Good commish, bad commish

You can call this the tale of the two sports commissioners. One made a good call, one dropped the ball.

Commissioner A, otherwise known the NFL’s Roger Goodell, has reacted well since the words “Michael Vick” and “dogfighting” started appearing in the same sentence.

On Monday Goodell told Vick to stay away from the Atlanta Falcons’ training camp, at least for the time being. Goodell correctly noted that while the judicial system will judge Vick’s guilt or innocence, the NFL has different standards.

Goodell wants to determine if Vick’s conduct, even if it wasn’t criminal, violated the league’s personal conduct policies. Vick will keep drawing his salary, which is fair too.

Right on, Roger. I think Vick should be allowed to play this season — unless he pleads out, which might become more likely as this case approaches trial. If Vick is guilty, he needs to face up to that reality and cut the best deal he can get to resume his career and life ASAP.

For now, however, a little sit-down from the NFL is in order. Goodell’s action also prevents the Falcons from suspending Vick for four games, which was the team’s intentions. That would be rash, given that Vick hasn’t even been arraigned yet. (That happens Thursday.)

Goodell’s counterpart in Major League Baseball hasn’t been so smart this week.

Bud Selig surprised — and disappointed — a lot of people by announcing that he will tag along until Barry Bonds breaks Henry Aaron’s home run record.

“Out of respect for the tradition of this game, the magnitude of the record, and the fact that all citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty, I will attend Barry Bonds’ next games to observe his potential tying and breaking of the home run record, subject to my commitments to the Hall of Fame this weekend,” Selig said in a statement today.

Uh, Bud, if you really want to respect the tradition of the game, you’d tell BALCO Barry to buzz off. As commissioner, you don’t have to follow that innocent-until-proven-guilty line off a cliff. You still have discretion and common sense — or at least I thought you did.

If so, you would have released the following statement:

“Even though Barry Bonds has not been convicted of using performance-enhancing drugs, there is a mountain of circumstantial and anecdotal evidence that indicates he did. It is impossible to ignore this evidence and pretend that this is just another record-breaking event. As long as this suspicion hangs over Bonds, I will neither support him or criticize him in public — or appear in the same stadium with him.”

Hank Aaron is making sure that he will be elsewhere when No. 756 clears the wall. Selig should have sided with his old friend from the Milwaukee Braves days on this one.