Bud Selig remains quiet about Manny Ramirez

Bud Selig has gone into hiding.

These should be days of triumph for the beleaguered commissioner. He ought to wave a Mannywood T-shirt before the nags in Congress: Look, boys, we caught a big fish!

Instead, these are days of silence. In the six days since Manny Ramirez was suspended for violating baseball's drug policy, we have heard not a word from Selig.

There is no joy, not to the players and teams with which Ramirez performed, their accomplishments suddenly subject to suspicion. There is no glory for Selig, only the depressing realization that the past might haunt him and the future might taunt him.

Selig pounced on Alex Rodriguez this spring, responding to the revelation that Rodriguez had failed a 2003 drug test with a statement that said he had "shamed the game" and bragging about advances in baseball's testing program.

Yet Selig has said nothing about Ramirez, about the case that best validates those advances, about the extraordinary investigation that supported the initial test.

When Selig pointed the finger at Rodriguez, critics pointed right back at him, as the commissioner of the steroids era. Selig is enormously sensitive about his legacy, and friends say he won't volunteer to take another hit by speaking up about Ramirez.

That leaves the men in uniform to take the hits, warranted or otherwise. The Boston Red Sox rolled into town Tuesday, the team for which Ramirez starred en route to World Series championships in 2004 and 2007.

Dustin Pedroia, the second baseman on the 2007 team, dismissed the suggestion that Boston fans might now wonder whether to believe in that team.

"That's ridiculous," Pedroia said. "We would have won the championship with or without him. He had some big swings, and his presence brought a lot to the table, but it takes 25 guys to win a championship."

Terry Francona, the Boston manager since 2004, tersely rejected the notion that his championships might somehow be tainted.

"Why?" Francona said.

Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance.

"When did he test?" Francona said.

This spring.

"You're just digging up stuff now," he said. "I'm proud of our guys."

It's not just Selig with a legacy at stake, or Francona, or the Red Sox. It's just about everyone in baseball, including the team across the field from the Red Sox on Tuesday.