Major League Baseball getting another crack at Ryan Braun?

It looks like Major League Baseball may get another chance to punish Ryan Braun for allegedly cheating the game by using performance-enhancing drugs. I bet this time MLB won’t swing and miss.

Bud Selig & Co will do everything possible to make sure that Braun doesn’t get off on a technicality this time, the way he did after testing positive for a banned substance but having the results thrown out because of a supposed procedural error. Braun is on defense already and we should soon expect a press conference where the Milwaukee Brewers outfielder tap dances his way into implying Anthony Bosch somehow was tampering with his records without directly accusing him of doing so, the way he once accused a lowly test taker of tampering with his sample.

It is astonishing that Braun is using his previous battle against the positive test to insulate himself from these latest allegations by claiming his contact with the Florida clinic was part of his fight to clear his name. It seems pretty convenient to me. And if Braun was successful in having the test thrown out, why didn’t he just pay the man who supposedly helped him? I bet Braun now wishes he had paid the amount quoted by Bosch just so he wouldn’t have to deal with this latest mess (and look like an ungrateful deadbeat).

It is even more amazing to me that this latest nightmare comes to light just weeks before Braun is set to represent Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. Didn’t Selig & Co have a way to keep him off the team? Now these allegations are going to follow Braun and the USA team through what should have been a terrific baseball tournament. But Braun’s participation is not going to keep MLB from trying to take him down, if they get the chance.

 

Thanks to Steve Paluch via Wikimedia Commons for the Braun photo.

Cashman forced to navigate latest ARod drama

Brian Cashman would love to stop talking about Alex Rodriguez as much as I would love to stop writing about him. Unfortunately, ARod has made that impossible.

The latest twist in the ARod saga came via the Daily News, which reported that ARod is worried that the New York Yankees or Major League Baseball are conspiring against him following the Miami New Times report on his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. It’s not paranoia if they are really out to get you. It seems clear that the Yankees are looking for any possible loopholes to rid themselves of ARod once and for all and I’m sure Bud Selig & Co wouldn’t mind seeing him disappear from the game forever. But ARod isn’t helped by this report, which continues to add fuel to a fire that is burning out of control.

Now Cashman is no saint either, having exposed the Yankees and his family to scandal through his affair with a woman accused of stalking him. But Cashman shouldn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of answering questions about the latest PED accusations against ARod because it wasn’t his decision to rehire ARod after the Yankees third baseman opted out of his contract in 2007. That decision was made by his bosses, the Steinbrenner brothers, so they should be the ones with the cameras and recorders in their faces trying to explain the situation.

Unfortunately, the responsibility for answering these very legitimate questions has fallen on Cashman because he is the Yankees general manager. He has to walk a very fine line in providing enough information to feed the hungry press – a near impossible task because it’s clear the Yankees do not have all the facts – but not providing answers that could be seen as interfering with an ongoing investigation.

I bet Cashman wishes he was the general manager of any other Major League Baseball team right now. Except maybe the Mets.

Baseball can’t rewrite ugly drug past

Major League Baseball simply cannot rewrite its ugly history with performance-enhancing drugs, no matter how much Bud Selig & Co would like to.

But MLB took another step in the right direction with additional improvements to its drug testing program that will now include in-season blood testing for human growth hormone and for synthetic testosterone in an attempt to catch those bold (or stupid) enough to try to cheat the system. Baseball officials will proudly declare their program to be the toughest of any of the major US sports. But they won’t talk about how long it took to get there.

Selig denied any embarrassment by the shutout thrown by the baseball writers in their 2013 Hall of Fame balloting. But the message was sent, not only to the players who cheated, but to everyone else who didn’t do enough to stop PED use, including Selig. Yes, the players union thwarted him at every turn during the negotiations, but Selig didn’t use the loud megaphone he has at his disposal to pressure the union to embrace testing. If the commissioner had come out and said he suspected PED use was rampant, that might have spurred the public outrage a lot sooner than Jose Canseco and the fine reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle did.  

I do give MLB credit for making this such a core issue that improvements to the system no longer wait for the next round of union negotiations. Better late than never, I suppose.

