Bud Selig did what he vowed to do. He was on a mission to rid his sport of the culture of enhancement drugs.
The commissioner dug in, drawing a line in the dirt of every major league playing field, separating those who did from those who didn’t and those who haven’t been caught. Those who confessed to violating baseball’s drug policy of enhancement drugs were hit with 50- and 65-game suspensions. They will also face being permanently banned if they’re caught violating those policies again. Those who have violated the policies were hammered by the commissioner with the suspensions this past Monday.
They all, with the exception of Alex Rodriguez, accepted their punishment and quietly slinked away. Not Rodriguez. He’s going to the plate and will go toe-to-toe with the commissioner, placing his fate in arbitration, where no one should bet the house on Major League Baseball. The weight is on them to prove their case against Rodriguez.
Barry Bonds, out west in a San Francisco court room, went to court twice on alleged steroid use and won both times. So a word of caution for all those A-Rod media haters and those rooting against Rodriguez: When his case goes to arbitration, it may not be a slam dunk for Selig and Major League Baseball.
And on another front, are the accused Latin American players who surrendered and took their punishment taking the fall for baseball’s non-Latin players? Just wondering. Are you?