Jeeps just give AROD the 50 games and baseball can move on with it's life already.
Jeeps just give AROD the 50 games and baseball can move on with it's life already.
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.
All the dishes rattle in the cupboards when the elephants arrive
Donder (08-01-2013)
An interesting part of this story to me is baseball's continues zeal to go after these players. No other American sports league seems to go after its own players like baseball. Why? Allen Barra of the Atlantic asked the same question here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...ecords/278224/
I'm more interested in the motivation for the action than the action itself. Baseball has a number of reasons for going after these guys (and particularly Braun and A-Rod).
1) Shame: They want the previously indignant Braun to eat his words after mocking MLB's testing system and its flaws.
2) Eliminating PED's: This one is obvious but is almost impossible to do. I don't think baseball really thinks they can do this.
Now we get to the one that is the most interesting to me:
3) Weakening the Players Union: The MLBPA might be the strongest union in the country. They have had an almost perfectly unified front since the days of Marvin Miller. But, PED's have begun to shows some cracks in the organization. Players are speaking out against players in ways that they didn't (even during the Bonds/Giambi era). http://www.semissourian.com/story/1988325.html http://www.slate.com/articles/sports..._division.html
Here is MLB's best chance to divide the union in a way that wasn't previously possible.
Variatio delectat - Cicero
Keeping Arod out of the Mays, Ruth, Aaron triumvirate is a pleasure I will take from any of this.
“I don’t care,” Votto said of passing his friend and former teammate. “He’s in the past. Bye-bye, Jay.”
Yes but it is still a slap on the wrist compared to how Track and Field and even cycling treats offenders. With Track, unless there is cooperation and extenuating circumstances, first time offenders get a two year suspension. With A Rod we are looking at potentially a little over a year suspension for someone who is an admitted prior user. While this is a huge hit compared to the joke of the NFL program, it is still light compared to T&F.
Baseball is a much larger business than track and field and cycling. I don't think they can afford those kind of suspensions when there is still big names to be punished.
If they can make A Rod the poster boy for the steroid era and get rid of him for good while simultaneously deterring future generations from using (as much as possible granted) then it's a win/win for MLB. Win/win/win if you want to count how much they profited off players using PEDs in the late 90s and early 2000s
As for the NFL, nobody really cares if those guys use b/c the fans aren't as attached to history and numbers as baseball fans are. It's more "entertainment" and less romantic than baseball.
Last edited by TSJ55; 08-01-2013 at 10:02 AM.
Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.
All the dishes rattle in the cupboards when the elephants arrive
But baseball didn't go as hard after Braun as they are ARod. It doesn't sound like a lifetime ban was on the table for Braun. To me, what Braun did was far worse than ARod, Braun totally embarassed baseball, said this huge injustice was done, and got a man who makes waaaay less money than him, fired from his job. From what I have read, the guy didn't really do anything wrong, and from 1st hand experience in dealing with urinalysis, this guy didn't do anything wrong. Don't get me wrong, ARod deserves everything coming his way, but Braun got off easy!
klw (08-01-2013)
I think they are basically doing the same thing with both players. Braun just agreed right away not to fight the suspension, whereas A-Rod is brandishing his team of attorneys like a menace. A lot of this is just both sides puffing their feathers. I think we'll see an agreement shortly. Probably a longer suspension than Braun got, just because A-Rod already has documented use in 2003-2004. I'm guessing at least a full season.
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