With no living players elected to the abidanceof Fame, largely collectibleto backlash from baseball's steroid era, just 2,500 fans braved the rain for Sunday's ceremonies.(Photo: Mike Groll AP)
It's coming.
You can hear it. You can sense it. It's come to the forethereready to assault our senses.
Major League Baseball is on the edgeof unleashing its fury, delivering the biggest widespread punishment in the sport's history.
HALL OF FAME: Subdued celebration
There go awaybe perhaps as many as 15 studyleague players who will be suspended for a strippedof 50 games, extending through the regular season, in an announcement that's anticipateto occur within the succeeding(prenominal)10 days.
After Sunday's action, teams with players publiclylevel(p)to the Biogenesis doping scandal had 56 to 58 games remaining. If MLB is to mete out suspensions that could be completed by the end of the season — a desirous result for those players wanting this chapter behind them by October — the hammeringmust come down quickly.
In the quiet village of Cooperstown in upstate revolutionaryYork, where baseball celebrates its heritage and honors thegreatestin the game, there was anxiety.
NIGHTENGALE: Why A-Rod won't play for Yankees again
It was supposed to be the inspiredHall of Fame weekend when Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the greatest indicanthitter and great powerpitcher of their generation, would be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Instead, for the first time in nearly 50 years, the simplymen inducted Sunday were dead: New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, umpire Hank O'Day and catcher Deacon White. There was no weekend of celebration. Joy was supplanted by angst.
And with no living players to enshrine, Sunday's crusadecount suffered greatly: 2,500 attended, the Hall announced, well off the typical work partyestimate of just about20,000.
The 32 Hall of Famers who came to the weekend festivities — stillmore than half of the living total of 62 — talked about defendthe purity of the past, nonthe future.
"It's kind of sad," said Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, 76. "I'd be very disappointed if whateverof those guys (associated with performance-enhancing drugs) get in.
"I do think, though, they will get in. When I'm dead."
The pall in Cooperstown reflected a mood permeating the industry.
Wednesday's non-waiver trade deadline is yet otherde facto holiday within the game that will be affected, ifnotconsumed, by the Biogenesis scandal.
Alex Rodriguez is the biggest star lined up in the cross hairs of MLB's drug investigation after ilwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun's justificationbargain last week. He accepted a 65-game falling outthrough the rest of the season.
Rodriguez's suspension is expected to be greater. He'll be suspended for a minimum of 100 games, according to a high-ranking official with knowledge of the investigation exclusivelynot authorized to speak publicly, and most likely 150, with talk of a lifetime ban. Rodriguez plans to bring upany suspension, barelyif the Yankees thought he'd avertsuspension, they likely wouldn't foundertraded for Chicago Cubs slugger Alfonso Soriano.
PLAYERS SUSPENDED chthonianMLB DRUG PROGRAM:
There are three other teams with playoff hopes facingthe analogousintriguing dilemma.
The Texas Rangers, six games behind the Oakland athletic contestin theAmericanLeague West, have relied heavily on All-Star rightfieldsmanNelson Cruz's offensive output. Yet Cruz also is in the heart of the Biogenesis investigation with his name surfacing on several documents. The Rangers leasea backup plan, perhaps a trade for mortalsuch as the Chicago White Sox's Alex Rios, in referenceCruz is suspended for the rest of the season.
The what ifs are many.
If Cruz is suspended, will he appeal it, enabling the Rangers to carry on with a legitimate relishto make the postseason? Or will he surrender, harming the Rangers' playoff hopes only ifprotecting his free agency for prospective employers?
The Rangers insist they don't know Cruz's plans if suspended, but their intentions certainly are clear. If Cruz goes down without a fight and accepts his penalty, whereforewould they expecta guy back who quit on the organization?
The Rangers' preference is a prolonged appeal process, enabling Cruz to be eligible throughout the rest of the season and probably the postseason, distressingabout 2014 after the World seriesparade confetti is cleaned up.
But if you're Cruz, don't you want protection?
If he appeals and loses, he's going to miss at least 50 games in 2014, damaging his free divisorvalue.
If he loses his appeal, will the Rangers be interested and make him a free meanscontract offer?
Or will they walk away as have other teams with no appetite for a free agent slugger who's going to miss the first 50 games of besideseason?
The Rangers want answers, but, then again, so does Cruz.
It's no different than the Athletics with Cy Young Award candidate Bartolo Colon, who also is featured in the Biogenesis records, served a 50-game suspension for a positive 2012 testosterone try onand might be a second offender facing a 100-game ban.
This is why the A's have no choice but to delve into the Jake Peavy sweepstakes, wondering if they need the White Sox power cumulusas insurance, knowing that Colon could be sidelined until next year's All-Star break.
The Detroit Tigers are in a similar position with All-Star short circuitJhonny Peralta. They don't have a shortstop close to resembling Peralta's all-around geniusin the organization. If he is suspended, he could take the Tigers' World Series hopes down with him.
The Hall of Famers gathered in Cooperstown clearly did nonpack violins with their golf clubs.
"The way I look at it, those guys cheated," said Robinson, speaking as if they were proved guilty. "They created an uneven playactingfield. I don't have any sympathy for them."
Maybe one day, it won't matter, and the players with the greatest credentials will be welcomed into Cooperstown.
Perhaps we have a suspenderof Hall of Famers who used performance-enhancing drugs and simply were ne'ercaught, with testing only implemented in 2003.
The cruel reality is that we willneverreally know.
Mark McGwire fessed up; Sammy Sosa didn't. Neither is in the Hall of Fame.
Jeff Bagwell and Mike spacesay they're clean, but their Hall of Fame vote totals reveal that we don't intrustthem.
Clemens and Bonds have been proved innocent in courts of law but guilty in the court of public opinion.
The truth gets cloudier by the day.
"What surprises me is that the best ballplayers in the world thought they needed to do that," Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson said. "But I've got to say, if it had been me and I thought soulwould have been given a little bit of an edge, I'm nonso sure I wouldn't have done the homogeneousthing.
"I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision. You guys would have been public lectureabout me instead of them.
"I think we've all done roundthings that we aren't too proud of."
And, sometime in the coming days, thea la mode(p)walk of shame will ensue, creating a chaos that we've never seen in the sport.
Maybe that's a good thing.
"Guys have been warned enough," Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven said. "If you want to clean it up, you have to be aggressive. They have to contrivetheir foot down."
That stomping sound will soon reverberate.
GALLERY: Alex Rodriguez through the years
If you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: How it works.
Materials taken from USA Today
0 comments:
Post a Comment