By
Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)
It’s
not hard to believe that Bud Selig and the Powers-That-Be in Major League
Baseball (“MLB”) could screw up the whole A-Rod situation. After all, here’s a commissioner who fiddled
through the 1990s and into the 21st Century while MLB burned
(performance enhancing drugs (“PEDs”) run amok, no World Series in 1994, etc.)
while taking unbelievable bows for the “progress” of the game (here a wild
card, there a wild card, everywhere a wild card, wild card, as baseball became
the last major sport to let losers win).
But
what has confronted the commissioner and the Powers-That-Be must be beyond
their collective comprehension. There
had to have been someone (anyone?) with a brain in the room to tell the
commissioner that, by all means, his number one goal should have been to get
A-Rod off the field for these last games of the 2013 baseball season (and, yes,
this is being written by a lifelong Yankee fan).
HOW
DID SELIG AND MLB SCREW UP THE A-ROD SITUATION?
Well,
that’s easy. According to a number of
reports, the commissioner was “livid” when he heard A-Rod’s comments that
fateful Friday from Trenton, New Jersey (just before A-Rod’s
Monday return to the big time) about the conspiracy against him. Apparently, again according to a number of
reports, A-Rod’s “representatives” (and what a group that is) were trying to
work out a “settlement” where, depending upon what report (if any) you believe,
A-Rod would take a suspension of 50 or even 100 games rather than look at an
even longer (and, perhaps, a lifetime) ban.
But
apparently, at that point (the Friday before A-Rod returned), Bud Selig and MLB
decided to end all negotiations with A-Rod and his people with respect to any
settlement. Indeed, there were reports
that the Players Association reached out to MLB over that weekend on A-Rod’s
behalf and were rebuffed.
So
the stupidity of it all is that MLB was at 214 games or so and A-Rod was at 50
or 100 games. MLB should have tried to
get A-Rod to agree to some number within that range and suspend him (ala Ryan
Braun, another now-admitted cheater/liar) immediately with no arbitration
necessary.
But
apparently, Bud Selig being livid ended all that.
WHAT
WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF MLB HAD DONE THIS?
Very
little, and that’s the point. There
would have been no circus (and, yes, wherever A-Rod goes and plays, and he’s
playing very well, it’s a circus) in every ballpark that A-Rod plays in. There would have been no Ryan Dempster
fiasco, where another umpire (Brian O’Nora) with no feel for the game, failed
to warn Dempster after his first pitch sailed behind A-Rod and failed to eject
Dempster after he finally hit A-Rod after three tries (maybe four).
There
would have been no embarrassing post-game press conference when Dempster was
asked if he had hit A-Rod on purpose (you know the answer to that
question). The embarrassing part of that
press conference is not that the question was asked (it had to be) but rather,
that nobody asked Dempster how it was that he wanted to pitch A-Rod inside the
first at-bat and then got nowhere near him for six pitches in the second
at-bat, going middle-outside on every pitch.
If
asked that question, Dempster probably would have said that, since both sides
had been warned, he was afraid to go inside to A-Rod for fear of being thrown
out of the game. If he was smart/dumb
enough to say that, then the next question should have been, “If you weren’t
trying to hit A-Rod his first time up, how is it you had no control during his
first at-bat and perfect control (middle-outside with five of six pitches being
outside) during his second at-bat?”
An
unanswerable question to be sure, but never asked. You get the point.
HOW
DID MLB EVEN MESS UP THE DEMPSTER SITUATION?
Again,
that’s easy. By giving Dempster only
five games, with the Red Sox having two off days in the next week, MLB
essentially gave him a pass (so he will pitch the sixth game instead of the
fifth game). This was pointed out by
numerous people before any suspension was handed down, but it apparently didn’t
dawn on MLB.
While
it won’t amount to “open season” on A-Rod, as Joe Girardi suggested, it once
again shows the lack of feel, the lack of understanding on the part of the commissioner
and MLB. To make matters even dumber,
MLB fined Dempster $2500, while fining Joe Girardi $5000 for arguing with the
home plate umpire who was the only one in the ballpark who didn’t know what was
going on.
After
Dempster hit A-Rod, many “don’t get it” announcers were discussing on the air
which member of the Red Sox would be hit by C. C. Sabathia (John Sterling
actually announced on the radio broadcast that C. C. would “have to” hit
somebody).
Even
announcers with no feel for the game don’t get it. There should be (and, it says here, will be)
a payback for the A-Rod plunking (not a “beaning” (that means you are hit in
the head) as John Kruk mistakenly said) at the appropriate time.
BUT
WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
You
know that a lot of players dislike A-Rod for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s that he’s a liar or a cheater or
a Yankee or arrogant or rich or has a gigantic ego, many simply don’t like
him. But when presumably intelligent
players like John Lackey and Evan Longoria state that A-Rod shouldn’t be
playing pending his suspension, they must have forgotten what country they are
in. Or, at least, what collectively
bargained for agreement they and their representatives collectively bargained
for.
Like
it or not, A-Rod has never been suspended under the drug policy. So, the notion that he can’t play, when you
specifically can play under the CBA while your appeal is
being heard, is beyond stupid. Now,
while both of those players are, not surprisingly, in the AL East, they should
have tried to step back and see the bigger picture; that is, that if you were
suspended (that would mean anybody, not just A-Rod) and couldn’t play until
your appeal is resolved (in your favor), you would be guilty until proven
innocent. As A-Rod, like him or not, has
correctly pointed out, we are still in America.
