We can only hope baseball’s era of liars and cheaters is finally about at an end.
Baseball arbitrator Fredric Horowitz’s scathing, 162-game indictment of Alex Rodriguez put the finishing touch on Bud Selig’s legacy as the commissioner who cleaned up baseball from the steroids scourge, but the toll in terms of taking down some of the game’s biggest stars was significant.
Ryan Braun (“I would bet my life this substance never entered my body at any point. Today is about who’s ever been wrongly accused.”) will be back on the field with the Milwaukee Brewers next month to begin the second-to-last season of a $ 45 million contract before his five-year, $ 105 extension kicks in. He’s got his and now we will see how he performs without the juice, booed and vilified in every ballpark in baseball, including his own.
Barry Bonds (“I thought it was flaxseed oil) and Roger Clemens (“This man has never given me HGH, growth hormone or steroids of any kind”) both lost ground in the Baseball Writers Association Hall-of-Fame ballot and will likely never see their plaques in Cooperstown — certainly not in the near future.
Rafael Palmeiro (“I have never used steroids!”) fell off the Baseball Writers Association Hall-of-Fame ballot entirely and will never see a statue of himself in any of the ballparks where he accumulated his 3,020 hits and 569 home runs. At least maybe he’s still a hero in Cuba. Sammy Sosa (“I am clean, I have always been clean. There has been a lot of speculation but they don’t have no evidence.”) is about to join Palmeiro (probably after next year’s ballot) officially in baseball’s Hall of Disgrace. At least maybe he’s still a hero in the Dominican Republic. Mark McGwire (“I’m not here to talk about the past.”) is also likely to soon fall off the writers’ ballot, but unlike Palmeiro and Sosa, McGwire since owned up to his cheating and at least regained a measure of respect in the game as an accomplished batting coach.
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Fredric Horowitz’s 162-game indictment of A-Rod puts the finishing touch on Bud Selig’s legacy as commissioner.
And then there’s A-Rod (“It was disgusting. . . . the fact that the man from Milwaukee that put this suspension on me without one bit of evidence, something I didn’t do.”), who now proclaims to be looking at his year-long suspension as a “favor” from MLB, affording him a welcome vacation from the 20-year “grind” of mental and physical preparation that included an extensive regimen of testosterone and HGH injections. At a promotional appearance last week for a gym he supports in Mexico, A-Rod said he was looking forward to returning in 2015 and hoped, “to play very well and finish my career in New York.” Just like he knew he had cheated; knew baseball, in fact, had the evidence against him, A-Rod knows playing baseball again for the Yankees — or anyone else — is pure fantasy on his part. His skills have eroded, and his body in the last couple of years was betraying him with the drugs. What does he expect to be after a year without them?
And make no mistake, MLB is not done with him yet. While he’s mentally and physically resting, he can expect frequent visits from the MLB drug-sample collectors. And, just in case he still hasn’t read the Joint Drug Agreement provisions, if he should fail a drug test, that’ll be grounds for permanent expulsion from the game. When Selig last summer threatened to take matters into his own hands and suspend A-Rod for life for conduct detrimental to baseball, he believed he had sufficient evidence to do so. But his advisers talked him out of it for fear it would rile up the Players’ Association and upset the delicate spirit of cooperation between MLB and the union on the drug issue. But that was before A-Rod decided to sue the union, too. What kind of support do you think he can expect from the union now on any grievance issue?
And speaking of that, MLB and the Yankees are looking into a reported advertisement for that gym in Mexico in which A-Rod is said to be wearing a Yankee cap. If so, he neglected to get permission from either the Yankees or MLB Licensing and will be subject to a substantial fine.
Meanwhile, Hal Steinbrenner called A-Rod “a great player” and “obviously an asset” last week when asked about his disgraced, fallen star’s future with the Yankees. These are the kind of disingenuous things you have to say in the face of more potential litigation from A-Rod and his handlers at even a hint the Yankees might be looking for a way out of his contract. Ultimately, there will be a buyout because A-Rod knows he won’t be able to play, especially without his regimen.
