D-Day has come and gone.
A week ago, baseball dropped its punishment upon those involved in the
Biogensis debacle, which has unseated the Balco mess to become baseball’s worst
steroid scandal. And in that time, I’ve
been examining the story. This whole
thing is a black eye in the history of the sport. The entire situation is rotten; the players,
the proliferation of PEDs after the continuous insistence of baseball that the
sport was getting clean and the much anticipated reactionary penalty that was
finally handed down. All of it. It all stinks to high heaven and continues to
steal headlines in what is America’s greatest pastime.
This has been coming for a while. When we heard the initial story out of the
Miami New Times we knew this was bad.
And while some would have had us believe it wasn’t a big deal when it
first burst onto the scene, the skeptics among us knew better. And who wouldn’t be a skeptic at this
point? The All Time HR champion is a
cheater. The 3 players who broke the
single season home run record are all cheaters.
A-Rod was our hope to reclaim our record books with a non-performance
enhancing drug user, and he came out years ago admitting to taking steroids
when he was playing his best baseball with the Texas Rangers. It may seem cynical, but to buy the home run
hitters of the early 2000s as clean players or not to question the guys who
come from nowhere to have monster seasons is now par for the course. And if you
don’t question it, then you seem naïve.
Neither moniker is a good one, but both are understandable and to be
expected. What are we supposed to
believe now? And this Biogenesis mess
seems to be the worst one yet.
I won’t go into the whole history of it on this blog. For a full background, I’d suggest THIS
ARTICLE by Big League Stew. My focus is
more on the punishment, the build-up, the threats and the colander of leaks
that came from A-Rod’s camp, the New York Yankees and the offices of Major
League Baseball. None of these parties
come out of this mess looking clean.
It used to be easy knowing the good guys from the bad. When you were a kid, there were bad people
who did bad things. Then there were good
people who punished the bad people.
There weren’t any people with ulterior motives. Everything was fair and measured. And when the good people punished the bad people,
you were happy and felt like justice had been taken care of. And while I can’t speak for everyone, I can
honestly say that I don’t feel that way here.
There were cheaters, they were caught and they were punished. For the most part, I’m okay with what went
down. Of the 13 players suspended, it is
my belief that 12 of them got the proper punishment. In my opinion, Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta
and the others who got a 50 game suspension for their first offense are
fine. That’s what was collectively
bargained and agreed upon, and that’s what they got. Ryan Braun* (see footnote) got that same
suspension, plus 15 extra games for being a sanctimonious jerk.
That was all good.
But that’s not what took the headlines.
The suspension everyone was focused on, and rightly so, was Alex Rodriguez’s
suspension of 211 games.
Alex Rodriguez apparently was deeper into Biogenesis than
any other player. Tony Bosch personally
came over to his house to give him the steroids on multiple occasions according
to eyewitness accounts. There are rumors
that A-Rod was involved in putting Bosh in touch with other players that were
looking to use PEDs. And baseball claims
that he interfered with their investigation by attempting to buy his medical
records from the Biogensis clinic. All
of that, coupled with the fact that he admitted to taking steroids in the past
is MLB’s reason for A-Rod’s extensive punishment.
Alex Rodriguez sees things differently. He admits to nothing, and his press
conferences are almost comical in the way that he poorly deflects direct
questions and spends 20 minutes saying absolutely nothing. And while he admits nothing, his people are
working hard behind the scenes to get his side of the story out there. He claims his ties with Biogenesis are the
same as the others, he says he did nothing to interfere with the investigation,
though at times he seemingly admits to doing so by claiming that the records
mentioned are actually his records and he has as much a right to them as MLB,
perhaps even more so. And lastly he
points out that he’s never failed a test and his admission in the past about
steroid use can’t be held against him, as baseball’s current drug policy wasn’t
in place when he took the drugs or admitted to taking them. In addition, every other player who didn’t
fail a test got a 50 game ban. He should
be treated the same way. All fair
points.
So that is the battle in a nutshell. MLB says that
A-Rod did more on the Biogenesis front than his peers, justifying his 211 game
ban and A-Rod claims that there is no precedent for a punishment like this. MLB makes the argument that the collectively
bargained agreement only deals with first time offenders for failed tests, not
for non-analytical positives. But then
A-Rod points out that all the other non-analytical first time users got 50 game
suspensions. Both sides are wrong, both
sides are right. That’s what makes this
so frustrating. You are taking sides
with bad characters no matter which way you look.
There is another party to this mess, though they are less
involved. To believe them, they aren’t
involved at all. That party is the New
York Yankees. The Yankees agreed to the
most ill conceived contract extension on the planet when they gave A-Rod
guaranteed money to make him about an extra $100 million and pay him until he
was 42 years old. The Yankees want to be
out from that deal. If they say
otherwise they are lying. No one would
blame them for admitting it was a bad deal and wanting to be done with it, but
they never will. That’s part of what
makes them seem disingenuous. They also
have done all they can to keep A-Rod and his toxicity away from their major
league team. It’s a smart move that no
one can blame them for. However, whenever
they are questioned about it they claim that it is not their intention, even
though no one could blame them for telling a truth that is so plain a child
could point it out. If A-Rod had been
banned for life, the Yankees would be out from under that contract. If he were to miss all of this season, then
insurance would pick up a portion of this year’s salary. Both of those situations greatly help the
Yankees. It’s obvious. And while it’s not okay for them to pursue
either route, admitting that it would be helpful financially would enable people
to cut them some slack. They make no
admissions, and reportedly have worked behind the scenes to ensure that A-Rod
didn’t come back this year and also reportedly encouraged Bud Selig to pursue a
lifetime ban. They deny it, and have
every right to. However when they refuse
to admit to the obvious, it makes their claims about these much more serious
matters also ring false, though they are likely true as there is no evidence to
the contrary.
Have the Yankees done anything wrong? Probably
not. While they can root from the
sidelines for A-Rod to be gone, they cannot do anything to influence that
decision. They claim they haven’t and I
honestly believe they wouldn’t do anything so brazen. Selig is an owner’s commissioner so he’s well
aware of what would help the Yankees, the biggest team in the biggest
market. It’s fair to say he hasn’t
overlooked their needs. But you can’t
blame the Yankees for that. Have they
conspired to keep A-Rod off the field, or at the very least away from the
club? That gets trickier. This whole season he was rehabbing in Tampa,
FL. I see no fault in that. Jeter was away from the team while he got
better. However when he returned, only
to get hurt again, he stayed with the major league club. A-Rod was not given that option. He was in New York, about to play his first
game when he came to the Yankees and told them that he hurt his quad. He was promptly put on the disabled list, over
his own objections and insistence that he could play through it, and sent away
to heal and begin a rehab assignment.
That’s where the Yankees went astray.
They have the right to do what they think is best for the player. But they delayed his rehab assignment by a
few days and chose to keep Alex away from the team while Derek was allowed to
stay with the team. Why the different
treatment? By delaying the rehab
assignment, they moved A-Rod’s return back until the Commissioner was ready to
hand down Biogensis penalties. They gave
no reason as to the delay, and it smacks of keeping him off the field this
season to collect insurance on the contract.
The Yankees claim that wasn’t the case,
but again, I tire of them claiming utter innocence on everything. One can only accept these claims so many times.
And if they can’t admit that they see a benefit from the obvious truth
of A-Rod being banned for life, the rest of their pleas fall on doubtful
ears. They may not have explicitly done
anything wrong, but I suspect they did all they could within the rules to keep
A-Rod from the field. It may not have
been wrong, but it certainly wasn’t right.
Now to Alex Rodriguez.
