Lets be clear: I do not like Alex Rodriguez. I think he is one the most idiotic fusions of oblivity and narcissism we will see in sports for decades.
His entire career is one public perception disaster after another: testing positive for steroids and only later admitting it, claiming that he was so talented he never felt the need for steroids, underperforming in the playoffs (except 2009, when he was a god in October), awkwardly attempting to mimic Derek Jeter, opting out of his $240 million contract to sign a $275 million contract, cheating on his wife with a stripper, asking women for their phone numbers during a game, another possible affair with a then-49-year-old Madonna and my personal favorite, an ex-girlfriend claiming that he has a painting of himself as a centaur in his bedroom.
As good a baseball player as A-Rod has been the last two decades, he is equally bad at putting up the facade of a likable professional athlete.
And now, we’ve reached the apex of A-Rod’s publicity disasters. Major League Baseball finally nailed this jackass by convincing an arbitrator to give him a full year suspension, supposedly saving the integrity of baseball in the process.
But here’s the thing: Rodriguez only deserved 50 games. That is the suspension length agreed upon by the MLB and the MLB Players Union for a first-time suspension. There was a suggestion a bonus was applied for his own attempts to cover up the misconduct, but I seem to remember Ryan Braun lying through his teeth while getting a urine collector fired, and Melky Cabrera constructing a fake website that claimed to sell a cream that creates a false positive in testosterone testing. Braun got 65, Cabrera got 50. This bonus punishment for Rodriguez is not fair and not consistent.
The public baseball fandom goes along with this because we’ve reverted to some medieval philosophy that rationalizes disdain for a player as a legitimate reason to punish him as much as possible. This is helped by a legion of A-Rod-hating baseball writers that I have to imagine were fully erect whilst typing their “he got what he deserved” columns.
This has led to a confusion of sorts. Disliking a guy does not mean extra punishment, it just means you get to enjoy the actual punishment more.
Yes, A-Rod tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, back when those drugs were legal. Yes, A-Rod tested positive once for stimulants in 2006. More than one positive test is required for a stimulant suspension.
Yes, Rodriguez rejected his union’s advice and went his own way, but when that advice was basically ”take your ridiculous punishment so we don’t have to defend you,” can you blame him? Rodriguez and his union were strong armed.
But when it’s A-Rod we say, “The asshole deserves it!” No player is worth compromising baseball’s jointly negotiated agreement. No player is worth weakening baseball’s incredible players union. Predetermined discipline is important for a union. If the league is able to decide that a player has made them look bad and really wants to punish him for it, the player’s union owes it not just to that player but to all of its players to defend him to the end. Otherwise, MLB has the power to punish how they see fit and expect arbitration to back them up. That’s bad. Like, future player strike bad.
As a baseball fan, I don’t want that. I want a healthy baseball league. I don’t want an NHL situation. Yet I’ve read so many times that nailing Rodriguez is good for baseball. How on Earth does anyone arrive at that conclusion?
We just went through months of one of the dirtiest sports investigations in history. MLB and Rodriguez aired their dirty laundry repeatedly, while fighting for evidence, intimidating witnesses and setting conventional player union relations on fire. MLB and Rodriguez did these things, not just Rodriguez.
Who crossed the moral boundaries first? Hard to say. It seems Rodriguez was proactive in trying to hide evidence from MLB, but he could have done this because he saw future punitive measures coming.
If MLB gave Rodriguez the standard 50-game suspension it would have been easily upheld and defensible. If Rodriguez challenged it in arbitration, he might have ended up receiving more games. How sweet would that have been? Instead, MLB tried to make an example of Rodriguez with a ludicrous 211 games. Commissioner Bud Selig is trying to cement his legacy as the “tough on PEDs” commissioner, and has gone above and beyond standard procedure to harpoon Rodriguez, his white whale, to do so.
This has led to what I previously thought impossible: I feel sorry for A-Rod, and will continue to until I actually see that centaur painting.
What are your thoughts on Alex Rodriguez? Let Jack know by emailing jfbaer@wisc.edu.
