Boo ARod

3 Ks and 1 GIDP.

Which reminds me, why isn't Miguel Cabrera in prison?

Against Boston this weekend, PED cheat and bullpen-phone destroyer David Ortiz hit a double off Hiroki Kuroda. The hometown fans cheered and none of the NY Daily News editorial staff wrote one word about the sanctity of the game.

In the same inning, ARod tagged out a Boston baserunner who was five feet from third base. The runner was called safe, no instant replay to consult ... the integrity of the game ruined daily by these useless old men with bad eyesight.

The next day, we all witnessed Ryan Dempster's amateurish actions.

Best part was the Boston manager lying to everyone right there on national TV: "Dempster was trying to throw inside." That kind of suppression will give you a heart attack, pal.  For baseball managers, lying to the press is simply habitual.

Besides, rooting against ARod means rooting for the Red Sox.  A fundamental tenet of sports fandom is that Yankee fans root for the Yankees:

"There are plenty of Yankee fans, I’m sure, who only want to believe in A-Rod’s dream scenario, the one in which he is the victim in all of this — victim of baseball’s vendetta against him and the Yankees’ treachery with him — but that he nevertheless is able to fend off all his attackers, rise to the occasion and become an inspiration to all as he leads the Yankees to the postseason. They do not care that he has cheated the game, lied to them, allegedly libeled the organization and even allegedly ratted out his fellow players and own teammate to take the steroids onus off himself, just like San Francisco Giants fans didn’t care that a bloated Barry Bonds was using steroids and lying to them when he made a mockery of baseball’s hallowed home run records. There are fans everywhere who don’t give a hoot about steroids and what they’ve done to the integrity of the game and the sanctity of its records — even though the players themselves obviously now do."

It is still very easy to separate ARod's on-field actions from his off-field actions.  He's not Aaron Hernandez or Chad Curtis.  As far as I know, ARod has never beaten a women, cheated on his taxes, snorted cocaine, refused to play with blacks, or driven a car while drunk ... which makes him easier to root for than about half the players in the Hall of Fame ... and makes him easier to root for than the current AL MVP.



MLB can do its own thing.  It's not up to Selig to prosecute drunk drivers in America.  I'd gladly welcome Miguel Cabrera on my team, just like I welcomed Steve Howe and Dwight Gooden.

But Selig looks silly sitting on a high horse looking down on ARod, pontificating about the character and integrity of the game.

Why does Selig look silly?  Besides the fact that he's a millionaire who buys his suits at Sears?

Selig looks silly because, when he comes down off that high horse, he hands the AL MVP trophy to a drunk and he hands the AL Championship trophy to a junkie.


Madden and Selig have a personal problem with ARod.

Selig uses his powers as MLB Commissioner to carry out his vendetta, Madden uses his baseball column.

It's lame and they both deserve to be called on it.

The Yankees benched him in the playoffs, so ... they weren't rolling him out there in the hopes that he'd fail.

ARod sounds like a paranoid, misguided man:

"The worst scandal in baseball history, the one that threatened the very existence of the game, was the decision by several members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox to intentionally lose the World Series. Alex Rodriguez’s lawyer has accused the Yankees of committing a similar act of treason. 

The lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said the Yankees knew Rodriguez had a torn labrum in his hip but continued to use him in the 2012 playoffs, hoping he would sustain further physical harm and never play for them again. 

To be clear, Tacopina is not implying that the Yankees used Rodriguez while he was injured in an effort to help the team win. That would be immoral but not traitorous. Tacopina is saying that the Yankees deliberately did not field their best team by knowingly using a player who was physically unable to perform. 

'They rolled him out there like an invalid and made him look like he was finished as a ballplayer,' Tacopina said.

...

Tacopina clumsily evoked the legacy of George Steinbrenner, offering a revisionist version of the scheming — but now sainted — former owner who once paid a gambler for dirt on Dave Winfield. That offense earned Steinbrenner a suspension that lasted nearly three years.

Now the player, not the owner, faces a suspension. As Rodriguez fights it, he tries to win for a franchise he accuses of acting unconscionably."

The commissioner works for the owners.

I don't doubt that the Yankees were secretly hoping that a MLB punitive action could relieve them of a lot of their contractual obligations to ARod.

I also think it's important to fight Selig's edicts and put in plenty of checks and balances.