Random thoughts: wild card edition

I didn’t think it was possible to mess up the new wild card format, but it took only one game to do it.

What should have been a feel-good story about Chipper Jones playing what turned out to be his last game in an Atlanta Braves uniform quickly turned ugly when the Braves fans created an incredibly dangerous situation for players and umpires alike by hurling debris on to the field. While not condoning their actions, I understand their frustration completely. I too couldn’t believe my eyes when the umpire called the infield fly rule on a popup well into left field. Technically, the play doesn’t have to be in the infield for the rule to apply, but umpires never make that call in the regular season and they were wrong to do so in a win-or-go-home scenario.

I understand that Major League Baseball needed to make a quick decision, but did anyone at the home office bother to view the video before they denied the Braves’ protest? The umpire clearly made a mistake, not of judgment as MLB would have you believe, but in his application of the infield fly rule. I know it would have been a scheduling nightmare, but Bud Selig and Joe Torre should have upheld the protest and ordered the game to be replayed from that point on. The St. Louis Cardinals may still have walked away victorious, but it would have removed any doubt that they deserved to move on to the division series

 * Much of my excitement over the new wild card format was the idea of recreating the magic of the last regular season game of 2011. That was all shot to hell with that terrible call in the first game and then a lackluster performance by the Texas Rangers against the annoyingly peppy Baltimore Orioles in the second game. Perhaps it’s just not possible to recreate what was a magical night of baseball. Or perhaps we should just let Major League Baseball try again next year and hope those teams put forth better efforts.

 * What a fall from grace for the Rangers. They, like the New York Yankees, had a division title in their grasp. But unlike the Yankees, who managed to win enough games against their division rivals in September to emerge victorious, the Rangers couldn’t muster one win against the surprising Oakland Athletics. The Rangers put themselves in a do-or-die situation and they died, even with their ace on the mound. Watching yesterday’s game, it didn’t seem like the Rangers even cared about moving on in the playoffs. It’s a stunning fall from grace for a team that I thought was building a legacy that would eventually result in a World Series, much as with the Braves in the early 1990s. It could still happen, but who knows if they have anything left, especially with Josh Hamilton possibly heading out the door. 

For Major League Baseball, good news comes with the bad

Luckily for Bud Selig and Major League Baseball, Felix Hernandez pitched a perfect game yesterday.

If King Felix hadn’t come through, not only for the Seattle Mariners but for his sport, all the baseball-related talk today would be completely focused on Melky Cabrera’s 50-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. Instead, the genius of Felix’s performance in his 1-0 perfecto and his charm in his post-game interview is the talk of baseball, as it should be.

Unlike his former New York Yankees teammates, I’m not at all surprised about Melky’s suspension. Cabrera was clutch for the Yankees, with numerous walk-off hits in 2009 and the first cycle hit for by a Yankee in 14 years. But Cabrera never became a superstar, which Yankee coach Kevin Long attributed to his bad habits and lack of work ethic. Supposedly, he had turned his life around. But in my mind that never explained why he all of a sudden became one of the best players in the league. Now we have the answer to that riddle.

I do give Melky some credit for accepting the punishment and expressing remorse for his actions, unlike Ryan Braun who dragged the sport through the mud on his way toward getting off on a technicality. But that’s where my praise ends as Cabrera’s name will forever be added to the list of baseball cheaters.

In contrast, Hernandez has now achieved baseball immortality. Unlike Philip Humber, who no one will remember through a perfecto too after this year, Hernandez’s perfect game cements his status as the best young pitcher in baseball, on his way to even greater things. We all knew how talented he is, which is why so many Yankee fans are desperate to see him in pinstripes. But his brilliance did more than just lift his teammates to victory yesterday. He also lifted up his sport.

Thanks to ChicagoMayne via en.wikipedia for the Felix Hernandez photo.  

Random baseball thoughts: All-Star edition

That was an embarrassing performance by the American League All-Stars, who got spanked by the National League 8-0 and lost home-field advantage for the third year in a row. Remember when the American League had that 13-game unbeaten streak in All-Star contests? That is now a thing of the past. What was most disappointing was that the early drubbing made the rest of the game a total snoozefest. I got so bored that I fell asleep and missed the last two innings of the game. I didn’t even know that Melky Cabrera won the Most Valuable Player award until this morning. Good for him.

