I understand that Bud Selig wants steroids out of baseball, but throwing out 50 and 100-game suspensions to anyone even implicated with the sketchy Tony Bosch is hardly going to fix the league’s issues. When it comes to proving that Ryan Bryan, Alex Rodriguez and some 22 other MLB players used performance enhancing drugs, the league needs a positive test to inflict any kind of punishment.
Unfortunately, news hasn’t broke that MLB has received a positive test from anyone just yet. With that being said, Braun’s incriminating test was apparently mishandled and the Milwaukee Brewers‘ star was let off of the hook last season.
Either way, the constant talks of suspending the aforementioned cheaters for 50 or even 100 games has given everyone in the sport a slither of hope. However, if those suspensions are handed out, they won’t be served until the beginning of the 2014 season due to the actions of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Representing the players, this organization can appeal the suspensions and delay them until after the last pitch of 2013 is thrown.
This means that a cheating suspect like Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals could easily pitch his team toward a World Series title just to be suspended for the first 50 games of the following year.
Talk about “dead man walking!”
Selig and the MLB brass have made it sound like the iron fist is about to come down on these players, but what kind of message is sent if these players are able to play out the rest of 2013 after cheating the game?
Devin O’Barr is the Content Commentator for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @DevinOBarrRS, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
