Out of the latest chapter in Major League Baseball's history with performance-enhancing drugs, the Biogenesis scandal, comes word that players really, really want something to be done, that they're really, really mad about what the cheaters have done to their game. Richard Justice said as much in an interview last night. (To hear the specific comments, go to about the 2:03 and 4:22 marks.)
And Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher David Hernandez expressed much the same sentiment.
"I think you should be out of baseball. It sounds harsh but at the end of the day you're making it harder on somebody else who is trying to make it in the game. You're essentially ending someone else's career if you're cheating and putting up numbers. You should be gone."If what Justice is saying is true, and if Hernandez's beliefs are shared by his fellow players, this can happen, and maybe soon ...
... if the players ask for it.
Major League Baseball players have a union, actually, one of the few strong unions remaining in America. They have player representatives to that union, and the union has an executive director in Michael Weiner who is hired by the players to look out for their best interests. If the union membership wants stricter penalties for drug users, what's stopping them from going to Weiner and saying, "Make it happen"?
And if they do, what do you think Bud Selig will do if Weiner marches into the commissioner's office and says, "My membership demands this, and I demand it"? You don't think that Selig wouldn't love to have one of his last achievements as commissioner before he retires to be a suspension program that's not only stricter than anything he ever bargained for, but something the players demanded their union negotiate with him?
My guess is he'd run over a small child to make that announcement.
No comments:
Post a Comment