I     * I can’t say I was thrilled to see Justin Verlander laughing it up on the sidelines after getting pounded for five runs in the first inning, putting the American League in a hole they didn’t have a chance of climbing out of, especially since “this time it counts” gave the National League home-field advantage in the World Series. I bet Verlander will rue his performance if he finds himself pitching Game 1 of the World Series for the Detroit Tigers in some National League ballpark.

       * Just when you thought Kansas City Royals fans couldn’t behave any more despicably, now comes word that Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees had to have extra security guard his family during the All-Star game because of the disgraceful behavior of Royals fans upset at Cano for supposedly snubbing their hometown hero Billy Butler in the Home Run Derby. I thought the merciless booing of Cano was extreme, but this just takes it to a whole new level. To be fair, Yankee fans have been guilty of similar boorish behavior as Cliff Lee’s wife reported getting spit at and beer thrown in her direction during the 2009 World Series. But that doesn’t make it right, either in New York or Kansas City.  



Bud Selig and Joe Torre both expressed remorse for Cano’s treatment at the hands of Kansas City fans. Hopefully, it will be enough to convince them that they are setting these players up for this kind of treatment by putting them in the position of having to choose the Derby participants. Major League Baseball should retake control of that responsibility. They can be assured that they would be safe from that type of vicious treatment since most fans couldn’t pick baseball officials not named Selig and Torre out of a lineup.  

* You have to admire R.A. Dickey, not only for the way he has dominated opposing baseball teams this year with that knuckleball, but for what he has survived in his life to get to this point of tremendous success. My admiration for him grew stronger this week as he expressed disappointment over not starting the All-Star game, a start that he earned, without criticizing National League manager Tony LaRussa for taking the start away from him. Dickey is a class act. I make it a point to turn on the Mets games when I know he is starting just to watch him pitch. I’m rooting for him to continue his fantastic run in the second half. 

Teixeira-Padilla feud gets even nastier

Just when you thought the feud between Mark Teixeira and Vicente Padilla couldn’t get any nastier, it just did.

Padilla gave a Spanish-language interview to NESN, the Boston Red Sox media outlet, in which he accused Teixeira of mistreating his Latino teammates. For Padilla to turn a baseball disagreement into a racial issue is so far out of bounds that it’s just not right and makes me think the man has a couple of screws loose.

If Teixeira did threaten to hit Padilla with a bat, which I seriously doubt, it was something said out of frustration and anger over constantly getting hit in response to Padilla’s headhunting while Padilla hid behind the safety of the designated hitter. It was not something said to Padilla because Teixeira doesn’t like Latinos. Teixeira clearly does not like Padilla (Tex took great pleasure out of his game-winning hit over Padilla), but that isn’t because he is Latino. It’s because the guy is a coward who doesn’t care about his teammates. I wonder how Frank Francisco, whom Padilla accused Tex of also mistreating, feels about being dragged into this ugly drama.

With the scrutiny the New York Yankees receive, if there were any racial tensions between Teixeira and his teammates, we would probably know about it. But in Tex’s 3 ½ years with the Yankees, there’s never been a bad word said about him, anonymously or otherwise, by any of his teammates. In fact, there’s only constant praise for what he brings to the club, even during his offensive struggles.

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine tried to laugh off the feud by saying that Padilla hasn’t been headhunting this year, but that he has to get back to that. I could understand a manager wanting to diffuse the situation, but he doesn’t seem to be taking seriously Teixeira’s chief complaint: that Padilla is going to end up seriously hurting someone if he doesn’t stop.

And Teixeira made a great point that Roger Goodell wouldn’t stand for his football players intentionally trying to hurt other players. Witness the stiff and justified punishments he handed out for Bounty-gate. Bud Selig and Major League Baseball shouldn’t stand for it either. The next time Padilla hits Teixeira, and there will be a next time, Selig should immediately suspend Padilla for at least 10 games.

I have a serious problem with someone who uses allegations of racism to justify his own bad behavior. Padilla is completely out of control, but we already knew that, didn’t we? 

Happy Birthday, Derek Jeter!

What do you get for the man who has everything? Well, Derek Jeter doesn’t really have everything. He is still fighting for that 6^th World Series championship ring, which is all he really cares about on the baseball field.

Jeter heads into his 38^th birthday today mired in a bad slump, which hopefully won’t get all the “is he getting too old” talk started again. Before his birthday month began, Jeter was having an unbelievable season, batting near .400 and stabilizing the New York Yankees offense when everyone else was struggling.

He has been surpassing great names on the all-time hits lists on his way to possibly challenging Pete Rose for the top spot (if he decides to play that long, which Bud Selig and Major League Baseball would love). Next up, the guy who made it possible for tall guys like Jeter to play shortstop: Cal Ripken Jr.

But Jeter has little patience for talk of records and lists. That doesn’t mean he isn’t honored to take his place among these legendary greats. It just means that he is too busy playing baseball to care right now. And that’s one of the reasons Yankee fans (and a lot of other baseball fans) worship the captain.

Happy Birthday, Derek!

For Cole Hamels, honesty not the best policy

For Cole Hamels, honesty was definitely not the best policy.

Hamels’ candor about intentionally plunking Washington Nationals rookie phenom Bryce Harper earned him a five-game suspension. For me, the most surprising aspect of this whole situation is that it seems that people are criticizing Hamels for his honesty rather than actually hitting the kid. Nobody seems bothered by the fact that he had no good reason for plunking Harper, who got the best revenge by stealing home.

I must have missed the part when Cole Hamels was appointed keeper of the flame. It is not his job to try to return baseball to its glory days by plunking batters. Those days are over and for good reason in many ways. Hamels could have made the same point by throwing a pitch inside without hitting Harper. In that sense, I agree with Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, who called Hamels “gutless” and “fake tough.”

But I do give Hamels some credit in that he is a National League pitcher without the protection of the designated hitter so he knew hitting the kid would earn him his own hit by pitch, which Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann quickly delivered. Hamels wasn’t doing a Roger Clemens impersonation, where Clemens hit guys left and right, including future New York Yankees teammate Derek Jeter, with impunity because he generally didn’t have a bat in his hand. Who could forget the one time the New York Mets try to retaliate and hit Clemens, with Shawn Estes missing the target completely.

But I’m disappointed that Bud Selig and Major League Baseball did not come down harder on Hamels. A five-game ban for a starting pitcher just pushes his next start back one day. To me, the punishment didn’t fit the crime because it should have been a longer ban, one that would have actually forced Hamels to see the error of his ways and served as a deterrent. But it sure put other pitchers on alert: if you hit a guy intentionally, it’s best just to lie about it because the truth will cost you.  

Thanks to Mel Rowling via Flickr for the Cole Hamels photo. 

Instant replay expansion off the table for 2012

Instant replay won’t be expanded this year after all and that’s a bit disappointing.

In the grand scheme of things, a one-year delay isn’t the worst news, but it is a bit of a letdown that Major League Baseball, the umpires and the players’ unions could not reach an agreement in time for the 2012 baseball season, especially after they came to a relatively quick deal to add two more wild cards for the playoffs. We’re now in for a season in which every tough call is going to be controversial because of the inability of the umpires to take a second look. I just hope we can avoid another Armando Galarraga situation (still rooting for him to make a comeback).  

Bud Selig has not been a fan of instant replay due to concerns about slowing down the tempo of an already slow game although he seems to have warmed up to the possibility. It seems like the umpires are stalling the process, which I have a major problem with because they may be trying to use this to gain leverage to sweeten their retirement or disability benefits. I have no problem with them trying to negotiate for better working conditions such as a seventh umpire in World Series games, but their personal benefits have nothing to do with what is happening on the baseball field.

Because a major blown call can make or break a game, it’s important that the umpires have all the tools at their disposal to get things right. It looks like they will be missing one major tool, at least for the 2012 baseball season. 

Purists' anger over new wild cards perplexing

I have to say that I’m quite surprised by all the vitriol thrown in Bud Selig’s direction over the news that Major League Baseball will add two more wild card teams and have the two wild cards in each league play a sudden-death elimination game for the right to advance further in the playoffs.

I love that more teams will have a chance to make the postseason, just as long as baseball doesn’t get too ridiculous and expands the playoffs to the point where half of all teams can get in on the playoff action. I love that the excitement that we saw on the last day of the 2011 regular season will be replicated every year. I love that division winners will have more of a reason to fight for that title rather than backing off and resting players, as Brian Cashman recently conceded that the New York Yankees did last season.

I don’t understand the furious arguments of the so-called baseball purists, mostly because in all honestly there has not been much pure about baseball in a long time. But there is a level of anger over the decision that is perplexing, most of it directed at Commissioner Selig. The silly name-calling is by far the worst as the personal attacks are juvenile and unnecessary. Can’t these people make their points without succumbing to hysteria? These changes are not going to ruin the sport, just as breaking each league into three divisions and adding the first wild cards did not break the game. The sport will adapt, the players will adapt, and most importantly, the fans will adapt because we are a resilient bunch, sticking with the sport even during its darkest days, which judging by the Ryan Braun situation will never truly be over.

To a certain extent, I do understand the concern about a third-place team winning the World Series. But that does not bother me as much as the idea of a first-place team in a weaker division winning a championship. Besides, what if that third-place team comes out of the toughest division in baseball: the American League East division? I can easily picture a scenario where the Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays all finish the regular season within a few games of each other and with better records than the teams in other divisions. I would have no problem with a wild-card matchup that pits two of these teams against each other in a do-or-die situation. There would be no way to say that any of these teams don’t deserve a shot at the postseason. I would much prefer seeing a stronger third-place team play for a world title than a weaker first-place team simply benefitting from playing in a division with lesser competition.

But we all have our opinions about baseball’s latest changes and none is more valid than the other, despite whatever any of us think. Let’s just try to act like grown-ups when discussing them. 

Shocker! Bud Selig to stay on as MLB commish

I’m sure we’re all completely shocked by the news that Bud Selig will stay on as Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

In all seriousness, as much as Selig insisted that he would depart at the end of his contract, there was just no way he was going to leave with so much unfinished business, namely the precarious financial situations of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets (yes, I blame the New York Yankees’ cross-town rivals in part for Selig’s decision not to ride off into the sunset. And Bernie Madoff, of course). If Selig can put the Dodgers in the capable hands of his one-time deputy Joe Torre and find a way to help the Mets out of their financial abyss, that would settle two of the biggest obstacles between Selig and retirement.

Did Selig really want to retire? I truly believe that he did want to leave his high-profile job and settle into an uncomplicated life in academia. But I also believe that Selig is not a man to walk away when things get tough. To be sure, he would have been leaving Major League Baseball in pretty good shape following the almost completely rancor-free contract negotiations that resolved many key issues: tighter drug testing, more expanded instant replay that will hopefully reduce controversial calls, additional wild cards that ensure the excitement of the 2011 regular season’s finish will be replicated every year.

But the financial troubles of two major franchises in baseball’s key markets was simply too much for Selig to walk away from, a delicate situation that the baseball owners probably did not trust another commissioner to handle, which is why I can imagine that they may have begged Selig to stay.

Whatever the reason, Selig’s decision to stay on is good for the game of baseball. 

Can Joe Torre restore the Dodgers to greatness?

Joe Torre is a proven winner in the game of baseball, but he is going to need all his skills and talents for what he hopes will be his next job: restoring the Los Angeles Dodgers to greatness.

Torre announced that he was leaving Major League Baseball’s front office to join a group seeking to buy the bankrupt Dodgers. If the group’s bid is successful, Torre would become the head of baseball operations for the iconic franchise and the primary face of a new ownership group seeking to turn the Dodgers back into a superior organization.

Torre has a lifetime of baseball experience as a player, manager and broadcaster, although he experienced his greatest post-retirement success as manager of the New York Yankees. I do not question Torre’s baseball smarts at all. But I can’t help but wonder whether a job running baseball operations is the best fit for an admitted old-time thinker when it comes to baseball. Can Torre really deal with all the advanced metrics and new-age thinking that comes with recruiting and signing players for a major league franchise in the Moneyball era?

