The Chris Moeller Archives

Selig vs. Rodriguez, a knockout decision?

I guess since Marvin Miller is dead, Major League Baseball thinks it can get away with any anti-labor action it wishes to take.

You’ll have to forgive my ignorance of some of the details, but I don’t understand how arbitrators could have ruled against Alex Rodriguez in his effort to overturn his suspension for being linked to Anthony Bosch’s anti-aging clinic in Florida. A three-person arbitration panel dropped the suspension from 211 games to 162 games (effectively he’ll have to sit out the upcoming season), but that number is still out of line with the Collective Bargaining Agreement that reads as a 50-game suspension for a first offense on PEDs, and 100 games for a second. And I would like to remind everyone that Rodriguez has still not failed a drug test and that there is no physical evidence linking him to  an illegal or banned substance. There's not even any proof that Bosch was supplying players with anything other than water.

If the CBA really does allow for special cases like this to not only exceed the sanctioned suspension guidelines, but to do so based solely on the legal testimony of a deal-cutting criminal that is now in the employ of Major League Baseball, then the Players Association’s original decision to agree to any drug testing whatsoever was even dumber than I’ve always thought it was. This is why you never negotiate over your Constitutionally-protected rights; in this case, the right to privacy. I don’t give a shit if the rank and file of the union wanted testing. This is the reason they pay dues: to have lawyers in charge of their union and the legal protection of sound advice. I don't blame A-Rod for suing his union.

At the age of 42, Barry Bonds was blackballed from Major League Baseball. At the time, he faced felony charges of perjury that would eventually fail to hold up in court. He was coming off a season in which he had posted an on-base percentage higher than any other player not named Barry Bonds or Frank Thomas since 1962, and was asking for only a one-year contract. Rodriguez may be blackballed likewise, and surely that will be to keep him from threatening the Hank Aaron career home run mark that has already been smashed to smithereens by Bonds. But A-Rod can’t be blackballed without getting paid at least $61 million more. The Yankees, even after 2014, will still owe A-Rod three more seasons at $20 million per, and if they actually allow him to suit up and he adds just six more home runs to his career total, the club will have to pay him an additional $6 million for having surpassed Willie Mays’ career HR mark. After that, it’s $6 million more for every one of the greats that he passes on the all-time list, including Aaron and Bonds.

A-Rod’s talent may or may not still be up to snuff in 2015, especially after he misses a full season at the age of 39, but if the Yankees cut him loose, unfortunately, it won’t matter if he can still play or not. Other teams sign great players for their own, but also for the purpose of keeping that person’s talent from going to another team. That’s the beauty of blackballing someone else. You don't have to worry about the threat of the latter. It will be a collusion, a gentlemen’s agreement if you will, not to sign him, and Major League Baseball-- dating back through Barry Bonds through the actual "collusion" scandal of the 1980’s and all the way back to Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell-- has a marvelous tradition of these unholy gentlemen’s agreements.

posted by CM @ 6:07 PM