http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ace-lifetime-ban-if-he-doesnt-settle-with-mlb Hopefully he takes a deal and gets this over with.
Wow, did y'all notice the poll results? Do you think Rodriguez deserves a lifetime ban from baseball? No. He doesn't deserve a harsher punishment than any other player involved in the case. 33.0% Yes. If the evidence is strong enough, Rodriguez doesn't deserve to play again. 67.0% Total votes: 3,736
And it's only going to get worse once the evidence is released because as it been said before "No one is bigger than the game"!
I don't consider bleacherreport to be a credible source. But USA Today Is reporting the decision is made and will be announced this weekend. ARod will appeal and his arbitration hearing will be after the season. It sounds like ARod won't win. He's done.
I think he realizes there's no choice but to take the deal for the rest of this season and next season. If Selig hits him with the lifetime ban using the best interest of the game commissioner clause he's screwed.
If he has any brain cells left he should take the remainder of the season and the 162 games next year if it's still on the table. Otherwise he's going out of life and I now think it will stick.
Why does baseball want to fifer. Him this deal? They can make the lifetime ban stick. If not, their downside is the 162 games of pay he'll get.
It sends a good message if they try. Even if they lose. Tho I'm not sure why to ban anything in the first place. Training, nutrition, workouts, medicine, surgeries, etc., all benefit today's players over yesterday's... Guys still have to pitch, hit, catch, and throw the ball.
...this is a line drawn in the sand. Yes, nutrition, medicine, etc., are available but they are regulated and legal. The manner in which athletes use PEDS is not and it circumvents the rules and laws which govern baseball and our society. And yes, steroids have been around awhile, but that doesn't make it right to allow the problem any longer. ...like I said, this is a line drawn in the sand and hopefully, it will spill over and benefit other sports' testing programs too. I think what Selig and MLB are doing is morally the right thing to do.
update posted this morning has a quote from Buck Showalter... "... 'If Bud lets them get away with that, they're under the luxury tax," Showalter told USA TODAY Sports. "If they can reset, they can spend again and I guarantee you in two years Matt Wieters is in New York.'" it sounds like Showalter doesn't want A-Rod to be suspended because it would benefit the Yankees...
...this is what kills me about Buck as well as other people. They genuinely think there is some sort of behind scenes conspiracy involving the Yanx, MLB, and Biogenisis. Selig and MLB have worked to hard on this to jeopardize the whole thing by doing something that could sabotage what they are attempting to do. That would be very foolish. The Yanx are simply on the sidelines here. ...if ARod is suspended, regardless of the length of the suspension, yes, the Yanx benefit from it, AFTER the fact. But to suggest that the Yanx are co-conspirators is just silly and without basis. ...really surprised Buck would act that way...he's generally well spoken and not outspoken....f' him.
He didn't seem to care when Arod was blasting homers for him in Texas. Yes, the money coming off the books is certainly very good for the yankees but there's no conspiracy surrounding it. Buck's comments are basically since this is a huge Yankee contract don't punish Arod severely. I'm sure Buck has heard from the Commish about his comments already. When you have a sport trying to clean itself up you don't need comments like this from people who should know better.
Buck is a great manager, but a buffoon at times. I've already said that I think MLB would love for NY to be rid of Arod's contract just as much as the Yankees, because the Yankees are being cheap thanks to Arod and Tex, stopping them from getting in on the new big FA, as long as those two and CC are on the books NY will not be looking at any big FA for a while and that's not good for baseball, so Buck is not that far off IMO, he's kind of speaking the truth, both MLB and NY want that deal scratched for both reasons, PED and FA.