His folly is the most obvious. He
cheated and lied about it. It’s not
good. In fact it’s bad. In addition, he made a number of PR blunders
including coming out on Twitter claiming he was ready for a rehab assignment
without speaking to the Yankees, to trying to purchase his medical records from
Biogenesis in what we all know was an attempt to block MLB’s investigation, to
getting a second opinion from a doctor about his injury without clearing it
with the team and getting him to go to news outlets making a fool of
himself. He chose a doctor with PED
tie-ins in his past who didn’t see any X-Rays or examine the patient in
person. Basically, Alex told him he felt
good over the phone, and that doctor decided to go to every TV station, radio
station and newspaper that would see him to share that news. A-Rod is a PR nightmare, a man with a wrecked
legacy and someone who desperately wants to be liked so much, that it makes
others not like him. It’s a vicious
circle. There is no doubt he is in the
wrong. He’s the most hated athlete in
the United States, and he continues to give us reasons to dislike him. There is almost no possible way to make
people take his side and feel bad for him.
Successfully doing that would be a massive PR blunder the likes of which
this world has never seen.
Major League Baseball succeeded in making such a blunder. Throughout this whole process they had an air
about them that seemed holier than thou.
They had a secret investigation going into the Biogenesis scandal, held
their cards close to the vest, turned Tony Bosch against his former patients
and let out convenient leaks to turn public opinion in their favor and scare
players into settling for deals. Sometimes
it worked (Braun) and other times it didn’t (A-Rod). But they are desperate to be seen as the
heavy hand of the law doling out the punishments to those who broke the
rules. Did it work? Kind of.
They banned a lot of guys. But
they also seemed to relish the attention.
Don’t get me wrong, they don’t want their sport sullied by PED users
(not anymore anyway….they didn’t mind it in 1998 when it made them more money than
God). But they do like the attention on
their investigation, their punishing of those in the wrong and the image of
them doing everything they can to crack down on PEDs in the game. Bud Selig does not want to be remembered as
the Steroid Era Commissioner so he’s doing everything he can to change the
narrative. But that book has already
made its way to the publisher. No time
for new chapters, no matter how much he tries.
And by God he is trying. But his
heavy handedness is not winning him any friends in this game. Last year after Braun got out of his
suspension, he had the gall to have the arbitrator who ruled against him
fired. I guess that arbitrator is lucky
that Selig didn’t have him killed, but come on!
You disagree with the boss and you are booted. That makes me feel confident in the ability
of future arbitrators to deal with these issues openly and without
pre-conceived notions. I’m sure the
players feel similarly. So before this
mess even started, Selig showed signs of calling plays from the playbooks of Goodell
or Stern.
Then came the Biogenesis mess. They claimed this was nothing. No big deal.
Investigative reporting proved that they were wrong. They claimed that Tony Bosh couldn’t be
trusted, was a quack and that this was a small incident. Evidence said otherwise. Then, Tony Bosch tried to work out a deal
with the authorities by agreeing to help baseball in its investigation, and
suddenly he was a man who must be listened to.
MLB came out and said that they would work together with this
unimpeachable witness who knew everything that happened. As they worked with him, baseball saw
opportunities to be seen as tough on PEDs and didn’t let these opportunities
slip through their fingers. They
conveniently leaked that they were going hard after A-Rod, the most hated player
in the game, and Ryan Braun, a phony whose stock dropped considerably after his
PED mess last year. What better way to
get ahead in the hearts of fans than to punish the men who fans hated most?
But they overstepped.
They were arrogant. They were
secretive. They acted like they were
better than others involved. They didn’t
let the story die, claiming that they would be delivering punishment soon when
the All Star break rolled around so it was all that was talked about. Then on the final day of the trade deadline
they again claimed that punishment was imminent. And then on Friday August 3rd they
made sure to tell everyone that punishment was coming on Monday to be sure that
it was all that was talked about over the weekend. Make no mistake; baseball saw this as an
opportunity. They almost seemed giddy it
happened. And they were brash. They made threats to suspend everyone
involved 100 games. They claimed taking
the drugs was the first offense and lying about it was offense number 2. That never would hold up in an arbitration
hearing, but it didn’t have to. They
just wanted to turn public opinion and frighten the players. Most were ready to deal. The biggest feather in their cap was Braun
taking a deal for 65 games, though in hindsight it seems that he got the best
deal of anyone. When they heard from
A-Rod’s camp (who did plenty of their own leaking) that he would fight any
suspension, they threatened to ban him for life to show they weren’t kidding
around. This was another ban that would
never hold up, but that was never the point.
