CHICAGO — What, you can’t quite envision Alex Rodriguez singing “Look for the Union Label” alongside his fellow ballplayers? Or deriving particular enjoyment from “The Simpsons” episode when Homer outwits Mr. Burns to retain a dental plan for the nuclear technicians?
Maybe not, but there’s no doubt that, in challenging the 211-game suspension issued to him Monday, A-Rod is doing right by the Players Association.
“All I have is the basis of what we have up to this point,” Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson, who is heavily involved with the union, said yesterday before his team’s game against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. “That’s language that says if you do this [fail a drug test], you get these points. On other stuff, if you do this [non-analytical positive], we can kind of throw whatever we want at you.
“Obviously, of course, I want just definitive reasons as to why this amount? Why not more? Why not less? Whatever it happens to be. I’m sure that’s what he and his team are looking at. It could be something where zero could be the answer.”
Probably not, though I guess you never say never. More to the point, to rip Rod riguez for not simply taking his medicine is to ignore the beauty of both due process and collective bargaining.
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He might not have the purest intentions in this showdown. A common refrain about A-Rod nowadays is, “He just wants his money” — although he’s playing and went 1-for-2 with a walk and a hit by pitch last night, in the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field — and one source said A-Rod’s camp indicated in talks with MLB that he would retire in return for a lighter suspension (about 100 games) and the rest of his money guaranteed.
In all, Rodriguez has about $95 million left coming to him through 2017, and by appealing, A-Rod benefits because his salary gradually decreases. If he took the suspension now, it would cost him about $34 million. If the suspension gets upheld by independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz but doesn’t start until next year, then he would lose about $31.4 million.
Well, when you sign a guaranteed contract, the money is the “guaranteed” part. You aren’t guaranteed a roster spot or playing time. So what’s so wrong with A-Rod seeking to protect what he earned?
There’s no complaint here with MLB’s 211-game ban. I don’t know enough to take one side over the other, because I haven’t seen MLB’s evidence first-hand. If Bud Selig and his deputies think they can justify this severe a punishment with their case, then they should go for it. They’re on a roll after getting Ryan Braun to agree to a 65-game sentence and 12 other players each to a 50-game ban without appealing.
Nevertheless, it wouldn’t make sense for the union to shrug its collective shoulders and accede to Selig’s wishes for such a historic sentence. Even if the PA doesn’t think much personally of A-Rod, there are precedents to protect and missions to uphold. As the union’s executive director Michael Weiner revealed yesterday in an interview with Chris Russo on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio, Weiner advised A-Rod to agree to a suspension of a certain, unspecified length, but Selig never got there.
Now comes the due process. A-Rod’s attorneys and the union lawyers will look at the evidence MLB has compiled and cross-examine Biogenesis founder Anthony Bosch and any other prosecution witnesses. Both sides will offer their interpretations of their Basic Agreement and Joint Drug Agreement and how A-Rod’s alleged transgressions fit into that mosaic.
Later, we probably will see more collective bargaining. If Selig or the players feel that A-Rod got off easy — and right now, it seems like most players are even angrier about this than is Selig — than they’re free to open up the agreement and impose harsher penalties. Though all sides should appreciate the reality the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira spoke back in spring training, when discussing illegal PED usage: “I don’t think it’ll ever go away.”
But the current agreement is what it is, and the union has to fight for what it believes to be right. Even against the counsel of uneducated, angry players such as Boston’s Jonny Gomes, who told reporters Monday, “I hope our dues aren’t being used for his lawyers’ fees.”
So let the two sides hash it out in front of Horowitz, and let Rodriguez be a test case for future violators (which, again, there will be).
You can hate on A-Rod all you want; plenty of his fellow players do. Yet however accidental it may be, Rodriguez is helping his brethren by fighting.