But this lawyer talk is seriously out of line BS. The Yankees weren't trying to injure ARod. That would be flat-out criminal and way beyond a dispute about playing time or a contract buyout.

Own it.

Journalists are supposed to attempt to eliminate biases. The Sports Department of the Daily News are certainly not journalists, but I think they sometimes wish they were. That's why they recoil so viciously to suggestions that they have singled out ARod with particular vitriol. 

Bill Madden did the same thing while stumbling through an appearance on Mike Francesa's radio show.

In the midst of another column devoted almost entirely to ARod-bashing, Lupica drops this cherry-picked defense of himself and his newspaper:

"He’s being picked on? You think Barry Bonds didn’t think the same way? Or Roger Clemens? This newspaper’s I-Team wrote a book about Clemens and broke the story about Melky Cabrera setting up a phony website to cover his own track of baseball drugs. Look at the safe that got dropped on Mark McGwire after he admitted steroids use.

Suddenly, though, in the baseball summer hijacked by Alex Rodriguez, there is the idea that no one has ever been pulled out of line the way he has.

Come on."

No one has ever been pulled out of line the way ARod has.

This newspaper's I-Team seems disinterested in every steroid cheat other than ARod. Jordany Valdespin and Francisco Cervelli got one paragraph each and I still haven't seen any mention of Miguel Tejada.

Sure, you broke the story about Melky's phony website and then never once questioned why Selig didn't throw Melky out of baseball forever for interfering with MLB's investigation.  Instead, Melky signs a $12 million contract and the Blue Jays become pre-season favorites to go to the World Series.

Look, you're giving the public what it wants.  The public despises ARod (and Clemens and Bonds) and the public despised them before the steroid revelations.  The public is mostly disinterested in minor leaguers or bench players who get 50-game suspensions.

Don't pretend you're not singling out ARod.  Don't pretend you're interested in Legal Justice or Journalism.  You're a tabloid rag that puts cartoon caricaturues on its back page.  At least you should own that.




"It is worth pointing out all over again that the same people who like to bang Bud Selig around for not doing enough about steroids in the old days now want to bang him around for doing too much.

You sort of can’t have it both ways."

Lupica's inability to understand nuance is quite remarkable.

Selig is not doing too much about steroids.  Selig has never done too much about steroids. 

Selig has essentially done nothing for twenty years ... and then he suddenly wants to atone for all his shortcomings by focusing on one guy.

Tejada can do lines with Ron Washington.

Quite a noticeable difference in tone. Tejada is not a degenerate ring leader, he's a good man who made "bad decisions":

"As Arangure points out, Tejada never has burned bridges where he's gone. Even those who have been stung by his bad decisions speak well of him. Perhaps the Royals will too.

If he could wipe away lying about Palmeiro, and lying about his age, and getting busted for failing two tests for amphetamines, we might be talking about a major league managerial candidate."

And don't expect to see any angry demands for a lifetime suspension.

He won't be banned from the game forever.

"Is anyone surprised that in addition to being a cheater, a liar and a narcissist, Alex Rodriguez also reportedly is a snitch?

By any measure, that's hitting for the cycle in baseball's Steroids Era."

Only one of those things is against the rules.

I don't know what to make of MLB's leaks. CBS News is reliable ... more reliable than TMZ ... but CBS News is not always reliable, of course.


But to answer your question, no, I'm not really surprised.  If he is stupid and childish and unintelligent enough to do something as self-defeating as this, I'm not really surprised.  He certainly doesn't have the moral authority to call out other players and I don't know why his position is enhanced by leaking these documents.  Especially since the names were going to be revealed soon enough.



"If the '60 Minutes' reporting is accurate, A-Rod not only violated baseball's collective bargaining agreement, he also alienated the last segment of our population that could possibly be on his side: the players' union.

According to the CBA, any allegations of PED use are to be handled privately before a player's name is made public. If A-Rod and/or his associates gave MLB investigators documents including Braun's and Cervelli's names, that would be a direct violation of the CBA. All of a sudden, it looks as if MLB knew exactly what it was doing when it threw the book at Rodriguez in the form of that massive 211-game suspension."

Jeez, listen to yourself.

If you're seriously going to take a stand against leaking in and of itself, then MLB should be on Death Row.

If MLB was playing it straight according to the CBA, there is no "all along" and you have no column and you have no idea ARod's suspension is 211 games.  Because the player's identity is supposed to be kept secret while his case is under appeal.


