Aroid was punished under a different rule, one about damaging the sport. It's penalty is subject to the commish only if I remember correctly.
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That'd be it. I know it was something outside the CBA because I heard that, but had no idea what.
Thanks, Mike!!! :-)
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Thanks for clearing that up for me, fellas.
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Quite obviously MLB's testing is a useless, abject failure. PED's remain rampant and there's not a damn thing MLB can do unless someone snitches or a doc gets careless.
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Huh...I hadn't heard that before. Not saying it's inaccurate, but ESPN said this in their article here.

Which I inferred that if they didn't agree to the deals they could have appealed. I don't know for sure though...
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I would blame the catcher for this not the runner at second for doing his job... now the PED's that a whole different ball game.

Just my .02 I'm done

Rob :-)
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Plenty they can do about it. Weekly MANDATORY random and non-random drug screening. I am subject (Not weekly) to it as an airline pilot and have spent 24 years in the AF/AF Reserves subject to it.

The owners can build monstrous new stadiums, charge $12 for a 16 ounce beer, players make $5 million plus a year, agents and lawyers are raking in the cash, corporations, corporate sponsors (stadiums), and advertising agencies (think about 10 seconds of Super bowl air time) are swimming in money from pro sports, tax revenue base for: stadiums, concessions, parking, etc etc are making politicians powerful and rich too.

In all that money the first priority SHOULD be to keep this game, OUR GAME, clean. There is plenty of money flying around to do that. And therein lies the problem - there's plenty of money flying around and everybody wants their big cut; at the expense of the game. You throw "thirty pieces of silver" on the table and you can get people to do anything - It's human nature.

So I turn my introspection to the fan (Us). ARoid, Bonds, McGuire, all exist not because of their greed and ego (per se), but rather because we continue to fund it. Everybody keeps going to the stadiums and buying the merchandise and worshipping these guys and it will just continue. The purity of the game is gone. But, after 20 years I had to go back and see an MLB game with my 6 year old son. Out in San Diego, great new stadium and location. I don't pay attention anymore. I was just there for the spectacle and the stadium and the show, As well as the desire to take my son to his first game. The players, coaches, managers, and owners are nameless to me. I don't care who is up on that stage or the statistics - it's nothing more than a theatrical production. Good player on third, Chase Headley, I think. He had a good game defensively with a couple of hits. Fun player to watch, but I didn't see him. I just saw the face of Brooks Robinson, my all-time favorite, and I sat back and enjoyed the show and thought about all the great memories of the past. I am going to Wrigley next week (w/ my son) for the first time in my life. Again, just for the show and to see Wrigley - nothing more. We'll talk a lot about guys like Sanberg, Dawson, Santo, and Banks but I don't think I'll even notice who's in the lineup for the day we're there.

I am so jaded on baseball, the game I loved, I can't believe it. "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you ...."
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Good words, Billybarue. Closely mirrors my sentiments. I left baseball for good when it deserted me in '94. It still won't look me in the eye and I won't give it the time of day.
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QFT. I was the biggest mets fan in the south growing up. Dykstra, strawberry, et. Al. They lost me in 94. Sealed the deal with Alomar's spit. All have been dirty and dead to me since then. Shame MLB. Shame. The roid record chasers affirmed my indignation. Bonds and Mac made a mockery of the sport from my perspective. Could care less about what I have heard is great AAA ball less than 10 & 20 miles from me. What role models? Who should care?
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I was stationed at Scott AFB (just outside of St Louis) from '96-'99. I didn't know how great a baseball town it is and what the Cardinals have meant to MLB. I was pissed after '94, but i got sucked back in with the Griffey/McGwire home run race of '97. The deception continued into '98 with Sosa. I remember sitting pretty close to the first base line and commenting to a buddy, "cripes, McGwire's got three sets of traps (shoulders)". The dude was a mountain. He was getting "fisted" inside or throwing away from him. Seems if he got a bat to the ball he had the strength to put the ball out to any spot on command. Personally I liked the guy And loved the antics with Sosa, but the worst deceptions are promulgated by those you feel closest to or identify with. Again, it's not your Game Mac - it's OUR GAME!!!