BAKED GOODS
Dusty Baker, at the Jackie Robinson Foundation in Manhattan last Thursday where he was presented the Foundation’s “Chairman” award, made it known he is not retired and hopes his present sabbatical after being fired as Reds manager after last season is a short one. Baker, who won two division titles and had three 90-plus win seasons in six years as Reds skipper, has been in baseball since 1968 and has 1,981 hits and 242 homers as a player and 1,671 wins in 20 years as a manager with the Giants, Cubs and Reds. He drew laughs in recounting how Reds owner Bob Castellini fired him last October.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
Dusty Baker makes it known he is not retired and hopes his present sabbatical after being fired as Reds manager after last season is a short one.
“(Castellini) called me in and said: ‘We want you to retire,’ ” Baker said. “I said: ‘I don’t want to retire.’ So he then says, ‘well, we’d like you take a year off’ and I said: ‘I don’t want to take a year off.’ Finally, he says, “well, we’d like to say this was a mutual agreement.’ I said: ‘But it’s NOT a mutual agreement. Say it like it is, Bob. I’m a big boy. I’m fired.’ ”
IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD…
– The Rays, after stepping up to the plate and re-signing first baseman James Loney for three years and $ 21 million, avoided arbitration (and any ill feelings) by signing David Price to the highest one-season salary ($ 14 million) in their history and now look poised to make a run for the AL East title this season. But for how long? As if the Rays needed any convincing, the seven-year, $ 215 million contract the Dodgers just gave their lefty ace, Clayton Kershaw, assured Tampa Bay it could never retain Price after his 2015 free agent walk year. Thus, his trade value will never be higher than it is now. So far, however, the Rays have not been offered the kind of package they need to justify trading Price — a bona fide top-of-the-rotation ace — and at least two other near-ready top position prospects. That may well happen, however, once the Masashiro Tanaka sweepstakes are decided next week. The losers for Tanaka will still undoubtedly be seeking a top-of-the-rotation starter and the Dodgers and Cubs (just not the Yankees) especially can put together the kind of prospect package the Rays are looking for.
– Former Oakland A’s lefthander Dallas Braden, who announced his retirement last week, will be remembered for being one of 23 pitchers in history to hurl a perfect game. He will also be remembered for shouting “get off my mound” at Alex Rodriguez after A-Rod ran across the pitcher’s mound in the middle of the sixth inning of a Yankees-Athletics game in Oakland, on April 22, 2010. Media types will remember him as being just a delightful guy, always obliging, always forthcoming with honest responses — kind of like his blunt appraisal of his shoulder, which had multiple surgeries — last week. “There’s nothing left in there. It’s just a shredded mess.” He pitched only five seasons in the bigs — during which he was 26-36 and hampered often by shoulder woes — but Braden made his mark.
– It’s understandable if there were eyebrows raised in Anaheim last week at the announcement by the Angels-owned KLAA (AM-830) radio station that ex-Yankee Jim Leyritz had been hired to co-host a new sports talk show. If nothing else, the hiring of Leyritz, who was acquitted of DUI manslaughter in the Fort Lauderdale traffic accident that killed a mother of two in 2007, will re-kindle bad memories of promising Angel starter Nick Adenhart’s tragic death at the hands of a drunk driver in April 2009. To his credit, Leyritz has worked hard on his broadcasting skills in trying to re-build his life after the horrible accident, the burden of which he’ll carry the rest of his life.
SAY IT AIN’T SO…
“I knew it was shady when Sammy Sosa hit 60 home runs. Sammy was my teammate for three years coming up so watching his career and seeing him as a 20-, 25-, 27- homer guy, there’s no way he doubled me up.”
— New Hall-of-Famer Frank Thomas on Jim Rome’s Showtime show last week
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