"We can only hope. After all, what self-respecting union would ever support a guy who ratted out two other members of the union, especially when the snitch is the ring leader of the whole operation? A-Rod is eight years older than Braun and nearly 11 years older than Cervelli, and already admitted to doping from 2001-2003, when Braun and Cervelli were still in school."

ARod is guilty of being eight years older than Braun and nearly eleven years older than Cervelli.

So he's guilty of lying (which isn't a crime), narcissism (which isn't a crime), leaking (which is a crime only in the sense that it gives crummy columnists something to write about), and now he's guilty of being older than other people.


Which brings us back to the same place we always end up.

If ARod is guilty of taking illegal PEDs, then punish him for taking illegal PEDs. 

This nonsense about being a "ring leader" for other grown men is enough to make me puke. 

The idea that he "obstructed" an investigation by a private entity (who paid for their own snitch) is an impossibility.  ARod has as much rights to those documents as MLB does.  In his attempts to fight MLB's investigation, he can lie, cheat, and bribe Tony Bosch.  He can also invoke the Fifth Amendment ... except there is no reason to invoke the Fifth Amendment since he isn't under oath ... since MLB has no subpoena power.


You know what is not a crime in America?  You know what is not a violation of MLB's CBA?  Being unlikeable.


"The good news about this news is that it focuses us even more on just how awful it is that A-Rod continues to play when he should be suspended, as his Biogenesis brethren were. To see A-Rod in pinstripes, pretending as if everything is normal, is worse than watching Barry Bonds' tainted march to the career home run record."

You can watch CSI reruns if you prefer.


"By playing, A-Rod continues to harm whatever legacy he has left. Let's hope that soon, he is kicked out of the game forever, putting him out of his misery, and us out of ours."

ARod has no legacy and therefore nothing to lose by playing baseball.

He is also not going to get kicked out of the game forever.  211 games at most.  So that may translate into an effective lifetime ban, but the people who keep saying that seem to be wrong about everything.


If you're so miserable writing about ARod, then write about something else.

USA Today has five-star Sudokus on Fridays.  That can occupy your time if watching narcissistic baseball players bothers you so much.

Readers scoff at all reports by Bill Madden.

"The report that Alex Rodriguez and his handlers are now planning a federal lawsuit against Major League Baseball, claiming he is being persecuted by commissioner Bud Selig and his drug-enforcement authorities, was greeted with both skepticism and bemusement Wednesday by the owners at the quarterly meetings.

Rodriguez, who appealed the 211-game suspension MLB handed down on Aug. 5, plans to sue if the league doesn’t recant the entire penalty, according to a report on TMZ.com."

TMZ is your source?

That's not much of a source, but I suppose TMZ is more reliable than the NY Daily News.

I was performing this analysis when I was 10 years old.

Baseball writer Jeff Passan never thought of it before and says it's revolutionary:

"Valuable. What is value? Is it gaudy stats? Is it leadership? Does it increase with a spot in the postseason? Does it decrease because of mediocre teammates? Is it some weird amalgamation of all of the above and more? For the 60 baseball writers who vote annually on the MVP award, the definitions vary, and considering the directions emailed out with the ballot – 'There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means' – that is perhaps by design.

An exchange on Twitter this week with Chris Long, a quantitative analyst who consults for the San Diego Padres, brought up a fascinating point that I'd never before considered: Since free agency created the salary imbalance that exists in baseball today, have we been missing what should be one of the chief criteria of value?"

I remember one year where Alfonso Soriano was (more or less) making league minimum while hitting (more or less) 40 HRs and stealing (more or less) 40 bases. So Soriano was more valuable per dollar than Barry Bonds who was sporting a near-.600 on-base%.

I also remember when Don Mattingly instantly went from most-productive-per-dollar to least-productive-per-dollar ... simply because he signed a big free agent contract between seasons.

That is what the big revolutionary analysis will reveal every time: free agency is the dividing line between good value and bad value.

If you want to end steroid use, you have to talk about steroid use.

We want lifetime bans for first-time users, yet Jack Clark gets fired for stating the obvious.

Chris Davis's doubters should not be criticized, the sportswriters who bury their heads in the sand should be laughed at. 


I am not 100% sure Pujols and Davis are guilty, I'm just at least 51% sure.  Since we're all trying these players in the Court of Public Opinion, I don't have to be anywhere near 100% sure. 

Let's not forget that almost none of the Biogenesis crew tested positive.