I’m also a little surprised that Torre decided to leave his job as right-hand man to Bud Selig at MLB. It was a comfortable role that seemed to fit Torre like a glove, even when there was controversy with the umpires or MLB’s foolish decision to deny the New York Mets the right to honor the first responders at the 9/11 ceremonies by wearing their hats. But Torre is a master at deflecting and defusing controversies, a talent honed in his many years as Yankees manager under George Steinbrenner.  

He’s going to need more than that if he’s going to succeed in his latest task. The Dodgers are fighting to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and regain the love and affection of Angelenos turned off by the antics of current owner Frank McCourt and the thugs who infiltrated the stadium in recent years, leading to a near-fatal attack on a visiting San Francisco Giants fan. The Dodgers will also have to contend with the suddenly free-spending Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and their new superstar Albert Pujols, whose signing has excited, and perhaps expanded, the Angels fan base.

But Torre has a lot to work with, namely a nucleus of young talent, led by superstar Matt Kemp on the offensive side and ace Clayton Kershaw on the pitching mound. He will have his hand-picked successor Don Mattingly, who did a commendable job running the 2011 team despite all the drama, back in the dugout. It’s a strong base to build off of and Torre may be the guy to massage the team back to what die-hard Dodger Blue fans deserve: a title-winning ballclub. I certainly hope so.

Good luck, Joe!

Mets, Wilpon dying a slow death

By now, Fred Wilpon might be hoping that Major League Baseball actually does step in to take the New York Mets off his hands.

News that the Mets have taken out a $40 million loan (on top of the $25 million they borrowed from MLB) has created intense speculation about when the Wilpons might receive the Frank McCourt treatment from Bud Selig and be forced to sell the team. Selig and Wilpon are admittedly friends. But at some point, Selig is going to have to remove his blinders and apply his “best interests of the game” philosophy to the Mets the same way he did with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He cannot continue to let a baseball franchise in such a key market flounder for very much longer.

Wilpon loves owning the Mets so he will resist any pressure to sell the team for as long as humanly possible. But the Bernie Madoff-induced financial headache Wilpon is being forced to deal with is not going away anytime soon. At some point, Wilpon has to realize that his ownership may not be in the best interest of the team that he claims to love.

The Mets are borrowing significant amounts of money and desperately searching for minority investors. Yet it looks like they will have no money to spend on actually improving the team or recovering from the loss of Jose Reyes. Next up will likely be a fire sale of their remaining stars, beginning with David Wright and ending with Johan Santana once he proves he is completely healthy because the team will simply not be able to afford them (unfortunately, they are probably stuck with Jason Bay’s expensive contract).

The Mets and Wilpon are just dying a slow death and it’s painful to watch. Forcing Wilpon to sell the team may be the ultimate act of mercy by Selig.

Braun positive test a black eye for baseball

Taking a break from Syracuse’s bashing of George Washington on the basketball court, I turned to ESPN for the start of the Heisman Trophy presentation. To my complete shock and distress, ESPN was reporting that Milwaukee Brewers’ outfielder Ryan Braun, the reigning National League Most Valuable Player, has tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. I couldn’t help but think two things: “are you freaking kidding me” and “here we go again.”

I'm kind of surprised to see one of baseball’s young stars getting caught up in the PED issue, having been trained on what to look out for and enduring years of PED testing in the minors. I fully expected to see some older veterans from the steroids era still trying to game the system, ala Manny Ramirez, who seems to be getting over yet again as his second suspension is reduced to 50 games. But Braun, who Bud Selig personally mentioned as a shining example of a clean player, testing positive is really a black eye for baseball.

Not that I thought baseball would ever completely get past the PED issue, which is very much a part of the sport’s legacy. I just thought that young guys like Braun, who came up under a very different system, would understand that using PEDs is not worth the risk. But in truth, there is no real downside, not when suspensions get reduced, not when players get to keep their $150 million contracts and MVP trophies (yes Braun should have the decency to give his back if he fails to prove his innocence), not when the only true punishment is that a group of writers down the line will not let you anywhere near the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I’d love to believe that Braun is completely innocent, but the cynic in me takes over when it comes to the issue of PED use in baseball. And truthfully, I worry that the possibility of Braun being cleared could mean that there is a major hole in the system and every single player that tests positive from now on will vigorously challenge the results.

