In his own mind, Bud Selig has established/preserved/honored his legacy- and, probably did the Yankees the solid they were seeking- by getting rid of Alex Rodriguez for the 2014 MLB season.
aside - How that meshes with the Yankees trying to get out from under the contract is unclear. The Yankees are trying to tag up on the $189M luxury tax threshhold because they are sick of subsidizing the Pirates' owner's empty ski resort. A-Rod's $25M 2014 salary won't count against the $189M, he's still got $61M in the street, which the Yankees don't want to pay. That is another episode.
It's hardly a revelation to many that A-ro(i)d was (once again) on some kind of "performance enhancer." Bokolis didn't need to watch 60 Minutes to smell the laundry being aired out.
I don't care to, either, as I don't necessarily have a moral objection to professional athletes taking drugs, something I've known all along. I had a problem with them overdoing it as they did. But I have a far bigger problem with Selig targeting A-Rod as he has, trying to dole out OJ-style injustice.
None of this passes the smell test. Is Selig really, like Sonny Black said, ...gonna rub my nose...over a rat? We've already seen- with Clemens- that this nonsense would get tossed out of court faster than A-Rod could run out of there...and we KNOW Clemens was full of shit and his accuser had more credibility than A-Rod's accuser. It's one thing to fail a drug test, which, to Bokolis' knowledge, A-Rod hasn't done.
aside- I understand that is name was leaked as one of the 104- this doesn't count because it wasn't an official test and, again, this would get tossed out of court in a minute. A-Rod hasn't failed any tests. We know this because the rat told us that he helped cheat the tests.
Whereas Clemens could mix it up in the courts, being retired and willing to go to any length to plausibly convince himself that we all believe that he was natural, A-Rod is both trying to collect his contract and get on the field while he still can. Selig isn't necessarily trying to take his money- that may be incidental, or not- but he is definitely trying to run out the clock on A-Rod. When so many were scratching their heads at where Selig found the number 211, I had to- painfully, you've got no idea- explain to people- that the number of games doesn't mean anything. All that Selig cares is that A-Rod isn't playing and just wants to tie him up long enough that he won't be able to play any longer.
And, Selig can do this with little or no recourse. Even if A-Rod eventually gets an injunction or even overturned, by the time happens, it would be, at best, a Pyrrhic victory. At 39, with a year away from live pitching and a rotting body, A-Rod would be washed up and Selig will be floating somewhere on his golden parachute.
So, while far too many play the role of the same snot-nosed little asshole who reveled in seeing others get in trouble that they were as kids, they will miss the true tragedy of this soap opera; that your boss can play infinitely more dirty than you and, with a bunch of lawyers, arbitrators and rats in his pocket, if caught in that game, you could never hope to compete.
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