Not sure this has been answered already but I have a couple questions about this whole thing I have not seen answers to:
Have A-Rod, or any other suspended players actually tested positive for PEDs this time around? If not, have they figured out what exactly they were taking, and how they managed to beat the system.
Why didn’t baseball just ban him for life given he was gonna sue anyway? What’s the downside for them?
The downside is a possibility of setting bad precedent (from their point of view) if the ban is overturned in court. Baseball does not want caselaw defining the limits of the Commissioner’s discretionary power. They have a better chance of winning by proceeding under the normal collective bargaining agreement process.
I wish the Yankees would just take their lumps and wash their hands of A-Roid. Tell him that he can take a buyout and try his luck on the free agent market or he can insist on drawing his salary and the Yankees just won’t use him.
Three of the players linked to Biogenesis did test positive for PEDs: Bartolo Colon, Melky Cabrera, and Yasmani Grandal. They were all suspended last year. I assume the details of their drug regimens are in the documents, and yes, it does make you wonder how much better their testing could be.
To ban him for life they would have had to use a more vague “best interests of the game” clause instead of their antidrug rules. I think MLB was concerned that their the players would strenuously object or that that a suspension under that clause wouldn’t stand up in court.
It’d be nice. But since they have to pay him anyway until he is officially suspended, they may as well play him. If they made this demand right now I think there’s a pretty good chance he’d say “Ok, I’ll take my $60 million and spend the next three years complaining that you’re being unfair.”
People forget that Barry Bonds was popular in SF, if nowhere else. If Rodriguez is successful on the field, fans in NY will forgive him.
And even if fans don’t forgive him, if the team as a whole is successful, the team as a whole will be more popular, more tickets will be sold etc., even if people are still down on Rodriguez personally.
Someone earlier noted that NY Yankee third basemen this year have been performing dismally, so it’s likely that even a diminished Rodrigues would provide a significant upgrade.
If he was suspended, that’s another story. Then you take the money you’re saving from his huge contract and use it to get another player who would also provide a big upgrade. But as it stands now, playing him makes the most sense.
No, he’s past a breaking point here. He won the MVP award twice and people never really liked him except for when he got hot in the playoffs in 2009. I did read that Yankee ticket sales are up since he’s back, but then again, this is a slumping team playing replacements at almost every position.
I mentioned that earlier. Let me expand on it a little: they brought in Kevin Youkilis to replace Rodriguez and he quickly got hurt. Since then they’ve used such luminaries as David Adams, Jayson Nix, Chris Nelson, Luis Cruz, and four or five others at third, and they’ve been awful.
Thanks. Memory refreshed.
BTW, I’m not defending A-Rod or any player that took PED. But some of the outrage, not just on this site, but everywhere, seems a bit recreational.
Some of it is. But then again it’s sports- all of it is recreation.
[quote=“Marley23, post:88, topic:664544”]
Some of it is. But then again it’s sports- all of it is recreation.[/QUOT
First, thanks for your answer. Second, is that likely? Wasn’t such a thing tested with Pete Rose or someone else? Additionally, wouldn’t the proper course of action for the game to prevent him from playing? If so, wouldn’t you figure the lawsuit and resultant appeals would have essentially run out the clock on A-Rod’s career anyway?
I see. So is the thinking that A-Rod, et. al were not tested then, or that they were better at masking their PED use?
Given that A-Rod is not a factor in terms of making or missing the playoffs, I think they’d be better off never letting him play and/or sending him down to the minors indefinitely. They should be honest about him being an embarrassment to baseball, and should try to publicly shame him as much as possible.
I’m pretty sure everybody gets tested. But masking what you’re doing is part of the drug process - Manny Ramirez got caught because he was taking estrogen to mask the PEDs he was using - and you know guys are motivated to try to beat the system.
They are trying to hold onto some slim hope they can get a wild card spot, and publicly giving up on that would not go over well. I don’t think they can send him to the minors indefinitely and publicly dumping on him would probably not be good for them. I fail to see what it would accomplish other than making other players suspicious of Yankee management and maybe it could be used against them.