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I’m a Braun fan, but when it comes to PEDs, that means nothing to me. I want to see PED users held accountable for their actions. I was not even willing to give Andy Pettitte of the New York Yankees, who I completely adored, a pass for that behavior. So Braun doesn’t get a pass either, unless he can somehow prove that the result was just flat-out wrong and he should be cleared of the PED accusations. But I seriously doubt that will happen. My beloved sport takes another ugly hit.

Thanks to the Dana Files for the Wikipedia photo.

Reduced suspension for Ramirez unacceptable

The Associated Press is reporting that Major League Baseball and the players’ union are working on an agreement to reduce Manny Ramirez’s suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs from 100 games to 50 games. If that’s true, it’s completely unacceptable.

I don’t care that Ramirez sat out most of the 2011 baseball season. He chose to do that rather than serve the mandatory 100-game suspension for being caught using PEDs for the second time. He should not be rewarded for that cowardly act by having his suspension cut.

If MLB agrees to this, it makes a mockery out of their whole get-tough on PEDs stance, which was on shaky ground even after coming out with what many describe as a flawed agreement on blood testing for human growth hormone in the new labor contract. I gave MLB a lot of credit for going where none of the major US sports has gone before, but its drug efforts will take a serious hit if they allow Ramirez to avoid the full punishment he deserves.

I hope this is one of those situations where the leaked report causes so much outrage that MLB has no chose but to back down and refuse the request to shorten Manny’s suspension. If they do allow the reduced suspension, I never again want to hear Bud Selig talking about how clean his sport has become. It means absolutely nothing if you allow the penalties to be gutted.

Thanks to Googie man via en.Wikipedia for the photo.

Jeter will be scapegoat for forced All-Star play

Call it the Derek Jeter rule: players voted to the All-Star team must participate in the game, unless they have a really good excuse.

Jeter was roundly, and I thought unfairly, criticized for his decision to skip this season’s All-Star game, including by an unnamed baseball official. Bud Selig did some major damage control at the time by claiming he was not angry that the captain of the New York Yankees decided to blow off the game. But I think Selig’s true feelings were revealed by the fact that baseball’s new labor contract mandates that players voted to the team must participate unless they are injured or otherwise excused. Get ready to see some interesting doctors’ notes and excuses.

I wonder how Jeter will feel about this change as he will be made the scapegoat for this rather restrictive rule, but we will probably never know. I thought Jeter was emotionally spent after his grueling climb to the 3,000 mark and had every right to take a few days off to mentally recharge for the second half of the year. Plus, Jeter may have been making a last-ditch effort to fix his fraying relationship with then-girlfriend Minka Kelly by spending the time with her on her turf (she was filming the now-cancelled Charlie’s Angels reboot in Miami). I can’t blame Jeter if he decided trying to salvage his long-term relationship was more important than playing in the All-Star game.

I don’t like the idea of forcing players to participate in the All-Star game. In a season of 162 games, half of which are played on the road, players should not be penalized for having a great season by being forced to participate in the game when they would rather spend their limited time off with their families. I don’t think players should have to justify that decision.

But in the grand scheme of things, being forced to play in the All-Star game is a small price to pay to keep the baseball peace.

Happy Thanksgiving folks!

Baseball gets it right on wild card changes

Bravo to Bud Selig and Major League Baseball for finally doing something right, and on the first try no less!

MLB will expand the postseason to add one wild card team to each league, having the two wild cards in the leagues square off against each other to see who can continue to play baseball in October. The one-game playoff is perfect because it ensures the excitement of a sudden-death game for the right to move on, but does not drag out the postseason any longer than necessary. I love the idea of recreating the excitement we saw on the last day of the 2011 season every year.

Of course, there will be some objectors, including players, even though they stand to benefit if their team has an extra chance to make and then advance in the playoffs. Players such as Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees hate the proposal because they do not believe that they should have to face an inferior team in a do-or-die game. It’s a legitimate point, but the new format puts a greater emphasis on winning the division outright than has existed in recent years. If a team wins its division, it does not have to worry about suffering a too-quick exit from the playoffs during the wild-card round.