Let's just suspend a couple dozen players and declare the Steroid Era over ... once again.  It's the 100th time the Steroid Era has officially ended.

I swear, Yankee fans are not as ignorant as you think.

"Here is the new reality for Yankees fans:

The Tigers have the world’s most legitimate slugger in Miguel Cabrera, who blasted his 35th home run of the season yesterday, while Alex Rodriguez, who is supposed to be the Yankees’ power threat, has such physical issues he wasn’t even in the lineup because manager Joe Girardi thought he needed a day off after only four games back from offseason hip surgery and a strained quadriceps."

Miguel Cabrera has been a superstar in MLB for ten years and is the reigning MVP and Triple Crown winner.


ARod is not the Yankees' power threat and not even supposedly the Yankees' power threat.  Cano, Granderson, and Soriano are probably expected to supply more power than ARod.

This is not a particularly new reality.


"His replacement, Jayson Nix, struck out all four times he came to the plate in the Yankees’ hideous 9-3 loss to the Tigers at Yankee Stadium.

In looking at the A-Rod situation and the Yankees’ decline, it’s important to separate the noise from the reality."

Funny you bring up Jayson Nix.

Because when observers proclaim that ARod will help the team, it's only in relation to the terribly unproductive replacement players.


I think ARod is out of shape and will take a while to get his timing back.  Then, he will get suspended for a long time. 

While the Yankees were still clinging to their playoff hopes in the recent past, I was hoping the return of Jeter, ARod, and Granderson would help the offense. 

But I don't think anyone in the entire world is expecting ARod to play like Miguel Cabrera ever again.


"What’s really happening here is the Yankees are in a franchise free-fall and the entire A-Rod saga is a smokescreen that hides other issues that ail this club."

There is nothing hidden. Look at the standings, look at the scoreboard, look at the stats, look at the play on the field.  It's all in the open, every day,  in public for all to see.


If there's a lack of attention to the team's struggles, it's the media that is not paying attention.  The fans are well aware.


This is very typical.

Like Lupica's latest column complaining about all the attention that ARod is receiving ... complaining how he can't escape ARod talk ... and then spending the rest of the article fixated on ARod.


"Phil Hughes had another dreadful outing and his one-time roommate Joba Chamberlain was equally atrocious. Remember, when the Yankees were selling the notion Hughes and Chamberlain would be the home-grown pitching backbone of this club?"

They're both atrocious, and they're both out of shape and stupid.  They never bothered to learn their craft and now their careers are shot.

By the way, the rest of the article is about ARod.

One mention of Hughes and Joba, and then ARod, a player with 15 at-bats in the whole season.

Felz Stat of the Day

In the 2013 season, Miguel Cabrera has 51 hits and 16 HRs with RISP.

In the 2013 season, the Yankees have 219 hits and 23 HRs with RISP.

If the Mets want the back page of the New York Post, they can have it.

Met fans will continue to root for the Mets and Yankee fans will continue to root for the Yankees.  The self-absorbed media will tell you who you're supposed to root for:

"But we may also look back, someday very soon, and discover he was the line of delineation where our baseball market started making a market correction. There are a lot of Yankees fans who support A-Rod. There seem to be more, many more, who are disgusted, appalled and altogether disillusioned this is where the Yankees are with 49 games left in their season:

A bearded lady of a baseball team."

A what?


"Now it is right and it’s fair Yankees fans want to believe in the magic of the uniform and the length of the season, believe all it will take to get from where they are to where they want to be is two weeks of terrific baseball. Look at the Braves, look at the Tigers, look at the Dodgers, none of whom ever lose. Look at the Royals! A few weeks ago their (apparently) doomed general manager, Dayton Moore, said anything was possible even winning 15 out of 20. They’ve won 15 out of 19.

It can happen."

I don't think many fans believe the Yankees are going to make the playoffs this year.

The last two months of the season will therefore generate less excitement and less emotional and financial commitment from the fans.  Still doesn't mean the Yankee fans all going to Citi Field instead.


"It’s a Yankees town in 2013, yes. But it was a Yankees town in 1963, too, and then it wasn’t. It was a Yankees town in 1983, and then it wasn’t. Nothing is forever in our town except for this: we do love ourselves some winners. Neither side qualifies right now. Soon enough, one of them will.

Which one?"

I read somewhere how the Mets are catching up to the Yankees for 2013 bragging rights.  Which is an insult to the definition of the word "brag" when neither team looks like they're even going to finish the season with a .500 winning percentage.


