Outside the Beltway

Report: Alex Rodriguez To Receive Lifetime Ban From Baseball

Doug Mataconis
24

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Alex Rodriguez

For weeks now, the vultures have been circling over the head of New York Yankees 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez regarding sanctions related to his involvement in the latest Performance Enhancing Drug scandal to hit baseball. Now, it looks like the hammer is about to drop:

Commissioner Bud Selig is prepared to levy a lifetime suspension on New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, while suspending about eight others before the weekend, two people with knowledge of the negotiations told USA TODAY Sports.

The people were unauthorized to speak publicly because no announcement is expected until Thursday or Friday.

Rodriguez, according to his attorney, David Cornwell, will appeal any suspension, regardless of the severity. The other players are expected to receive 50-game bans, and most are considering accepting the discipline without appealing, according to one of the people.

(….)

Besides Rodriguez, All-Stars Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers and Jhonny Peralta of the Detroit Tigers are facing possible suspensions, along with shortstop Everth Cabrera of the San Diego Padres.

Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball executive vice president of labor relations, informed the Major League Players Association officials on Tuesday of their findings and suspensions. The players and their representatives will decide whether they will file an appeal or accept the penalties, which would all but end their regular season with barely 50 games remaining.

Rodriguez hasn’t actually played since late last season due to injury, and I don’t think there are many people in the Bronx who are eager to see him return to wearing pinstripes in any case. And I doubt that anyone else is going to be shedding much of a tear for him either.

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24 responses to “Report: Alex Rodriguez To Receive Lifetime Ban From Baseball”

  1. wr Avatar
    wr

    Do we have to pretend that this is because A-Rod is a bad man for using steroids to turn him into exactly what the MLB owners wanted him to be?

    A-Rod is getting a lifetime ban because it’s the only way the Yankees can get out of paying him the $61 million they offered him when they thought he was worth it. Now he’s injured, and if they can’t drum up this moral outrage they’re stuck with living up to the contract they signed.

    Don’t expect him to go away quietly.

  2. Tony W Avatar
    Tony W

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy….in Seattle we called him pay-Rod. Good riddance.

  3. al-Ameda Avatar
    al-Ameda

    So, it was okay back in the good old days when players only used amphetamines to recover from the grind and be juiced up and ready to go? Give me a break. This drug stuff is so tiresome. End the war on drugs, legalize PEDs.

  4. Chris Berez Avatar
    Chris Berez

    I have to wonder if Selig is overreaching a bit with a lifetime ban. No way that happens. The players’ union will fight that one to the death. The other day I was hearing that MLB was seeking to hit A-Rod with suspension for the rest of this season and all of next season without pay. Seems like Selig would have an easier time with that than with a lifetime ban.

    We’ll see. However this plays out, get the popcorn ready. We’re in for some fireworks.

  5. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    I gather the “lifetime ban” nonsense is a hammer being used to get A-Rod to voluntarily agree to a ban for the rest of this season and next. I don’t see how it’s justifiable. The hammer that Selig is threatening to use was only granted for gambling on the game. No way the union allows it to be used for this.

    @al-Ameda: The problem with the anarchist view on PEDs is that it essentially forces those who want to play in the Bigs to use PEDs. That includes high school kids.

  6. Trumwill Mobile Avatar
    Trumwill Mobile

    I don’t understand how you even consider banishment for getting caught for the first time (legitimately).

  7. Jim T. Avatar
    Jim T.

    I take it that a lifetime ban would not be solely in response to “getting caught for the first time,” but rather for the apparently extensive evidence that has been assembled that shows how he tried to cover up his involvement with the clinic that gave him the PEDs. It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.

  8. Pinky Avatar
    Pinky

    @James Joyner: The anarchists’ view on sports? I’d assume they’d have to abide by the voluntary rules of the game.

  9. Hal 10000 Avatar
    Hal 10000

    @James Joyner:

    I agree somewhat. But the current commissioner’s jihad is way out of proportion. Joe Sheehan made a good point the other day: A-Rod, on the worst day of his life, did less damage to the game than Selig did through collusion and his role in the ’94 strike.

  10. James Pearce Avatar
    James Pearce

    I’m okay with A-Rod’s lifetime ban, but I also admit that it’s because I loathe the Yankees, can’t stand A-Rod, and really could give a rip about the game of baseball.

    I also think that he would face fewer penalties if he was just a fraud, and not also a fraud who was (still is?) the highest paid player in the game.

  11. copper Avatar
    copper

    Is there some way we could incorporate MLB’s tactics against PED’s to get rid of politicians that run aside the line but seem to never suffer more than the endless talks of committee meetings and hearings? I mean, think about it, something could actually be done against those politicians who slid the money into the wrong drawer.
    The US just upped a no bid contract to a company by 4 billion even though the same company over billed th US by more that $800 million dollars. Think anything will happen? One of the guys who runs this company is a retired general who ran the agency that awarded the contract. Probably not.

  12. Grewgills Avatar
    Grewgills

    Why is it people hate him? Is it just that he got as much as he could out of his contract?

  13. Jr Avatar
    Jr

    Selig is bluffing.

    He knows damn well the Union won’t let this fly.