I doubt it as nobody likes A-Rod, and most people go to the Yankees for the money, not cause they “trust” the organization. Either way, I am sure they can spin it as them not wanting to be associated with a scummy person like him. I just don’t see why they would allow this guy to build his stats over the course of this lost season at the expense of their reputation.
Who wants to go to a team that will trash you in the press if the public turns on you? Even George Steinbrenner learned to cut down on that- or maybe I’m wrong and he learned nothing but got too sick to keep doing it. Either way, there’s no upside for them in continually trashing him. It won’t help them in any way and it could make their lives more complicated or perhaps even leave them open to a lawsuit, so what’s the point?
What hit to their reputation? He’s the one whose reputation took a hit here. Their problems are that the team this year is mediocre and they still owe him a lot of money.
But don’t you think the story will be more about how he violated MLB policy twice that we know of, resulting in suspensions, etc.? You very well may be right, but I think A-Rod is so universally disliked not only for his actions, but for his personality, no one will be upset if he is shamed.
I think A-Rod is arrogant and thin-skinned enough that not playing, or being subjected to humiliation will convince him to accept reasonable buyout offer. He knows his only way to be accepted by his peers and the fans is to play well, and I think taking that opportunity away from him would increase his desire to go somewhere else.
Those are both the primary problems as it pertains to A-Rod, but I also think they are being seen as the team of dumb money that accepts mediocre cheaters. I think they would just be better off in the long run if A-Rod, and hose like him, never took the field again.
I think very few people will be upset if he’s shamed. I am saying they do not want to give current or future players any reason to think the team would sell them out if they became unpopular. Is it likely that would really cost the Yankees? I don’t know that it is. But it’s a pointless risk because they would gain nothing from it.
I don’t think so. A normal person would have been humiliated to pieces a long, long time ago. He’s extraordinarily needy, but he’s deeply clueless about how people see him. And anyway the Yankees would probably do better on the buyout from next year.
I don’t see it. Even if it’s true, though, it’s of lesser concern than the other stuff.
The players union is very good as separating their feelings for any particular player and their feelings for not getting screwed over by teams. Players may not grieve over ARod, but they remember how teams and the league treat their players.
If A Rod did what they allege he did, the proposed penalty is horribly insufficient.
I think many people agree that the steroid home run records are illegitimate. Surely there is a difference between the use of a stimulant versus the continual and systematic use of a drug that increases your strength and muscle tone.
I don’t look at it as a rewriting of the record books. It’s a realization and understanding by MLB, through the commissioner in his “best interests” powers that those three guys (Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa) didn’t hit those home runs legitimately. It’s a good message to kids (even 37 year old kids like me) that baseball is about what is good, decent, and pure about American life, no matter what other sports do. We don’t condone cheating by using illicit drugs.
To say that should reach Aaron’s actions takes my ideal to a ridiculous slippery slope. People are human and screw up, but I analogize steroids to allowing a robot to hit. I analogize stimulants to be like drinking 5 cups of coffee to hit.
Amphetamines are more like 2 cups of coffee. It really doesn’t compare to steroid use in any way. It was helpful but didn’t produce the inflated records that we saw starting with Canseco & Big Mac. The only 50 homer season I’m not suspicious of since about 1989 are the Fielders. He and his son both seem so naturally big and strong, I’m willing to believe their numbers. Though I suspect a few others were clean, Griffey especially.
This is one reason the record books aren’t going to change. Too much guess work. How do you know that Griffey was really clean each and every game he played. And when did Barry Bonds start using? How many homers are you going to take away from him?
Take away every single home run from Bonds. Ban him for life under the “best interests” clause. We don’t know what Griffey did, so we wait for proof. His record stands until and unless.
Baseball isn’t a court of law. No due process is required. We know that Bonds’ home runs were produced by steroids, so fuck him. He’s done.
Griffey. Wait until we find out stuff.
Again, this isn’t constitutional stuff. Bonds has no right to his home run record. Baseball is like apple pie and picnics in the park. Keep it clean for an example to the youth.
Although “think of the kids” is usually a terrible argument, this isn’t public policy or law. It’s an administrative action in a sport. Keep it pure and purge these guys.