A Road to Perdition

This weekend, an independent arbitrator ruled that New York Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez was suspended for an entire year, including post season for involvement in performance enhancement drugs (PEDs).  This has been a protracted process beginning with Mr. Rodriguez’s initial rejection of a 200+ game suspension mid-way through last season.  The Yankee third baseman demanded, as is his right under the collective bargain agreement (CBA), for an independent inspection of the evidence and the sentence.  The arbitrator did reduce the sentence but to Mr. Rodriguez’s outrage, a year will be taken away and likely, his career.  Alex Rodriguez has promised not to go quietly but he does need to go away.

In 2009, Alex Rodriguez revealed, after a litany of proclamations to the opposite, that he had taken substances to enhance his performance while he was a member of the Texas Rangers.  However, he was quick to say that he no longer took such drugs and asked that people judge him from that moment forward.  However, when Major League Baseball (MLB) convinced PED clinic owner Tony Bosch to turn over evidence of those players he had sold and administered drugs to, a string of players were revealed.  These players ranged from those to make the big leagues to superstars.  Mr. Rodriguez was at the top of this list.  Based on the evidence provided by Mr. Bosch as well as from other sources, MLB lowered the boom on every person on that list.   

It was at this point that Mr. Rodriguez’s indignation came to the fore.  Too vested in the statistics and glory he had accumulated to back off, he doubled down by lashing out at those who charged him with doping.  He criticized MLB, Commissioner Bud Selig and the entire process, declaring the charges and the suspension as contrived and the product of a smear campaign directed only at him.  All other players suspended accepted their punishment.  There were no cries of persecution, a rigged system or faulty evidence.  To their credit, these players realized their errors and instead of putting their teammates through a continued soap opera by battling the suspension, they took their medicine.  Not Mr. Rodriguez.  He demanded instead an independent arbitrator, all the while declaring that MLB was acting outside the guidelines of the CBA and making much of the fact that Mr. Selig would not attend the hearings (something the commissioner had never done during his tenure).    

When the arbitrator released his findings, he kept the bulk of the original suspension.  The ruling suggests that MLB had a great deal more evidence than has been revealed and that it was air tight.  Once more, Mr. Rodriguez declared the system corrupt though the arbitrator was impartial and by all accounts, carried out his duties thoroughly.  In a lengthy and rambling statement, Alex Rodriguez declared his innocence and his intention to take the matter to a federal court.  Meanwhile, he attempted to rally the players’ union and his former colleagues to come to his support and aid.  The immediate response has been a deafening silence.  It would appear that, for the most part, players are tired of Mr. Rodriguez’s antics and its effect on baseball.   

It is clear to see Alex Rodriguez’s actions as the epitome of selfishness.  To make matters worse, he has declared his intention to attend spring training as allowed for by the CBA, further creating a blunderbuss that will no doubt negatively impact the Yankees’ preparations for the 2014 season (as an Oriole fan, not necessarily a bad thing).  In some ways, it is a sad day for baseball but on the whole, historians and fans will look back on this suspension as the moment baseball began getting its house in order.  As a fan, I would tell the embattled Yankee – Don’t go away mad.  Just go away.