Seattle ? To fans, Bud Selig remains the most polarizing man in sports — they either loathe him, or they hate him.

But the commissioner of baseball, in a step-too-slow, reactionary stroke of serendipity, has managed to achieve the impossible.

He’s seized (or been shoved into) the moral high ground on the steroid issue, and as a delicious bonus, backed union chief Donald Fehr into the biggest no-win corner of his career.

Not to heap too much praise on Selig — Saturday’s brazenly leaked news that the commish has proposed a much stronger drug-testing program is his third crack at getting this right.

And it comes, not so coincidentally, after the NFL practically got high-fives from the same congressional attack dogs who are threatening to put baseball on double-secret probation. (Never mind that the politicos don’t seem to wonder much about the proliferation of 300-pound linemen who can beat Ichiro down the first-base line.)

Selig had no choice but to make a bold move, and he unleashed a whopper — a three-strikes-and-you’re-out proposal that calls for a 50-game suspension for the first offense, 100 games for the second and a lifetime ban for the third.

Not only that, it calls for a ban on amphetamines, the buzz-inducing “greenies” that have carried players through the dog days for more than three decades.

It’s an idea whose time has come. Actually, its time came several years ago, but in the pre-BALCO, pre-Canseco, pre-congressional hearings world, neither management nor union seemed to have the stomach to push forward anything too radical.

I thought the current testing program, with its public outing of offenders, was an adequate incremental step that despite its flaws would serve as a strong deterrent to players who didn’t want to become a baseball pariah.

And maybe it has, judging by the fact the only players to test positive so far have been marginal in caliber — with the exception of Monday’s fifth victim, Juan Rincon, a middle reliever for Minnesota.

But in the mercurial world of steroids in baseball, the landscape has already changed dramatically since the testing program was renegotiated for the first time over the winter.

Congress has reared its ugly headlines, putting the fear of God in Selig (if not Fehr). And the extent of baseball’s credibility problem might have been underestimated, if that’s possible. Every emerging slugging star must still endure the nagging questions about the source of his power — and there is a sizable contingent of fans that remains convinced prominent players haven’t been caught in positive tests because baseball simply doesn’t want them to.

So, to further appease fans and Congress — and in a related development, to further the cause of ridding the game of steroids — Selig did what he had to do. Angels manager Mike Scioscia on Monday made a cogent point as he strongly endorsed the increased penalties proposed by Selig.

Calling the current penalties “woefully feeble,” Scioscia noted that a 10-day suspension allowed a steroids user to continue reaping the benefits of the drug after he returned to action.

“When Rincon pitches 11 days from now, are the effects from steroids going to be deteriorated to the point where he’ll pitch to the level of his God-given talents?” Scioscia asked. “No. He’ll still have the benefits of whatever steroids he’s taking.”