Bud Selig says being blamed for the steroid era “bothers the you-know-what out of him,” according to ESPN.com and other media reports.

Fair enough. Major League Baseball’s commissioner is entitled to his opinion. But he’s wrong.

Sure, Selig isn’t complicit alone. The Major League Baseball Players Association and every single player that ever stuck a needle in his ass shares the blame. But Selig has been the commissioner of Major League Baseball since 1992. He’s seen the league through some remarkable lows and some performance-enhanced highs.

And while he has taken great pains to see to it that a system has been put in place that will deter future players from taking steroids and using performance enhancing drugs he cannot, as that leader, say he doesn’t deserve some of the blame.

That a homerun record that stood for nearly four decades was broken three times in five years didn’t raise some suspicions?

That players would finish one season and return the next with a completely different physical look didn’t make him do a double-take?

Bud Selig can talk all he wants about being stonewalled by the union or being worried about another work stoppage. If you have concerns about steroids and you don’t fight those concerns you are complicit.

If you don’t get up on mountain top and scream “this is a problem and we need to fix it” until the union buckles, you are complicit.

Instead, both bodies let the records fall and they raked in the profits that came along with the excitement. No, Selig isn’t alone in being blame worthy. Brushbackpitch is on record saying leadership at the union needs to change as well.

But Selig’s attempt to clear his name and shed blame entirely is ridiculous and shameful. With a situation such as this, no matter how much good you do in fixing the problem, you were in charge when the sin was committed. And the buck should – and does – stop at the top.

And that starts with Selig.