I AM DISAPPOINTED WITH THE PENALTY!

I AM DISAPPOINTED WITH THE PENALTY!

(Huffington Post, ESPN)

(New York Daily News)

(Frazer Chronicle)

 

Right up front I would like to say that I don’t care what these guys put into their bodies, or what they rub into the skin, what they do to achieve their success is their own business. Major League Baseball has established ground rules with regards to the use of what they consider illegal substances, so the players are forewarned, and if they’re caught…..bang, they suffer the consequences.

 

Everything is headlined Rodriguez and 12 others, so the hones is directly pointed at A-Rod, I suppose right where he wants it. Personally I’d shut my mouth, slink off in a corner somewhere and contemplate the book-deals that I could get.

 

But to sound like a victim, wow, A-Rod…..you must be an embarrassment to some, if not all of the merry band of 13 that will spend an extended vacation throughout August and September because they forgot that this is the 21^st century…., there is all sorts of technology that can snoop the snot right out of a person.

 

And I guess I need somebody to tell me exactly where these high priced agents were that all major sports figures hire to negotiate, book-keep, to watch their diet, work-out schedule, and to be an overall friend and nice guy to these sports figures. Should they also be banned?

 

I’ll be frank, some of these guys I’ve never heard of, yet they were on Major League rosters, which in and of itself is an accomplishment. There are only 750 Major League jobs available, and the starting pay is a whopping $480,000 a year…..and that is just the beginning…..it doesn’t count those neat little benefits, like first class motels and per deim on the road.

 

These guys at the major league level are all high profile, either everyday players, or paramount back-ups, and what’s up with pitchers taking these performance enhancing drugs, until lately it was only the everyday fellas that indulged…..all things change.

 

LET’S PUT A-ROD TO BED

If Bud Selig and Major League Baseball get its way, Alex Rodriguez will be suspended for the rest of the 2013 season and all of the 2014 season, making him 39 years old at the start of the 2015 season, and just over four months before he’ll turn forty.

 

Can you say “P-O” it’s what Rodriguez did to the Major League Baseball Gods and Bud Selig, A-Rod got some very bad legal advice, and some sub-standard representation with regards to his attitude on the current juicing and pill popping escapade! If I was the A-Rod man, heads would roll, I mean, can’t you remember 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, talk about a three time loser.

 

A-Rod, in his prime was one awesome baseball player, he was the classic, (hit, hit with power, run, field and throw, a five tool stud if there ever was one. He was a short-stop, who was a fan favorite, and really a good diplomat for the game of baseball on any level.

 

To the owners of the teams that he played for, Seattle, the Texas Rangers, and the Yankees, he was a marketers dream, to a sports agent; he was a gold mine that never ended. A-Rod was like invincible, undefeated, could do no wrong, and was the boy born with the silver spoon.

But like I said, a suspension until 2015, well you do the math, really,  out of competitive baseball for two years, 2013-2014, and 39 at the start of the 2015 season, and turning 40 in July…..and without performance enhancing drugs, at best a C or D-Rod.

 

AND SO, WHO ARE THE OTHERS

Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, and Everth Cabrera, are the only what could be called full time players. Nelson Cruz plays right field for the Texas Rangers, is a good fielding, strong armed power hitter, while Jhonny Peralta is having a career year as the All Star shortstop with the Tigers, and Everth Cabrera is San Diego’s speedy (37 stolen bases) short-stop.

 

Antonio Bastardo (Phillies), Jordany Valdespin (Mets), Francisco Cervelli (Yankees), Jesus Montero (Mariners), Cesar Puello (Mets), Sergio Escalona (Astros), Fernando Martinez (a Yankee farm-hand), Fautino De Los Santos (Padres), and Jordon Norberto, a free agent, round out the dirty thirteen!

 

The single reason that these guys took whatever drug it is that they took…..to enhance their paychecks pure and simple. There wasn’t a gambling scheme, there wasn’t a covert idea or move afoot, the motivator was the oldest reason in the history of mankind…..money.

 

Can we blame them…..absolutely, just about as quickly as we blame those people who cheat on their taxes, or cheat somebody out of money, or cheat on their wives or husbands. These players are a part of an underbelly of baseball that isn’t usually seen.

 

It’s a part of baseball that many of us struggle to accept, because any of us who have played the game have cheated in our own small way. Spit or shine ball, cork in a wooden bat, tennis balls in an aluminum bat, sliding at a player and not the base, or how about the old brush-back pitch.

 

Plain and simple these guys got caught, they however did not impugn the grand old game, that was left to the owners, the commissioner’s office, and some of the old time beat writers! Today baseball team owners pay a minimum salary of $480,000 to a rookie with limited, albeit untapped abilities…..and the team, and game survive.

 

Today’s cheaters are really the same as most all of the past cheaters, their just more sophisticated, use a little more intellect, and really are quite amusing to watch with regards to their reactions when they get caught.

 

They remind me of my kids, “I’m sorry, I promise it won’t happen again,” or the “from the bottom of my heart I apologize,” or my all-time favorite, “I’m so sorry that I’ve let down the fans, baseball, and my team-mates.”

 

I love the home run, I like the doubles and triples, I really like a stolen base, and can a 100 mile an hour heater be anything else but a joy to watch…..I don’t think so. I like 12-9 scores, 2-1 or 1-0 games bore me, yes-er-ee; give me lots of runs and hits.

 

I’ll bet with few exceptions, everybody knows what everybody else is doing, and really I’m not too sure that they give a rip; they just go about their business of being a professional baseball player in the 21^st century, which by the way is a full time job.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!