Say It Ain't So, A-Rod

If you thought the punishment meted out to Ryan Braun was tough, wait'll you see what baseball might do to Alex Rodriguez, according to the New York Daily News:

If Alex Rodriguez is intent on appealing his looming suspension in an effort to stay on the field and protect his contract, commissioner Bud Selig is prepared to throw the book at the steroid-stained Yankee by invoking one of his office’s most extreme privileges — the right to take action against a player to preserve the integrity of the game, the Daily News has learned.

By invoking that rarely used power — embodied in Article XI, Section A1b of the game’s collective bargaining agreement — Selig would attempt to effectively keep Rodriguez from ever returning to the field by bypassing the grievance procedure outlined in the joint drug program MLB operates in conjunction with the Players’ Association, sources told The News.

Rodriguez would be suspended immediately for interfering with MLB’s year-long investigation into Biogenesis, the South Florida anti-aging clinic that allegedly supplied performance-enhancing drugs to the aging infielder and other players, and would later be hit with an additional suspension for violating baseball’s drug program.

MLB investigators believe Rodriguez attempted to intimidate witnesses and purchase incriminating documents to keep them out of the hands of baseball officials.

We're basically in Hal Chase/Shoeless Joe Jackson/Pete Rose territory here. And there's going to be a fight about it, but apparently Selig is willing to go to the mat on this one:

Selig is believed to be so determined to keep Rodriguez from ever stepping on a Major League Baseball field again that he is risking a reopening of the collective bargaining agreement or even a federal court case with his decision to bypass the usual grievance procedures and exercise his power to take action on an issue “involving the preservation of the integrity of, or the maintenance of public confidence in, the game of baseball.”

By basing his treatment of Rodriguez on that clause, Selig is effectively bypassing the arbitration-based procedures in place for doping cases, which are laid out in the Joint Drug Agreement, baseball’s collectively bargained anti-doping policy, and putting the appeals process in his own hands.

I'm ambivalent about all this. I've made the point before; baseball players have always sought an edge and were known for cheating in various ways. Gaylord Perry became a Hall of Fame pitcher in large measure because of his use of the spitball. There is evidence that Babe Ruth used doctored bats. And when it became evident that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were engaged in better living through chemistry through their baseball passion play in 1998, I don't recall MLB offering any refunds to the fans.

While I don't believe A-Rod merits any sympathy, I do think he merits due process. Baseball is going through a moralistic phase right now, similar to what happened in the wake of the Black Sox scandals of the early 1920s. Selig, like all commissioners, wants to be Kenesaw Mountain Landis, but he's on dangerous ground here. If he gets overturned, a lot of bad things could happen to the game.