I am going let them fight it out and am not going to bother with reading whether they can legally do this or not.
So, Selig basically just pulled it out of his old white ass, and goes all in toward the Hispanic player. Meanwhile, Braun, who vehemently denied using PEDs to the point of destroying a man's career, is able to just miss the rest of a lost season for Milwaukee, and gets a fresh start next season.
Braun bargained. Probably also helped that he played for the Brewers. An unarmed teen is killed walking home because of a chain of events that started because he looked suspicious and you have no problem with that. You have a problem though if drug cheats are not penalized properly? As I said earlier, let the lawyers figure it out.
I will have no sympathy for A-Rod when it comes to his punishment. But it does seem like he is the poster child for steroids and MLB (with Bonds out of the picture) and I think he is turning somewhat into the fall guy where if he is punished sufficiently that somehow wipes the slate clean and gives MLB some credibility back.
If that were a valid justification for a more severe penalty, then why didn't they give Melky Cabrera an extended suspension when he had a fake website created to try to justify his PED use? (From my understanding) Based on the terms of the CBA, they don't have grounds for this suspension under the drug policy. If Selig had invoked the "best interests" clause, then it would be a different story. But he didn't (which we know because A-Rod was given opportunity to appeal), so I doubt it stands.
