Oldman said:
I'm technologically ungifted but today's SI.com has a lengthy feature on one of MLB's biggest stars detailing drug use, procurement, etc. Alot of questions come from this:
a)How will MBL handle it and other implicated players?
b)Will USADA get involved?
c)Is this a possible Yankee contract exit strategy-disclose and fire A Rod?
d)Lance's woes-did his fall from grace precipitate the Press interest in truth?
We do have a thread on doping in baseball, but to answer your questions:
1) Since A-Rod is denying everything, MLB will probably need more details in order to hand down suspensions, which will only be 50 games, less than 1/3 of a season, for a first offense. A-Rod will miss the first several months of the coming season because of an injury, anyway. It's not clear to me whether he would be allowed to serve a suspension then.
2) I don't think USADA will get involved, since MLB doesn't run MLB's anti-doping program, and there is no evidence I know of that Tony Bosch, the man in the center of this scandal, worked with athletes in sports that use USADA (though it’s possible). OTOH, MLB has worked with USADA through an organization known as the Partnership for Clean Competition, so it's possible it could ask for USADA's help.
3) The Yankees would probably love to dump A-Rod even without the doping scandal, because even when he’s healthy (and he will miss about half of the coming season rehabbing) his production is way down from his peak. His performance was downright embarrassing in the playoffs last year. Unfortunately, they almost certainly cannot terminate his contract, and A-Rod, in his most recent statement, said he doesn’t want to leave the team or have his contract be bought out. So the Yankees are probably stuck with paying him about $114 million over the next 5 years (he will be paid about as much during the part of the season he misses next year as USADA's annual budget). Someone on another thread pointed out that the top Euro football players make far more than Contador, and so doping in football has more serious financial implications than doping in cycling. Can say the same in baseball.
4) I don’t think this story was the result of LA’s problems. The press—a newspaper in Miami no one outside of that area I think had even heard of until now—was researching this case well before the USADA charging letter.
However, there is an interesting parallel to LA's case. In 2009, A-Rod admitted doping back in 2003, in response to a leak of tests which could not be used for sanctioning, but were carried out to estimate the extent of doping in baseball. Sort of equivalent to the 1999 EPO samples. At that time (2009), A-Rod swore he was clean, and hadn't doped since, and never would. Sort of equivalent to LA's, I was clean during my comeback. Had this new evidence not emerged, he might have rehabilitated his image considerably.
Beyond the usual interest for the Clinic, the A-Rod case is significant because he has a shot at breaking the all-time career HR record, currently held by another highly publicized doper, Barry Bonds.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram