In eighteen years of being in the media, I have been fortunate to have met a lot of people that most sports fans don't get to meet. I consider myself very lucky in that regard. Some of the people I have met were one shot deals, and some I have been able to forge relationships with.
One of those people just happens to be Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. That's not to say we go out to dinner or anything like that. I consider The Commissioner and I to have a business relationship. The first time I talked to him was on July 4, 1997, when he called in as a guest to the Fabulous Sports Babe Show. For the next two years, whenever he came on the show (and it was frequently) I had the pleasure of speaking to him for a moment or two.
When I moved on to Sporting News Radio, and then WSSP in Milwaukee, I was able to keep that relationship going. I booked him as a guest many times. There were two times when he called me in an attempt to mediate a disagreement he was having with two of my Sporting News Radio colleagues (Jay Mariotti and Chet Coppock in the interest of full disclosure).
The Commissioner helped me out on a couple of occasions when I moved to Milwaukee, with things that had absolutely nothing to do with radio or baseball. He is a genuinely good human being, one who would give you the shirt off his back if he thought it would help. He is also a very sensitive person.
He is sensitive, not only in that he takes to heart any criticism that comes his way, but he is sensitive to the game that he has given his life to. He takes it personally when players or managers do things that wind up giving baseball a black eye. That's why Pete Rose has never been allowed back in to the game. That's why The Commissioner wasn't jumping for joy when he watched Barry Bonds break the all time Home Run record formerly held by Hank Aaron (whom The Commissioner reveres maybe more than any other player in history). And that's why The Commissioner has floated the possibility of suspending Alex Rodriguez for admitting to using steroids from 2001 through 2003.
But Commissioner Selig, in my opinion, would be wrong if he took action against A-Rod.
First of all, baseball had no parameters to punish steroid users during the time that A-Rod says he used 'roids. The late Ken Caminiti admitted to Sports Illustrated earlier this decade that he won the 1996 NL MVP while using performance enhancing drugs. Jose Canseco admitted to using the juice when he won his AL MVP award in the late 1980's. No action was taken against either player following their 'coming clean.' If no action was taken then, why should it be taken now?
I know that Commissioner Selig looked at Rodriguez as a Cal Ripken type of figure. A player who could save the game from the likes of Bonds. Selig had hoped that Rodriguez would do for this era what Ripken did when he broke Lou Gherig's consecutive games played streak in 1995. Obviously that isn't going to happen. But, punishing him for failing to live up to expectations (though there was a policy in 1997 that called for no suspension for steroid users) comes off as petty.
If Selig suspends A-Rod, then he would also have to suspend the other 103 players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. And, considering that the 2003 tests were supposed to be confidential, he would have a very hard time doing that. The other 103 names may come out eventually, but MLB cannot, as written in the CBA in 2002, 'out' those players.
Besides, Rodriguez is going to face his own jury starting when he reports to spring training. The fans. Fans outside of Yankee Stadium and their training complex in Tampa may turn A-Rod the way they turned on Bonds (most fans won't, but the vocal minority will). Alex is a very sensitive guy as well, and it's my belief he'll have a hard time playing while people hold up signs saying 'A-Roid' and 'A-Fraud.'
Rodriguez will face a different kind of jury five years after he retires from baseball as well. The Hall of Fame voters. The people who refuse to vote for Mark McGwire (who never tested positive or admitted anything) are likely to not vote for known steroid cheats like Bonds and Roger Clemens. Following that logic, it would seem unlikely that Rodriguez is going to be the exception to what has become an established (if unwritten) rule.
And, another thing to remember is that George Mitchell (The Mitchell Report) suggested that no action be taken against any of the players who were exposed on December 13, 2007. No action was.
So, the best thing Selig can do is nothing. Let nature take its course with Rodriguez.
Selig has done a lot of good for the game. He also, in my opinion, (partially) allowed The Steroid Era to occur by not doing anything. Sure, the union stopped him at every turn when he was trying to institute drug testing, but Selig also could have invoked his 'for the good of the game' clause if he had been so inclined. He wasn't.
Punishing Rodriguez after the fact would be petty, and Bud Selig is better than that.
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