Upon hearing that A-Rod just wanted to play this season and would appeal
any punishment handed down, they threatened to ban him using the “best
interests of baseball” clause, which is immune to appeal. However that was one of their biggest
missteps as it brought down the Player’s Union against them, a VERY powerful
organization that had let them run their investigation unmolested to this point. Somehow baseball made the guilty seem
innocent in their headlong rush to punish them.
They backed off the “best interests of baseball” route quickly, but the
threats still remained. And with the
country in a fever pitch, they finally relinquished their spotlight and
delivered their verdict.
All of the players involved, except A-Rod would get a 50
game suspension. Though these were
non-analytical positives and thus not subject to the collectively bargained
agreement, they felt that that punishment was fair for these first time
offenders. For A-Rod, they chose a 211
game ban. That was more than 4 times
what the others got. They claimed that
it was for so much more, that he wasn’t really a first time offender and that
his meddling in their investigation was akin to breaking the law and should be
treated as such. (Mind you, no one
involved in this scandal actually broke the law other than Anthony Bosch…. the
star witness for Major League Baseball).
They claimed he was lucky it wasn’t a lifetime ban and that they were
letting him play while he appealed. The
fact is he’s not lucky. It’s his right
to play through an appeal. And even the
threat of not letting him do that was a violation of his due process. And if there’s one thing we love in this
country, it’s due process. Because we
don’t want our good guys to break the rules.
We want them to win by following them.
Is it naïve? Yes. But we still want it. And when those rules area egregiously ignored
or disregarded, (a la the occasional Roger Goodell punishment in the NFL…or
anything David Stern ever does in the NBA) we feel that our “good guys” are no
better than the bad ones, having stooped to their level to punish them. And that’s how I feel in this case. In the same way that A-Rod’s desperate need
to be liked makes me hate him, baseball’s arrogant assurances that they are in
the right make me suspect that what they are doing is wrong. And somehow, they’ve turned one of the most
hated men in the country (not named Jeffrey Loria) into someone that people now
feel sorry for. What a coup.
The PED era is an infection in baseball. We are working hard to get over it, but it
continues to metastasize and spread.
While the numbers may have dwindled, the impact is just as harsh. Bud Selig was the Commissioner for much of
this era. He could have done more to
stop it in the past, but at least he is acting now. However over-reacting to make a point or try
to change history is irresponsible and a waste of time. A-Rod is a PED user who deserves to be
punished. But you can’t punish a guy more
than everyone else because nobody likes him.
And the Yankees have plenty to gain from A-Rod being banned for
life. Claiming otherwise makes them seem
disingenuous at best and outright liars at worst. But while they had motivation and perhaps a
few words of encouragement for the Commissioner, the collusion between the two
parties as painted by Alex Rodriguez’s camp is unlikely, certainly in that
scope, and at the very least could never be proven. It’s lies upon lies. All are good, all are bad. Nobody is perfect or even right in this mess
and all parties are wrong to such serious degrees that the things they are
right about are overlooked. It’s a
disease, an infection upon our game. Not
just the PEDs, but the ego and hypocrisy and greed and legacy building. We have to fight this infection, but not by
cutting off a limb with a scalpel of record setting punishments and
self-righteous indignation. The body of
our game won’t survive such a radical course of treatment. And while we decide what to do, the question
continues to hang in the air, which is worse: the symptom or the cure?
Footnote:
*The short version of
the Braun story is that he tested positive for PEDs last year. He appealed and got off on a
technicality. It was some good work by his
lawyers to get him out of the suspension, though there was little doubt that
he’d actually taken the PEDs he tested positive for. At that point he went on about how the system
was broken and it was just and right that he was able to get out of the suspension. He essentially thumbed his nose at MLB and
the whole process even though he was guilty.
His hypocrisy led to him being suspended for an extra 15 games.
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