  14. Mr. Replica Avatar
    Mr. Replica

    @Grewgills:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxPNcrvR46Q

    At the 16 second mark is when I lost all respect of the guy.
    Before that point I was indifferent about A-Rod. I didn’t care if he was a Yankee, I didn’t care if he signed for millions of dollars. I saw a below Bush League play coming from an All-Star. I don’t hate A-Rod. That’s a strong word. I just think he is a prima donna, a cheater, and a liar.

    If this was a criminal case he would be facing jail time for obstruction of justice.

    However, this is his first strike for PED’s, so a lifetime ban most likely will not happen. He will probably be suspended for the rest of this year and next. Which pretty much kills his career anyway and any and all chances at a plaque in Cooperstown.

    If Bud pushes for a lifetime ban, it will blow up in MLB’s face.

  15. copper Avatar
    copper

    Is there some way we could incorporate this type of discipline on politicians? I means just imagine being able to have a lifetime ban on Obama and Eric Holder . With one felt swoop, Mr Danger himself, Anthony Weiner, off he the ballot. No more Pant Suits. Hillary can just stay where she is and take care of Bill.
    See we, The People, elect a commission and if a politician seems to go awry, well he has to answer to the commission. We kinda have a system like that now. It’s called Congress but they don’t have the balls that it ‘s gonna take to straighten out the mess we are presently in. In other words, you tell the politicians that when they take that Oath they are to abide by it, if not, adios. No body is that big and no body is that good!

  16. C. Clavin Avatar
    C. Clavin

    @ copper…

    “…I means just imagine being able to have a lifetime ban on Obama and Eric Holder . With one felt swoop, Mr Danger himself, Anthony Weiner, off he the ballot. No more Pant Suits. Hillary can just stay where she is and take care of Bill…”

    Nice to see that your “commission” is not at all partisan.
    Just wait until I get named to the “Death Panel”, mister.
    What a maroon.
    4th quarter of 2008…Bush’s last as President…a 9% contraction in GDP.
    The latest GDP announced yesterday…1.7%.
    You are probably math challenged…that’s a positive delta of 10.7%.
    If that’s what you call Obama going awry…I say he should go further awry.

  17. Rob in CT Avatar
    Rob in CT

    My thoughts:

    1. Just f*cking DO it already, MLB. If you’re gonna do it, DO IT. Don’t spend weeks farting around, leaking stuff to the press, etc. It makes the whole thing into a circus.

    2. Whatever they do, they had better be damn sure they have the ammo to make it stick.

    3. As a Yankees fan… the ARod contract was an eggregious error by the Yankees organization, 2009 championship notwithstanding (they don’t win in ’09 without ARod going nuclear in the first two rounds). It was unbelieveably stupid. So obviously they now want to weasel out of it. Part of me (the part that wants to see pinstriped victories) wants this to happen. The other part is disgusted by it.

  18. Pinky Avatar
    Pinky

    @copper: We the people are responsible for voting for these guys. They face a full commission every 2/4/6 years.

  19. wr Avatar
    wr

    @copper: “See we, The People, elect a commission and if a politician seems to go awry, well he has to answer to the commissio”

    We have that now. It’s called democracy. If the American people decide a politician has “gone awry,” they vote him or her out of office.

    But that’s not what you mean, is it? You want a “commission” of people who think like you with the power to overrule the decisions of the majority of Americans.

    And I bet you spend the rest of your time screaming about “dictatorship” and “tyranny.”

  20. Me Me Me Avatar
    Me Me Me

    @Trumwill Mobile:

    I don’t understand how you even consider banishment for getting caught for the first time (legitimately).

    Because it allows the Yankees to get out of the ridiculous contract they gave him.

  21. al-Ameda Avatar
    al-Ameda

    @Grewgills:

    Why is it people hate him? Is it just that he got as much as he could out of his contract?

    Yes, that is a big part of the general animus toward Alex Rodriguez.

    The public is big on scolding highly paid entertainers and athletes for perceived moral failings. It is kind of pathetic – We demand apologies for supposed transgressions, we pretend to be aggrieved when highly paid athletes are in the news for all manner of so-called wrong-doing. These are athletes and entertainers – they screw up as much as the average person does, the difference being that they are more visible and can spend more money while screwing up.

    People need to lower their expectations when it comes to athletes – they are fallible people, just like all other people.

  22. al-Ameda Avatar
    al-Ameda

    @copper:

    Is there some way we could incorporate this type of discipline on politicians? I means just imagine being able to have a lifetime ban on Obama and Eric Holder . With one felt swoop, Mr Danger himself, Anthony Weiner, off he the ballot. No more Pant Suits. Hillary can just stay where she is and take care of Bill.

    What a coincidence – I was thinking of forcibly deporting the entire Republican House Delegation to North Korea, their ancestral homeland.

  23. smith Avatar
    smith

    A lifetime ban is almost never invoked. Along with Rose, the other famous example was the Black Sox scandal of 1919, in which eight players were banished for a questionable allegation that they conspired to lose the World Series.

    http://www.onlinebaseballgames.net/

  24. smith Avatar
    smith

    While Selig could pursue action against Rodriguez under baseball’s drug rules, the sport’s labor agreement also gives him the power to punish players for conduct “detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests of baseball.”

    http://www.onlinebaseballgames.net/

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