Is it just me, or has the Biogenesis saga sucked the life out of the entire baseball season? They've spent more time on TV/radio/newspapers/the internet talking about it that you'd think it's the offseason and there was nothing else going on. (Either that or that Tim Tebow was somehow involved.) Well, today they finally announced the suspensions--50-game bans for 12 different players that will pretty much take up the remainder of the regular season while making those guys eligible for the playoffs. There's of course one exception. A-Rod. The guy who's gotten more publicity for not playing than possibly anybody in history (except for maybe a certain "quarterback").
As expected, A-Rod received the harshest penalty. He was banned through the end of next season. A total of 211 games (which could theoretically be longer, since it mentions nothing about the 2014 postseason). He has predictably decided to appeal and is eligible to play until that appeal is heard. That probably won't be until after the season, so A-Rod's basically got an eight-week stay of execution. And those eight weeks might also end up representing the last eight weeks of his career.
Think what you want about A-Rod, who's been Public Enemy No. 1 (fairly or unfairly) for longer than anyone can remember. Most of what was said by fans about A-Rod's pending punishment was that he deserved a lifetime ban. This, of course, is without any knowledge of what evidence MLB has against him. Rather, it was people wanting a life ban simply because they don't like A-Rod. Well, it doesn't work that way. The Commissioner knew a life ban would never hold up in arbitration, so he didn't seek out one. Instead, he gave A-Rod 211 games. Now it's up to the arbitrator to decide how many of those 211 he'll actually have to serve.
The most surreal part of this whole situation is that the suspensions were announced on the same day A-Rod finally made his 2013 season debut. He gave a press conference prior to the Yankees' game in Chicago that was awkward and uncomfortable, yet still better than any of his ill-advised comments made to the media before he rejoined the team. A-Rod didn't admit that he used PEDs, but he didn't deny it either (which is basically an admission of guilt). He didn't completely dodge the topic, though.
Now, I'm not saying A-Rod didn't deserve to be suspended. I don't think he is either. The whole basis of his appeal is that the punishment doesn't fit the crime. His suspension is more than four times that of the standard first-positive (which is what the other 12 guys suspended today got) and more than three times that of Ryan Braun, the other big fish hooked in this scandal. Bud Selig clearly wanted to make an example of him. Everybody knew that going in. But A-Rod's argument that Selig overstepped his authority isn't entirely off-base.
From what everybody with knowledge of the situation was saying, the lifetime ban threat was just posturing, and the suspension announced today was roughly the expected length. That doesn't mean there wasn't a middle ground that could've been reached had the two sides decided to negotiate. (The two sides can play the blame game all they want, but the bottom line is if they had actually wanted to, they probably could've found a common ground.) So instead, those negotiations will now take place in front of an arbitrator.
I still think there's a middle ground that can be found. Especially if the appeal isn't heard until November, it's all but inevitable that number will be reduced. The question then becomes, "What's a fair number?", which I think is the whole basis of A-Rod's appeal. The number I'd throw out there as reasonable is 150. You get 50 for the first offense and 100 for the second. Treat it as two positives, put them back-to-back and there you go. If they wanted to make it 162 so that it covers a full season, that's fine, since he obviously wouldn't be activated to only play 12 games at the end of the season. Ultimately, I think that's what it'll be. Let him play through his appeal, then suspend him for the entire 2014 season.
Today is both a good day and a bad day for baseball. But sadly, it doesn't even come anywhere close to putting an end to all this Biogenesis nonsense. That's not going to happen until A-Rod's suspension is over. Which means we're not going to have this behind us for a while. At least not until the end of the 2014 season.
No comments:
Post a Comment