On the TUNNEYSIDE OF SPORTS August 12, 2013
#449 Up next...Is 211 a 9-1-1?
After further review...This column/blog has
written extensively about various athletes (and teams) who have cheated to
win! Biogenesis of Americais the name of the defunct Florida lab
that supplied the fourteen players (including 2011 NL MVP Ryan Braun) recently
suspended by Major League Baseball for using performance-enhancing drugs
(PEDs). "Genesis" is defined as "the origin or the beginning
of something". Hopefully, it will designate the beginning of the end
of PED use by athletes.
Unfortunately, the opinion here is that it
won't. Players will continue to cheat to win. However, and happily, many
MLB players have become outspoken opponents of chemical cheating. Hooray,
for them! Are they a strong enough voice to hold sway with the players'
union? Will we ever arrive at a status quo governed by an athletic code of
conduct that flatly rejects PEDs?
Evasion has consistently stayed one step
ahead of detection. All the currently suspended athletes took and passed
scheduled drug tests; they have been disciplined because they were named in
records supplied to MLB by lab owner Anthony Bosch. New York Yankees third
baseman Alex Rodriguez, the highest-paid player implicated, is the only one
appealing his suspension. A-Rod's suspension is for 211 games, which covers
the remainder of the 2013 MLB season and all of 2014.
211? The number might well have been 9-1-1,
given the ardor with which Rodriquez tried to cover his tracks. The
implication of "emergency" should not be overlooked here. This
expose is almost as rotten as the 1919 Black Sox scandal that shook
baseball's integrity to the core. There needs to be a warning to all
athletes that cheating to win betrays the sport. Especially when, as in
A-Rod's case, there was genuine God-given talent to begin with.
Rodriquez possesses the right of
appeal according to the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement between the
players' union and the league. A CBA is a necessary element in any
union/league mutual understanding. But to insist on, and be granted, the
privilege of playing while under suspension seems farcical. Perhaps
money is a concern to A-Rod. Huh? He signed a 10-year contract worth $275
million in 2013. Surely, he has banked some of that! The Yankees
will owe him millions no matter how the situation is resolved. Hopefully he
can get by till then.
Will the 211 become a 9-1-1 wake-up call to
other athletes?
.
|
45 day loans by phone has been designed for the applicant like tenants and non-property who can easily avail the fund without any tension of poor credit scores and arrangement of any collateral of submission.
ReplyDelete1 day loans uk
quick loans same day bad credit
360 day loan