I’m stupid. And apparently so is everyone else. Why are we stupid you ask? Well, it’s because Alex Rodriguez really and truly thinks he is innocent of shoving PED’s into his body. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy when someone implies that I am stupid.
A-Rod has again been linked to another PED lab, Biogenisis, where he and 11 others will most likely serve at least a 50 game suspension. In A-Rod’s case, he would be suspended through the end of the 2014 season.
This is not just an A-Rod problem either. The real problem is with the way that Major League Baseball is handling it. Bud Selig specifically. Selig reportedly wants his legacy as MLB commissioner to be that he “cleaned up” baseball. This is a very noble endeavor, and I applaud him for that.
However, the game will never truly be cleaned until there is a lifetime ban in place for players who test positive “the first time.” There should not be a second or third chance given. One strike and you’re out. Boom. If we threw out legends Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose for fixing or betting on the game, how are PED’s not viewed in the exact same light?
Since the steroid era, MLB has been constantly under fire, more than any other sport. Why? Because baseball is Americas past-time. And every time a player tests positive for PED’s it further de-legitimizes the sport as a whole.
In all of this why haven’t the Yankees just outright fired A-Rod, and made an example of him? Do they really think that they are going to get their moneys worth on the final two years of his contract? Have the Yankees not had enough of the constant media circus that follows A-Rod? The controversies, scandals, paparazzi, asinine comments, and poor play?
The situation with A-Rod reminds me of a Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza is trying his hardest to get fired from the Yankees. And as hard as he tries he just can’t seem to get fired. Even after he spills strawberries all over Babe Ruth’s uniform, wear’s a flesh tone body suit in which he uses to streak in the middle of a game, and ties the world series trophy to the back of his car dragging it around the Yankees parking lot while screaming insults at them through a megaphone, he can’t get canned.
Outlandish as Costanza’s actions were, they do not hold a candle to A-Rods misdeeds. And yet Bud Selig, MLB, and the Yankees still support their decision and A-Rod.
In conclusion, if Selig really wants to be known as the commissioner that cleaned up baseball, he has to do just that. Clean it up by instituting a lifetime ban for a player that tests positive for PED’s the first time. It would be a gutsy move, but it accomplishes two things: It cleans up the game, and it preserves the Bud Selig legacy. And honestly he doesn’t have much of one without that kind of move.
