ARod has never tested positive yet he is suspended for 162 games? Utterly stupid. Seems like a winnable lawsuit IMO.

 

And why not just say he is suspended for a year? 162 games? Really?

 

He went through the process agreed upon by the players in the collective bargaining agreement. He can try to sue- good luck getting a judge to even hear this case, let alone win it.

Everyone watch 60 Minutes tonight. Tony Bosch is going to be one of the stories. Bosch says he administered 6 different banned substances to A-Rod, which A-Rod denies. A-Rod continues to deny it. In addition, I recall A-Rod interfering with the investigation, or at least trying to. I despise all these cheaters. Baseball messed this whole thing up and the cheaters abused the system every way they could get away with, then they try to claim innocence. Just totally disgusting. People know right and wrong. These players knew they were doing wrong and they did it. They have to live with the consequences.

 

Exactly, and I agree. But MLB is not at all innocent in this mess. They turned a deaf ear and blind eye for a long time. When McGwire and Sosa were "saving baseball", and you know we ALL got caught up in it as well, I am willing to bet my house MLB knew these guys were tainted but they were not going to ruin getting as many fannies in the seats as they could. MLB was on a roll and they wanted to feed it.

Release from MLB when mandatory testing was to start...

 

Mandatory program testing of Major League players for steroid use will begin in the spring of 2004 after this year's survey testing surpassed the threshold of 5 percent positive results stipulated in the Basic Agreement, Major League Baseball announced Thursday in conjunction with the players association.

 

For the first time in the sports' history, players could be subject to fines and suspension for failing and repeating to fail random drug testing that reveals use of one of 28 federally banned anabolic androgenic steroids. The union and MLB labor negotiators adopted mandatory testing for steroid use in the Basic Agreement, which was signed in 2002.

 

Five to 7 percent of 1,438 players tested positively this year. The tests, which began during Spring Training, were conducted anonymously and unannounced on players who were members of each club's 40-man big-league roster. Subsequently, 240 of the same players were tested again without notice at some point during the 2003 regular season. Next year, all players will be subject to two unannounced tests -- an initial test and a follow-up test five to seven days later -- sometime during the course of the 2004 season.

 

"We reached the agreement with the players association with the mind that we didn't know what the survey would produce," said Rob Manfred, MLB's vice president of labor relations and human resources. "We had heard things about crazy steroid use. We knew that a lot of the numbers written were astronomically high based on our minor-league testing. But frankly, we didn't know what to expect."...

 

Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement that he was pleased to learn "that there is not widespread steroid use in baseball."

 

First bolded: Baseball was OK with up to 5% of players using Steroids and didn't enact mandatory testing until testing positive threshold went over 7%

 

Second bolded: Steroids had been banned for 12 years and were JUST NOW going to be penalized

 

Third bolded: Subject to fines for failing and repeating to fail? Really, that's like your mom saying, "I'm not going to tell you many more times" when your doing something you shouldn't be doing.

 

Fourth bolded: Rob Manfred must have had his head in a bucket of sand during the 90's to think that those were "Crazy stories about steroids" and then he said, "We didn't know what to expect" Really was MLB that clueless or did they just think everyone else was?

 

Fifth bolded: Bud...Really? Really? Pleased that there is not widespread steroid use in Baseball...shouldn't he have been pissed that there was any...it had been banned in MLB for 12 years.

 

Here is a photo of Bud Selig from 2003-04

 

Good. I hope he never plays another inning.

I think he is guilty as sin. I was just wondering aloud if he has a legit lawsuit since he never tested positive for anything.

 

He admitted that he had taken them the first time, isn't that add good as a positive test? Also, wasn't his name on the list of positive tests that was "leaked" from 2005?

Anyone else watch the 60 Minutes piece? The first part detailing the use of PEDs and Bosch's relationship with ARod seemed on-point then it started getting weird. I think it is possible that the "obstruction" claim that put Rodriguez's suspension at 212 games was cultivated and enhanced by MLB. The only reason I've given ARod any benefit of the doubt through all this is because MLB has been a joke from the onset. For as sick as it makes me to see ARod's face (I've never felt he was that good of a person), it makes me equally as sick to see Selig and the other MLB brass try and act all high and mighty when it comes to PEDs and ARod. Like Bonds, they have one of the few targets they can exhaust all efforts to excoriate in ARod since people dislike he and his attitude more than themselves.

Forgive me if I don't trust Bosch.

I have never understood why these guys just don't man-up and admit it. The punishment has been pretty much established, if you do. Sure , it's a PR nightmare, but time will make most forget (except HOF voters) and you still get the majority of your $$ after you serve the punishment (obviously minus the days you are suspended). These guys have unbelievable guaranteed contracts. We have huge egos here, obviously, but you don't take on big brother when big brother has all the leverage and dough. The 60 minutes piece was weird. Bosch is a sleaze ball, but he didn't deny anything asked and it was obvious that he didn't give a flip about the integrity of the game and pretty much said so. I did believe him and I don't know why.

I do agree with A-Rod that this is a "witch hunt". If he's dirty, then there are probably tons of other MLB players who are just as dirty but aren't having their names dragged through the mud.

 

I think basically boils down to this: A-Rod is an unlikeable personality who the Yankees, a huge market team that's a major political player in the organizational structure of the MLB, were stupid and gave him an enormous contract that no player in the game is worthy of. Now they want out of that contract and will do whatever they can to get out of it.

 

Ask yourself this: if A-Rod only made $1 million per year, would this be getting all of the attention that it is?

 

Do you think it's a coincidence that the overwhelming majority of the players in this "round-up" are primarily Latino/Hispanic and speak little to no English?

 

Just food for thought.

 

I hope A-Rod wins this one. If there's one personality in baseball whose more "un-likeable" than A-Rod, it's Bud Selig. A-Rod couldn't win a PR battle against anyone else, but he definitely has a slim, puncher's chance against Selig.

Why? The Yankees are paying A-Rod to do his "job" honestly and effectively. When you are cheating to get results, why should they have to continue paying him in full for his contract?

 

I hate the Yankees as much as the next guy but they shouldn't be entitled to pay a guy who is cheating to get results.

 

I think that, if that is the case, then it's probably a lot more people than just A-Rod, and that the Yankees probably had some inkling of an idea, but were complicit in the fact that they blatantly turned a blind eye to it, willfully ignoring the situation because it produced results for them.

 

If A-Rod is "most offensive steroids cheater of all of them", as has been suggested here and in numerous public forums where sports fans come to discuss things like this, then the notion that the aforementioned statement is true would have to be accompanied by at least some thought or suggestion that the Yankees were complicit in all of this is true as well.

Thought he would just get 81 games next year, suprising it's the whole season. Not that it matters, his career is all but over at this point.

 

Such a shame with all the talent he had, course you could say that if he has in fact been using since 90's his whole career was predicated on cheating.

 

 

Whole career predicated on cheating you say?

 

 

See: enough amphetamines (or "greenies, jimmies, beans"... that were so prevalent, there's all types of counterculture slang dedicated to them) to fill a fishbowl sitting in clubhouses in the 70's and 80's.

Baseball finally brings amphetamines into light of day - MLB - ESPN

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/sports/baseball/28chass.html

 

Guys ride on buses and make peanuts for a chance to make it in the majors. Ty Cobb probably sharpened his spikes. Then when medicine progressed to the point that guys started getting an edge by taking a chemical, they did it. Look at the situations some of these guys come from. Think about a story like Yoenis Cespedes or Arloids Chapman. Do you think those guys wouldn't "cut a corner" if it meant getting to the majors versus being a guy who washes out in AA if they were presented with that choice?

 

Not trying to single out the Cuban defectors solely in this, because I think there are players from all types of backgrounds, nationalities, etc. who cheat, but I think the lengths that someone goes through when they defect is a good illustration of the kind of sacrifices that some prospects are willing to make.

 

What about the kid who doesn't want to be remembered as a solid D1 player, but wants the glory of making it up to the big leagues, even if it's just for a short while?

 

Steve Belcher???

 

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/orioles/2003-03-13-bechler-exam_x.htm

 

 

See: MLB's profiteering off the McGwire/Sosa Home-Run Chase in the 90's while "supplements" like andro, creatine, etc. really started to take off.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/sports/baseball/05homers.html?_r=0

 

Baseball The Tenth Inning: It's Over There, Commissioner | PBS

 

 

I don't know if we should say that A-Rod was 'cheating' or just 'keeping up'. Either way, it seems like it has been something that's been pretty common in baseball. He might be guilty of violating some MLB rules, but I'd wager a guess that there are plenty of others who are just as guilty (and the teams, MLB, etc. either knows or has a really good idea that they are).

 

Simply put, I think this is about the Yankees making a horrible deal with A-Rod and Boras and wanting out of it. They don't care how much earth is scorched under them, so long as they get out of the horrible deal they made. If A-Rod was a teammate like Jeter or Rivera is portrayed to be, then I don't think that this wouldn't be an issue. I don't feel sorry for the Yankees, however, because I'm going to guess they knew what they were getting into before this whole mess started (or at least had a good idea of how things could derail and get ugly), but they proceeded anyway.

Edited January 13, 201412 yr by JokersWild24

I have never understood why these guys just don't man-up and admit it. The punishment has been pretty much established, if you do. Sure , it's a PR nightmare, but time will make most forget (except HOF voters) and you still get the majority of your $$ after you serve the punishment (obviously minus the days you are suspended). These guys have unbelievable guaranteed contracts. We have huge egos here, obviously, but you don't take on big brother when big brother has all the leverage and dough. The 60 minutes piece was weird. Bosch is a sleaze ball, but he didn't deny anything asked and it was obvious that he didn't give a flip about the integrity of the game and pretty much said so. I did believe him and I don't know why.

 

 

Didn't see the whole thing, but forgive me if I don't think Bosch is telling the whole truth.

 

When I saw Bosch, I thought "15 minutes of fame" a bit after he got into his spiel. Not really the guy you want as a character witness.

 

I'm going to guess that IF A-Rod is guilty of all that it's alleged, then Bosch probably did some real dirt in his presence to gain that type of trust and become that type of confidant.

 

Just my opinion on that one.

Sacrificial lamb...IMO.

Saw bits and pieces of the 60 minutes story. The things that stood out to me, wasn't the words coming out from Bosch's mouth...it was the text messages. Were those alleged to have been from the cell phone carrier? If so, what's ARod's defense against those? (If they weren't, then I'm assuming he'd pretty much say they were fabricated.)

. The 60 minutes piece was weird. Bosch is a sleaze ball, but he didn't deny anything asked and it was obvious that he didn't give a flip about the integrity of the game and pretty much said so. I did believe him and I don't know why.

I watched it as well and believed him too. No matter what, the phone records seemed to match. Those would be tough to alter. I think he's a guilty bastard. Hope he never plays again if he is guilty. I think he did threaten Bosch and both are turds in the punchbowl of life.