MLB Commissioner Bud Selig commencement speaker at Bethany College - 04/15 By Keri Brown Lead: Major league baseball commissioner Bud Selig will be this year’s commencement speaker at Bethany College. Keri Brown reports. Brown: Bethany College President Scott Miller says major league baseball connections on the school’s board helped land Selig for this year’s commencement address. Miller: Two of those leaders on our board are the Nutting’s Ogden and Bob Nutting who are part owners in Pittsburgh Pirates and when we were looking for high profile leader to give good message to our student’s we thought of Bud Selig and we are fortunate that he accepted our invitation. Brown: Selig is a former owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and has been baseball commissioner since 1992. He has dealt with several controversial issues such as the cancellation of the 1994 World’s Series, and the growth of performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Miller: He has led a major transformation of major league baseball, a large business enterprise, which has one of the strongest unions in America that he has had to deal with. He has dealt with major issues like the strike in the 1990’s, the steroid issue right now. He’s turned revenues around and made it one of the largest growth organizations in the United States and we think he will have timely and relevant words to share with our graduates and we think that’s proper for small college of distinction like Bethany College. Brown: Selig is also somewhat of a controversial figure in baseball because many critics say he had ignored baseball’s steroids problem for years. But last year, his office released the Mitchell report which connected several former and current players to steroid use, most notably Roger Clemens. Meanwhile, news of Selig’s address at Bethany’s graduation is getting national attention. Miller: Mr. Selig is going to share with us his topic with us this week. Depending on what it is C-Span has expressed an interest, may come and broadcast the ceremony. And we are also delighted that the faculty has voted to give Mr. Selig an honorary doctorate degree so he will be forever connected to this institution. Brown: Selig will give the commencement address on Saturday May 17 th . For West Virginia Public Broadcasting, I’m Keri Brown in Bethany. .