Major League Baseball meeting with groups on domestic violence policy

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Baseball officials have started meeting with groups as the sport starts a process that could lead to revising its domestic violence policy.

Commissioner Bud Selig didn’t specify which groups when he spoke at a news conference Tuesday but did say “we’re doing a lot of work ourself now” and “it’s a subject very much under scrutiny.”

Esta Soler, president of Futures Without Violence, said last week that MLB reached out to her group, which works to prevent domestic and sexual violence and child abuse.

Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement with players includes a voluntary treatment program for certain alcohol-related and off-field violent conduct. It also allows the commissioner or a team to impose discipline, but doesn’t say of what sort, if a player is charged with a crime “involving the use of physical force or violence, including but not limited to, sexual assault, domestic violence, resisting arrest, battery, and assault.”

The meetings followed a series of high-profile domestic violence cases involving NFL players.

“We’ve been having meetings with various organizations, two a day actually starting last Friday, and had a couple more today and have a couple more tomorrow,” Selig said. “(We’re) talking to the players’ association about it. And we’re going to be very proactive in that area, no question about it. We have been. We’ve been fortunate in a sense but, you know, it’s part of society today.”