THIS
IS NOT TO SUPPORT A-ROD
On
the contrary, there is no doubt that A-Rod is a liar and a cheater. The lying part? Well, he lied to everybody a few years ago
and actually had the gall to go on national TV and lie to Katie Couric, saying
he had never done PEDs. Of course, he
came out in 2009 and admitted that he had used PEDs in 2001 and 2002 and 2003,
citing the “pressure” of the large contract he had signed with Texas before the 2001 season.
How
long has A-Rod been using PEDs? Another
fascinating question. We know he used
them from 2001-2003. It was hard to
believe that, if he used them because of the “pressure” of his big contract in Texas (where they won 73, 72
and 71 games, respectively, in his three years there), he would then stop using
them in 2004 when he went to the greatest sports pressure cooker on earth,
Yankee Stadium.
MLB
seems to think they can prove that A-Rod used PEDs in 2010 and 2011 and
2012. If so (and we haven’t seen the
proof, although, apparently A-Rod has), it’s not a stretch to believe that
A-Rod has been using PEDs for the entire time.
After
you see the proof, draw your own conclusions.
WHAT
ABOUT SANDBAGGING A-ROD’S LATEST LAWYER
While
new A-Rod attorney Joe Tacopina is known as a media-savvy lawyer, he certainly
was ill-prepared for the sandbagging that Matt Lauer dropped on him on the
Today Show. On the one hand, it’s kind
of sad that Matt Lauer would stoop to being a shill for MLB (Lauer presented
Tacopina with a letter from MLB saying they would waive any confidentiality in
order to discuss A-Rod’s entire history in the case right after Tacopina said
he would “love” to talk about it but couldn’t due to confidentiality
concerns). On the other, it shows that
the normally media-savvy Tacopina simply wasn’t prepared for such a
sandbagging.
So,
to recap: MLB looks foolish for stooping
to such “sharp practice” (as the lawyers call it); Matt Lauer looks foolish for
being an MLB shill; and Tacopina looks foolish for not anticipating such an
action and for being unable to handle it on the air.
WHAT
ABOUT THE ARBITRATION?
Ah,
finally, the arbitration. While many
have correctly stated that A-Rod and his “camp” won’t directly answer the
question of whether he used PEDs in 2010 and 2011 and 2012, many “experts”
incorrectly (in this writer’s opinion) state that the key part of the
arbitration is whether A-Rod used PEDs.
He probably did, but we haven’t seen the proof.
The
REAL battle is over the
211-game suspension. It’s not 50 (first
offense), it’s not 100 (second offense).
If anything, it seems to be “arbitrary and capricious” (as the lawyers
like to say). This is where the real
battle will be, and it says here that the suspension should be reduced to
either 50 or 100 games.
WHO
ARE THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE?
The
luckiest people are the players who took their 50-game suspensions and have
already faded out of the picture.
Another very lucky guy is Ryan Braun, who now looks like a huge
cheater/liar after taking his 65-game suspension and coming out with what best
could be described as a well-scripted but feeble apology. Remember, Braun takes his 65-games when the
Brewers are going nowhere and he will then collect the rest of his $138 million
dollar contract starting next year.
To
say his apology is a joke is to be kind to a guy who, more than anybody, else,
was believed by many fans, teammates, players and others as a truth-teller.
WHAT
ABOUT LEGACIES?
Ah,
the legacies. A-Rod’s legacy? An admitted (at least for 2001 and 2002 and
2003) cheater/liar with virtually no hope of getting into the Hall of Fame
(although a winner now by playing and getting paid for at least the rest of
this season and probably for a few years on the back end of his absurd (at the
time he signed it and now) contract).
Bud
Selig’s legacy? Try as he might (and
there are even some writers trying to re-write his legacy now), he’s the
commissioner who presided over most of the steroids era, who looked the other
way while baseball was “saved’” by the now-joke home run chase of 1998 and who
was one of the last to come to the PED party.
Baseball’s
legacy? Well, if an inanimate object can
have a legacy, certainly baseball’s has taken a hit. It’s not cycling, but it’s not good. While people will say that cheating in
baseball has been going on forever (and it has), it’s never been like it’s been
since the late 1980s (and who knew that Jose Canseco would tell the truth more
than virtually everybody else?).
WHAT
ABOUT THE FUTURE?
Despite
MLB tripping all over itself to pat itself on the back, lost in the shuffle of
the Biogenesis case is that NONE of these guys tested positive. They ALL “beat the system.” If a disgruntled employee hadn’t dropped a
dime on the whole matter, we still might not know about it. So, as “comprehensive” as the drug testing may
be, it still can be beaten. In an almost
bizarre way, the Biogenesis case is proof positive that the system can be
beaten. Are there other Biogenesis labs
out there?
Who
knows, but you won’t be surprised if there are.
Remember, ALL of these guys who got
suspended will serve their suspensions, return to baseball and collect their
fat paychecks.
And
Pete Rose can’t get back into the game or the Hall of Fame. It’s laugh-out-loud funny.
What
of the future of the drug suspensions?
Well there is now a “movement” for much stiffer penalties for first-time
offenders. Ban them for a year, ban them
for life, suspend them immediately so they can’t play during their appeal. Unfortunately, many players have forgotten
that there are such things as false positives and due process.
Imagine
the first time that John Lackey or Evan Longoria or another player has a false
positive or takes something in an over-the-counter product that gives them a
“real” positive. Do you think they will
change their tune?
Yeah,
so do I.
The
players should be careful what they wish for.
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