Not to be perpetually optimistic, but I also wouldn't discount the Yankees' ability to get out of the 2013 death spiral in the near future. 

If you follow the beat writers, the Mets have supposedly been taking over New York City baseball for the past 15 years.  They're not writing, they're rooting.

He lasted 113 games.

"See you in Tampa in February. It’s all over. Get ready for 2014 and beyond. The Yankees are going nowhere this season.

When last night’s stunning, 6-5 loss in 12 innings to the White Sox was complete, the equipment truck was parked right next to the visiting clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field. It truly was a getaway night — to the Yankees’ season of injury and poor play."

 My breaking point was game #98.  Yankees score 7 runs in Boston and can cut the lead to 4 1/2 games.  Sabathia gets bombed and the Yankees lose 8-7.


"The Bombers hit rock bottom, getting swept by a team that came into the week with the second-worst winning percentage in baseball and on a 10-game skid. In this series, the Yankees went 3-for-33 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees lost the final five of six games on this trip.

They have no chance to recover from this loss, the 14th loss in the last 20 games. In one way, this loss does these overmatched Yankees a favor. They can start the rebuilding process for next February in Tampa and 2014. There is so much work to be done."

I have no idea what this means, "start the rebuilding process."

Trade Cano?  Fine.

Trade Kuroda?  Fine.

I don't think you'll get too much in return since Cano and Kuroda would only be rented for a couple of months.


"This is not 1978. This is 2013 and the aging Yankees have no chance to make a miracle run.

In the watered down wild-card race, the Yankees must jump over four teams. That’s not happening either. 

They are not a good team. They are not going anywhere.

Come February, they can start all over again."

Other than removing one's emotional commitment -- you mean to say the Yankees can play with even less intensity? -- I don't what has changed.

I can't think of too many concrete examples of actionable items which can be executed in the last 49 games which will facilitate the rebuilding process.

I suppose there's a prospect or two that can take Sabathia's or Pettitte's place in the rotation for a few starts, but I don't even know who these prospects are.  Try to showcase Joba and Hughes so you can get a smidgen of value from them in a post-waiver-deadline trade?


Give Sabathia the rest of the season off and prepare for 2014?  Or see if he can keep working on his arm angle in big-league competitive games?

You will not make the playoffs. Try to show some pride and win as many games as you can.

Selig's legacy.

John Kruk can keep talking. Curt Schilling can shut up.

This is why it's difficult for me to listen to Curt Schilling sitting upon his high horse while criticizing ARod:

1) If ARod "stole" money from the Steinbrenners, then it's still less morally repugnant than "stealing" money from the taxpayers of Rhode Island.

2) Schilling has three Championship rings and many players on those Championship teams were steroid users, none of whom paid the price in any way.

Basically, just about anyone who gleefully piles on ARod at the exclusion of others is simply not credible to me.

The Yankees are totally doing fine this year.

ARod hasn't played one game this year, so don't blame him for this mess: 57-53 record, 4th place, 9 1/2 games out of first place, 4 1/2 games out of the wild card.

14th in the league in runs scored, .302 team on-base%.


In the recent inspiring weekend series vs. the NL West Powerhouse Padres, Brent Lillibridge came to bat the ninth inning of the rubber game representing the tying run with one out and two on.

 Lillibridge is batting .120 this season with 0 HRs. 
 
It was edge-of-your-seat excitement to see whether Lillibridge would strike out looking or strike out swinging.

He struck out swinging, by the way. 


The potential pinch-hitter for Lillibridge was not Alex Rodriguez, it was Vernon Wells.

Wells batted next and struck out.  Wells has not hit a HR in 2 1/2 months (batting practice not included).


ARod put in the same situation would probably not hit a game-tying HR.  The fans would then complain that ARod is not clutch.  But the chances of him hitting a game-trying HR are higher than 0%.  ARod is an upgrade.


I don't what to hear how ARod's presence will distract this team.  This team might benefit from unwanted scrutiny.

Maybe someone in the press will notice that Cano ... the guy who was the captain of the AL HR Derby team ... has one HR since July 2 (HR Derby and batting practice not included). 

"I hope he throws Rodriguez out for life."

" 'I hope he throws Rodriguez out for life,' former commissioner Fay Vincent told USA TODAY Sports. Vincent was the deputy commissioner when Rose was banned and commissioner from 1989-92.

