The Chris Moeller Archives

Postcards from Salem

The uncovering of the A-Rod steroid story blows me away. Where is the media and public outrage on the players' behalf? Yes, that's right. In 2003, their union voluntarily agreed to re-open the collective bargaining agreement to address the issue of performance-enhancers and then to begin testing, in complete opposition to their Constitutional rights to privacy. The players were told they needed to lend their cooperation for the good of their sport and society at large. Then, during the initial year of testing, when the individual results of the tests were to be kept anonymous and intended for surveying purposes only, the terms of the new agreement were broken with not one, not two, not three, but four anonymous leaks concerning the test results.

The United States Justice Department, not content with violating the Fourth Amendment rights of un-charged foreign-born prisoners, has also been knee-deep into a little 'union-busting' when it comes to baseball, pissing on the Amendment again by claiming the rights and samples of 104 players who reportedly tested positive, even though the Feds had a search warrant only in respect to 10 players linked in the BALCO investigation. Three U.S. District Court judges and a Circuit appeal have subsequently agreed with the union, but another court ruling is still pending, which is how A-Rod has been caught flapping in the wind.

Why in the world shouldn't the union do everything in its power to fight this investigation and protect its players? They've been railroaded at every turn. They should have never even agreed to the testing. As former union head Marvin Miller points out, the government, to prove cause, would have had to get a court order for each individual player to begin testing.

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In other sports news today, at the NFL Scouting Combine, a 450 pound prospective lineman ran the 40 yard dash in two seconds.

posted by CM @ 11:33 AM