The memory of McGwire at the press conference with tears in his eyes talking about how proud he was that his bat would sit next to Maris' in the HOF, still turns my stomach. IMO opinion McGwire couldn't carry water for Maris. And Mac taking the 5th in front of Congress and Palmiero shaking his finger at the committee. Not your game fellas, they continue to fail to grasp that point. And we continue to fail to remind them of it!
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Take this with as much salt as you can stomach, but it is a take nonetheless:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/cuban-m...6476--nba.html
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Good read. Cuban can be an @$$, but he always speaks his mind.
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I feel much the same way as Cuban does, but when he says it there's not much weight left behind it since he's been snubbed by the MLB twice.
Had Aroid got 100 games like he should, it would all be a non-issue. Selig isn't retarded, he knows that. I'm not sure if he thinks he's sending a message to the fans, the players, or it's just his hurt pride.
It just doesn't make sense to say 211 games and know the whole thing will hang in the air forever. He has to know that fans are sick of the PED drama and that every time it plays out in the media, he looks bad for still not having a handle on it after all these years.
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Not trying to get anyone bent out of shape here, but I question strongly the supposed prior "purity" of the game, and the so called "role models" of old. Many of the biggest names in baseball were known drunkards(Mantle, Ruth, etc) amongst other things, so I question how they could be considered "role models"(not saying anyone here implied this, just making a point as many kids, and parents of kids want themselves/their kids to be the next Babe Ruth). Plus, baseball has a history of cheaters within the game. Mickey Mantle is now known to have corked bats(which his family refutes, but independent experts found true). The MLB has never even taken corking bats seriously, with only six suspensions for it in the last 40 years, with the worst of the suspensions lasting 8 games, and former players coming out and admitting to corking as well.
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No doubt, and not only "cheating". Ty Cobb was a nasty racist jerk, and Pete Rose was both a jerk and a liar. Sammy Sosa had a corked bat break at the plate, then denied he knew it was corked. And not to jump on Bear's anti-Yankee bandwagon (:-)), Billy Martin was a mean drunk as well. We could go on forever, though its relevance to the issue (A-Rod's possibly excessive ban) could be questioned.
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My bringing this up comes from seeing a couple posts about how baseball has recently lost its purity(or at least thats how I read it). I'm just trying to point out that it ain't really a recent thing that a)players have been cheating and got caught, and b)baseball has lost its "purity."
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True dat. Ain't nuttin' new under the sun for the boys of summer.
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I grew up loving baseball. Played it every waking second. Made my friends play over the line, watched the games on TV, listen to "Scully" on the radio, checked the stats. Couldn't do a lick of math homework but could do ANY baseball stat in the world.

But then

The 1981 Major League Baseball strike was the fourth work stoppage in Major League Baseball since the 1972 Major League Baseball strike.[1] The strike began on June 12 and forced the cancellation of 713 games (or 38 percent of the Major League schedule) in the middle of the regular season. The two sides reached an agreement on July 31, and play resumed on August 9 with the All-Star Game, with regular season play resuming one day later.

My buddy and I were older, fed up and printed t - shirts up and started an organization

F.A.N.S. had the word baseball with the international Red Circle through it (copyrighted) and then they settled. I just realized since then I have coached more games at Chavez Ravine than I have gone to watch :-)

oh Yea FA.N.S. = Fans Announce New Strike :-)

College ball :-)

Rob
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That's all well and good, Rob, but how do you justify this opinion with your signature of "I love the Blackhawks"? The NHL has been MUCH worse in this regard to the fans than baseball ever was!

Not trying to start nuttin' or nuttin', just sayin' I don't see the logic . . . or rather, I do see a logical inconsistency here.
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Interesting article in today's USA Today.

http://usat.ly/14FHL1F
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