Plus, the extra wild card gives teams such as the Yankees that are often penalized for playing in the toughest division in baseball an extra shot at ensuring their good work over the full year does not go to waste, even if they come in one game behind the Boston Red Sox or Tampa Bay Rays. Of course, if the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays all make the playoffs because of the extra wild card, there will be quick calls for a rethinking of the new format.

But all in all, I think MLB got this one exactly right and I am looking forward to the playoff action next year.

Things starting to look up for the LA Dodgers

The fortunes of the Los Angeles Dodgers are finally starting to change for the better.

Frank McCourt mercifully realized his quest to hold on to the Dodgers was fruitless and agreed to sell the team, much to what I imagine was unbridled glee behind closed doors in the offices of Major League Baseball. It will take some time, but Bud Selig will be successful in his quest to rid baseball of McCourt once and for all and will hopefully find an owner that will not pilfer the team and will make a legitimate effort to reconnect with disillusioned Dodgers fans.

The Dodgers appear to be off to a good start in making their fan base happy with the reported mega-contract for superstar Matt Kemp. I have to admit to being very surprised at the timing considering Kemp is not a free agent and the Dodgers are still in bankruptcy. Perhaps McCourt wants to try to screw over the next owner by leaving an expensive, long-term deal that the next owner will be responsible for and McCourt does not have to answer for if it goes bad. But I don’t have a problem with the deal, especially when you consider that Kemp is only 27 years old and coming off a terrific season in which he almost got the Triple Crown of hitting in the National League with a .324 batting average, 39 home runs and 126 RBIs.

The good news for the Dodgers continues, with young ace Clayton Kershaw winning the National League Cy Young award by a substantial margin. Only 23 years old, Kershaw beat out Phillies pitching studs Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Kershaw beat the competition by achieving the Triple Crown of pitching, tying for the National League lead in wins with 21 and placing first with 248 strikeouts and a 2.28 ERA. The best news for the Dodgers is that he is only now becoming eligible for arbitration so they control his rights for three more years. But I would like to see one of the new owner’s first orders of business being to lock up the youngster to a long-term contract that both sides can be happy with.

It really does say something positive about the fortitude of both Kemp and Kershaw that they were able to have such fantastic years with all the drama hanging over the team’s head.

Of course there will be kinks along the way, but things appear to be looking up for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Thanks to SD Dirk for the Kemp photo and Craigfnp for the Kershaw photo via Wikipedia.

McCourt tries to buy Dodgers fans' forgiveness

As Frank McCourt's battle with Major League Baseball to maintain control of the Los Angeles Dodgers gets nastier, McCourt is now trying to buy the goodwill and forgiveness of the Dodgers’ fan base. But if the Dodgers fan I ran into this week is any indication, they are just as sick and tired of McCourt as Bud Selig is and are squarely on MLB’s side in the dispute.

I would never say that one fan can speak for the entire Dodgers fan base, but I suspect that the vast majority of them are equally upset and bitter about the damage McCourt has inflicted on the franchise, especially after Major League Baseball alleged that McCourt plundered the organization to the tune of $189 million. They seem to be hoping that Selig can convince the bankruptcy court to let him rid baseball of McCourt once and for all and install an owner who actually will put some money back into the franchise rather than one that MLB says used the team as his personal piggy bank.

McCourt is now trying to win back the fans that fled the team in droves with ticket price decreases of up to 64% from the 2011 baseball season. I think it’s going to take more than cheap tickets to get Dodgers fans back in his corner. Sure, some fans will be drawn back by cheaper tickets to ballgames. And the Dodgers do have several players worth watching, including possible Most Valuable Player Matt Kemp. But the price drop and star attractions do nothing to address the security issue that has Dodger Stadium at times resembling a site for a gang turf war rather than a major-league ballpark or the atmosphere of hostility that led to one fan being severely beaten and forced into a medically-induced coma. Of course, there is also the possibility that McCourt could prevail in his quest to keep the team (perish the thought).

You know that saying “can’t buy love”? Apparently, Frank McCourt never learned it.

Thanks to Ron Reiring and UCinternational for the Matt Kemp photo.