'There are a lot of similarities between this and Rose. They were very delusional. They lied. They misbehaved,' he said.

'Baseball has to stand for things. It just can't have these drugs. If chemists win, baseball is finished. Otherwise, we'd have the Yankees and Red Sox buying up chemistry departments and not caring about who is pitching.

'Baseball really is going to have to ratchet the deterrent, and make it one-and-done, because anybody who says the (drug) testing is working is crazy. It's not working. You use these performance-enhancing drugs just once, you should be banned for life.' ''

1) If baseball seriously wants a lifetime ban, then go back to the CBA. 

Good luck getting it, but if that's what you propose, it should at least be on a going-forward basis.

Whatever your idea of "fairness" is, I damn sure know it's unfair to retroactively impose a penalty.


2) If ARod goes, then everyone goes.  That's what "one and done" means.

Hundreds of current contracts cancelled.

I must admit, it would almost be worth it if meant David Ortiz would finally be suspended for something.


3) The backlash to the backlash is not based on a delusional belief that ARod is innocent.

Instead, it's an observation that ARod is being singled out by Selig while Selig signs McGwire's paycheck every two weeks. That's simply not fair. When Selig starts wielding his considerable power unfairly, he should get called on it.


4) Pete Rose should be reinstated and put into the HOF tomorrow, alright?

Stop using one unfair punishment as justification for another unfair punishment.

Felz Stat of the Day.

Courtesy of Michael Kay: CC Sabathia has not recorded an out at first base in over two years.

When Hideki Irabu acted that way in Spring Training, the owner called Irabu a fat puss-y toad.

With pitchers like this, who needs PEDs?

Jeff Passan with a fresh take on Alex Rodriguez.

If Jeff Passan was owed $100 million, I suspect he'd fight to collect it:

"This always was going to be about the money, you know. Some of Alex Rodriguez's associates like to tell stories about Alex and his money, how it's at the root of this whole mess he's in now, how all this talk about his love of baseball and desire to be a role model for his children is a smokescreen for the greed that consumes him. He's made $315 million playing baseball, and that's not enough. 

Some of it vanished in real-estate deals gone bad. More of it disappeared as it tends to when entourages swell and ten grand here or a hundred grand there is like the rest of us tossing a couple bucks into the Salvation Army kettle at Christmas. A-Rod is still filthy rich, in no financial danger whatsoever, but that's not the point."

Can I stop right now?

Or am I going to read this entire column and then realize there is no point?


"In this case, he wants to salvage as much as he can of the $100 million or so remaining on his contract with the New York Yankees before Major League Baseball disciplines him for using performance-enhancing drugs, lying about it and a litany of other offenses. That – not this cockamamie burning desire to come back and play baseball – is the grand imperative of his haggling sessions with MLB, two associates of Rodriguez's told Yahoo! Sports. He wants to take his money, he wants to screw the Yankees because he feels like they ditched him and he wants to become a property mogul, buying and selling, wheeling and dealing, away from the sport that turned on him despite everything he did for it."

I think he loves money and he also loves playing baseball. He also loves muscular women and and performance-enhancing drugs.


"Within the next 72 hours, Alex Rodriguez will make his choice to fight or surrender. For a while now, one person close to him has suggested that his decision-making skills are so bad that they oughta let ol' Mr. Murphy off the hook and make it A-Rod's Law: whatever can go wrong will go wrong. No matter what he chooses, the truth is it already has."

I hope he fights and, at the very least, takes down Selig with him. Because if Selig goes to federal court with a proposed $100 million penalty based upon the testimony of a paid-off drug dealer, then ARod is going to win.

As for the shocking notion that ARod is greedy, the column is about 15 years too late.

I agree that the Yankees should not receive salary relief.

Chris Davis is taking steroids right now and the Orioles are ahead of the Yankees in the Wild Card race. 

I don't think the Baltimore manager is the proper guy to question Bud Selig's arbitrary munificence:

"Rodriguez, who is owed $86 million through 2017, is due $25 million in 2014. If, for example, he's suspended for the rest of this season and all of next, the Yankees would suddenly plummet below the luxury tax threshold of $189 million. 

'If Bud lets them get away with that, they're under the luxury tax,' Showalter told the paper. 'If they can reset, they can spend again and I guarantee you in two years Matt Wieters is in New York.' "

Sure, I could see that, as long as Mauer moves to DH.