Mike Lupica emerges from his baseball slumber to talk about Alex Rodriguez.

"All we heard last summer, in the run-up to an arbitration hearing that ended up with Major League Baseball effectively throwing Alex Rodriguez into the trunk of a car and driving him away from the sport, was what a witch hunt this all was. You read this constantly, heard it on the radio, and on television, as we were supposed to believe that Rodriguez and even the Biogenesis All-Stars who had taken their suspensions and were smart enough to shut up about them, were victims of everything except a vast right-wing conspiracy."

In this context, the term "witch hunt" means MLB pursued ARod with disproportionate vigor.

Which they did.

Obviously.


In fact, the more biogenesis folks who get arrested, the more it begs the question, "What took so long?" Why has this drug dealer evaded prosecution for so long?

The answer is, the drug dealer evaded prosecution so MLB could confirm ARod's PED use with the drug dealer's testimony, and then put in a good word for the drug dealer.


"And the idea that somebody like Rodriguez, who had a working relationship with Anthony Bosch of Biogenesis for years, is somehow free and clear now that Bosch has gotten himself arrested − and now that Bosch has entered into a plea agreement with the government − is just more noise from Rodriguez’s side of this thing. It means the same kind of noise we got last fall before he took his huge fall from Major League Baseball, when his strategy was to answer questions on the radio rather than in front of an arbitrator."

Fined $20-something million is not "free and clear."

I mean, in a way, I think it would be funny if ARod was prosecuted by the Feds. They missed thousands of ballplayers, but got ARod.

Hmmm ... the phrase that comes to mind is "witch hunt."


"No, he said on the radio, he wasn’t guilty of any of the charges leveled against him. No, he’d never done anything wrong. No, he’d never used PEDs. No, he had never obstructed justice. No, no, no. He denied until the end, and then this innocent, falsely accused man took a suspension that took him out of baseball for a year.

Now he better hope that the government doesn’t have evidence that contradicts his radio testimony about never having obstructed justice. If he was lying about that, being in a world of trouble with Bud Selig will be the least of his problems."

He was lying on Mike Francesa's radio show. He was not under oath.

If lying on a sports radio show is a crime, then maybe Mike Lupica deserves life in prison for telling us Josh Satin was going to be a .300 hitter.


As far as I know, ARod has not lied to a Federal agent. MLB goons don't count and neither does Mike Francesa.

He cheated, he lied, he tried to evade detection, he got 200 games.

Everyone else who cheated, lied, and tried to evade detection got 50 games.