukuhlani. Why on earth should he survive for doing that in Zimbabwe? Our ranking fell below Ireland and Afghanistan under his watch, so we need to be fair with each other.If Dav Whatmore was fired after losing to India, I would not even have accepted the board to do that. But we struggled against Ireland in Harare and scraped through [Zimbabwe won a one-day series 2-1 in October]. We lost to Afghanistan three times in a row. We struggled against Scotland in the World T20. We were not very convincing against Hong Kong in that tournament, and we were completely outclassed by Afghanistan in the final match in Nagpur. So put yourself in my position and the boards.In truth, Zimbabwe have never had a side that won frequently for over a decade now. The difference from one incarnation to the next is generally how competitive they are when they lose, and Whatmores team showed improvement in this regard. Just six out of their 24 defeats were by 100-plus runs or more than five wickets, whereas his two predecessors, Andy Waller and Mangongo, saw their teams lose ten out of 27 ODIs by those margins, and win just six. In the wake oof Whatmores dismissal, the three ODIs against India were all lost by eight or more wickets under interim coach, Makhaya Ntini.ddddddddddddThere was also improvement in the batting during Whatmores tenure. In 2014, only Sikandar Raza scored a century in Zimbabwes 16 ODIs. Under Whatmore, ten hundreds were scored by six different batsmen in 32 ODIs between January 2015 and January 2016.Whatmore accepts that his win-loss record was poor, but also points to the limiting factors. To be smart about it, you look a bit deeper to see what you had to work with. That is paramount. And considering the available talent and the amount of times we had injuries to key players as well, I thought that we did as good a job as we possibly could. The biggest miss there was Brendan Taylor, and then we had a little gem in Graeme Cremer coming back. So one really good player left and one good one came back. If we had both of them, I reckon it would have been a bit different. We might have still had our fair share of losses, but we would have won one or two more.He adds that the defeat to Afghanistan in Bulawayo was not helped by the conditions Zimbabwe delivered. We were giving them tailor-made conditions for the visiting team, he says. I just asked for something thats hard and true. A little bit of spin is all right. Instead, we had subcontinental conditions. And dont forget Graeme Cremer, our No. 1 spinner, was not available. But they dont understand the game.The other major point upon reflection is that the decisions made by the [Mukuhlani] cricket board were taken by the board themselves, rather than going through the proper committees. Theyre making arbitrary decisions, as people sitting around a table who know nothing about the game.Also, youve got to have a structure that has a pathway through which players can perform and then get promoted and then play meaningful competition and get promoted again, and so on. Its non-existent in Zimbabwe. There is no clear pathway. Or no good pathway anyway. Four [franchise] teams? I mean bloody hell. And they play each other twice, so thats six games a year, and thats it. Some players are just playing the odd game a year because theres no second team. Internationals come back into franchise teams and then your franchise guys are just carrying water. It is really a dereliction of duty for the game. Another bugbear for him was the fact that he had no say in the hiring and firing of assistant coaches once Mukuhlani took over. According to Whatmore, Waller was axed as batting coach - despite the batsmens gains - without his input, and Makhaya Ntini and Marvin Atapattu were brought on board. I thought it was disrespectful, he says. Im expected to work with these people and they report to me, but I have no say about who they are.Mukuhlani claims that Whatmores complaint is inconsistent: When he was appointed by the previous administration, Dav Whatmore did not come with backroom staff and he had no issue with that. Now that we are giving him backroom staff, he has an issue with our appointments, I find that very confusing. Thats number one.Number two is that after every series, the technical staff must give their feedback. There was no request from Dav that he would want to appoint his backroom staff. We have a duty - not only a moral one but a constitutional one - to appoint the technical staff. It is within our rights.Whatmore says that he was entitled to the final nine months pay from his contract when he was sacked. Instead he settled for three months, plus leave owing, bonuses owing and reimbursement for flights. I could have sued them but it would have been like another Phil Simmons, he says. Simmons legal wrangle with ZC has stretched for more than a decade following his dismissal as Zimbabwe coach in 2005, when he had two years remaining on his contract.Whatmores dismissal at the end of May meant that Zimbabwe had been through three coaches in two years. They also shuffled through three captains, three selection convenors, two bowling coaches and three batting coaches or consultants between Indias tour in July last year and their visit this June. The main issue is that ZC looks to blame everyone else and never points the finger whilst looking into the mirror, Whatmore says.I think it will end up like Kenya. Cricket will never die because its in the schools and some of the schools take it seriously even if they may not play enough cricket. And it will be exposed on television - there will always be some competition there. But already, players are preferring to go overseas to further their careers. If you really had to predict, I cant see it surviving internationally - particularly if they dont get the same funding. Theyre getting US$8-9 million a year and theyve got a debt of almost $20m. If they get a reduced amount of funding, whats going to happen then? ' ' '