Posted on 08/05/2013 12:30:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Major League Baseball came down heavy Monday on the players it found to have been involved with the South Florida clinic Biogenesis, suspending Alex Rodriguez through the end of the 2014 season and banning 12 others for 50 games, including three All-Stars: Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers, Everth Cabrera of the San Diego Padres and Jhonny Peralta of the Detroit Tigers.
MLB commissioner Bud Selig, in two statements addressing Rodriguez's discipline and a more general one on the state of baseball's ant-drug program, said he was "proud of the comprehensive nature of our efforts – not only with regard to random testing, groundbreaking blood testing for human Growth Hormone and one of the most significant longitudinal profiling programs in the world, but also our investigative capabilities, which proved vital to the Biogenesis case."
Selig said Rodriguez's punishment will begin Thursday and cover the postseasons, and was covered under the drug program's protocols and Rodriguez's "use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone and human growth hormone, over the course of multiple years.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
That explains his maneuverings —
But I think you left out the most important possibility: The Yankees will try to void his entire contract due to something like the morals clause. That would be the grandslam for the Yankees.
A-Rod is still owed $40 million from the Rangers, and he gets that, no matter what.
FU Tom Hicks!
Was going to post the same thing but you beat me to it, montag813. Just looked it up.
With regard to Cervelli, the given name "Francisco" is SPANISH (as in "San Francisco"). The Italian equivalent would be "Francesco."
In so far as I can tell, all 13 of today's suspended players are Hispanics, and all but Rodriguez were born and raised abroad.
Selig, at least in part, brought this steroid and other drugs problem upon himself by his relentless promotion of and activism in bringing foreign players into the major leagues. He is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist - if you don't believe it, look at which political candidates and which party he has contributed to substantially over the years. Furthermore, the owners who he has admitted to his club are also, with one known exception, of the same political ilk.
Why is that the “most important possibility,” when it is the least plausible of theories?
Babe Ruth was hopped up on Hops. :)
If only Pete Rose had taken steroids instead of made a bet, he’d be in the HOF by now.
Let’s not forget Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxPNcrvR46Q
slo-mo at tthe 1:00 mark.
MLB didn't profit off of Pete Rose's betting. Can the same be said of the McGuire/Sosa run at Maris title? Steroids have made MLB millions.
TS
I would agree with you that Selig "looked the other way" and that you make a very important point there.
But that's far from the only "big problem" with him. As an older fan, I can point out dozens of things that Selig and his henchmen have done - or, in a few instances, not done - that have detracted from my interest and appreciation of the game, and produced a worse product for the American consumer in general.
As to your statement above, Selig's "looking the other way" extended well into the 2000's, punctuated by his and his sports MSM allies' inane promotion of Barry Bonds' exploits, obviously aided in large measure by growth hormone (causing the obvious head growth) and steroids. It's also apparent that while this was going on, Selig had an unwritten gag rule against complaints by opponents against Bonds' and others' cheating.
The term "work stoppage" in reference to sports is inappropriate. It's another Orwellian change in vocabulary that the leftist MSM foisted upon too many. Before this, it would be appropriately called a "strike" or a "lockout." Baseball players, even well-paid professionals, were called players; what they did was "play", not "work."
And what constitutes a "glorious" season? Obviously, that's subjective, depending on an individual's rooting - or maybe, financial - interest.
BTW, I believe that today might be the anniversary of the beginning of that 1994-95 strike.
The Yankees are not going to void his entire contract until and unless they think there's someone who can play his position and who can perform better than Rodriguez for substantially less money.
They haven’t invented the pink-colored Whiner HoF yet, that’s why
I don’t think you have been following. Brian Cashman has dreams at night about getting out of his contract. It’s considered the worst contract in the history of baseball and is crippling the Yankees. First of all, he’s not playing at all. But in general, he is playing terribly, and making a fortune. I think the Yankees would take someone who plays worse than him (if that’s possible) just to be out from under his crippling contract.
In short, it was truly a great season that was ruined by the labor strike that started in August 1994.
Maybe Steinbrenner should have thought more about giving any player such a ridiculously long term contract extending past age 40 or whatever. Not too many players can perform at the highest level in their late thirties and early forties, steroids or no steroids. Most are no longer active by then.
But, as usual, he was interested in the short term implications rather than the long. Now he may be dead but he's left behind a mess for his son and his lackeys.
There you go again, using the inappropriate term "work stoppage," coined by the leftist MSM to put their own benign spin on this foolish dispute between the equally short-sighted and selfish players' union and Selig's band of henchmen. Heck, it was a strike, IIRC.
OK, so Matt Williams could have threatened Maris' record (is there any proof he wasn't using steroids, BTW?) and the Expos were playing extremely well. It so happens that in every season there are individual players and teams that do surprisingly well and other individuals and teams who do surprisingly poorly. Unless you were a Giants or Expos fan, why would anyone call it a "great" season for those reasons?
And there's no reason to feel sorry for any of the players or owners of the teams that were doing well, because they themselves undermined the success they might otherwise have achieved.
Tuned into the Yankees at White Sox game on the YES Network (Yankees) last night. It warmed my heart when the White Sox crowd lustily and heartily BOOed A-Fraud every time he came up to bat.
We're looking into getting tickets to an upcoming Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway Park this month - if only to BOO the arrogant A-Fraud, LOL. I guarantee the boos will be 10x louder at Fenway than they were at US Cellular (White Sox) Field last night!
A-Fraud is a disgrace... it absolutely disgusts me to see this Fraud in uniform, playing with his team as if nothing happened. He deserves every boo, hiss and catcall he gets.
As a Red Sox fan, the look on his face when he is caught is always priceless.
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