The Biogenesis saga has become the Alex Rodriguez saga. Rodriguez was hit with the oddly-constructed 211-game suspension on Monday and without explanation or evidence, it’s hard to have much of a position based on facts, though that hasn’t stopped many.
What’s been most interesting to me is how little people seem to know about the testing program. Referred to as the “JDA” or joint drug agreement, it spells out in minute detail how the program is supposed to work. It’s legalese, but important legalese.
Few seem to understand “A” sample and “B” samples, collection procedures, location registration, methodology for randomization, but I wouldn’t expect them to. I can see why people might gloss over lists of chemicals, appeals procedures and even the precise language requiring secrecy throughout the process, up to and including the wording of press releases.
This document, negotiated and re-negotiated by the commissioner’s representatives and the players’ association was supposed to have governed this process but instead was shattered by it. Whether it was Bud Selig’s edict, congressional grandstanding or a public perfectly willing to let both sides make end runs around the letter of the law, the JDA is now not worth the paper it’s printed on.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article here at Bleacher Report discussing possible replacements for Bud Selig. I ended up with his most likely “replacement” being Selig himself, with the commissioner set up to once again extend his reign. Now, I’m not so sure. This episode has weakened the position of the commissioner’s role. The MLBPA will not allow the “integrity clause” to be as unfettered as it has been since the days of Landis and negotiations on the JDA itself will end up more tense. Selig likely doesn’t care.
Selig has instead lashed his legacy to this mast, forever tying himself to the beginning, the heyday and perhaps the end of the so-called steroid era. Selig wishes to be remembered as the commissioner who revived the game and perhaps saved it from an enemy greater than even an angered public after the World Series was cancelled.
This was Selig’s moment, when he stood at the lectern and pronounced his sentence on Alex Rodriguez. While appeals and who knows what else in this saga awaits us, down to a potential 2015 return, Selig should seal the moment with his own resignation. It is clear that he feels this is his defining act and that nothing after could compare.
Selig dropped the hammer. Now he should drop the mic.
But there’s still injuries around baseball, so let’s take a look around the league: