A-Fraud

I love baseball. Anyone who knows me well knows that. Any other sporting event I watch is just a way to kill time because there is no baseball on. MLB Network has certainly helped out in that department.

The big scandal these days in the world of professional baseball is that Alex Rodriquez now admits that he took steroids. What a shocker this is, um, no not really. I am not here to droll on and on about that. There is more than enough of that going on elsewhere.

I don't like Alex Rodriquez as a player or as a person. He openly cheats on the field - see the ball slapping incident of the 2004 playoffs for proof - and off the field too - on his wife. Still, he is arguably the best offensive player in the world. He is a grown man who gets paid millions to play a child's game. He will make more money per at bat than the average American will make all year. And I actually feel bad for him today.

To me, the real controversy here is really the betrayal by the very organization that is supposed to protect players like him - the Major League Baseball Players Association - MLBPA for short. Back in 2003 when baseball finally decided to do something about steroids they tested all players on each team's 40 man roster for steroids and illegal substances. The point of the testing was to serve as a benchmark, to find out how bad it was out there. Were 15% of players doing roids? Or was it 3%? Or 48%? The testing was mandatory but anonymous. Everyone participated because there was no other option.

About 1200 players were tested (30 teams, 40 players per team) and 104 of them tested positive for steroids or illegal substances. Break that number into a percentage and you get 8.7% of players who tested positive. Just like the Mitchell Report, a serious number but not an eye popping outcome in my opinion.

However only 1 name of the 104 guilty parties has been leaked to the press. MLBPA failed Alex Rodriquez and every other player by not ensuring that these anonymous test results stayed anonymous. Their sole purpose as an organization is to protect the rights of MLB players and they have supremely failed.

MLBPA should have made absolutely sure all test results were destroyed years ago the second they were no longer needed by MLB. While I do not care for A-Rod as a person or player I certainly don't want to see his civil rights violated. Even he deserves to be treated better than this.

Mood: Shocked.

Movie Quote of the Day:

"Your middle name is Ralph, as in puke." - The Breakfast Club

It's Ironic:

Kinda funny that both my trail running cousin and I took pictures of our shadows yesterday while we were out on the trail. Mine was taken in VA with a temperature of 67 degrees while his was up in Maine at a slightly lower reading, lol.