The Article That Was Supposed To Be About Martín Perez, But Wasn’t

For the wrong reasons, Monday, August 5th, 2013 will go down as an historic day in baseball history.

13 Major Leaguers were suspended for violating the league’s policy against Performance-Enhancing Drugs, even though none have, in fact, tested positive for any illegal substances. To cap it off, MLB chose to not-so-arbitrarily enforce the 50-game suspensions when the 2013 schedule had 50 games remaining. It makes sense because injustice is what makes the world go ’round, and, to be perfectly honest, nothing really has surprised me since I was 19.

When it comes to baseball politics, I’ll be the first to admit I’m far less knowledgeable on the topic than the people I tend to extract the most of my information from. I’m no lawyer, no analyst, no writer. Just a fan who likes to consider himself educated beyond the surface;

It’s also worth mentioning, I’d say, that almost unconditionally I’m going to side with the players over the owners, because, let’s face it, I’m a simple man stuck in a complicated world where it’s easier to identify with the struggles of coming up, trying to make it, than the people I can’t see, who have already made it, who for some reason still look to capitalize financially from all of us bottom-feeders.

Major League Baseball is doing a disservice to its fans by masquerading as the moral high-ground through the media, which is exacerbated by the fact that the product on the field will be worse through these suspensions. It affects the competition, and to us Ranger fans more dramatically than most with Nelson Cruz being 86’d, as the American League West will be that much more difficult to win.

Please, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating for you to let your kids watch old VHS tapes of the Die Hard series, I’m not saying foul language is acceptable at all times, or that I condone illegal activity. Mainly because it’s not my concern, nor do I give a shit how other people live their lives.

As such, I believe if there are rules in place to suspend MLB players 50 games for offending the drug policy, then by all means crack the whip and suspend them for their 50 games.

But I don’t need a saga. I don’t need to hear about it every day, and I don’t need national columnists, former players, or media pundits telling me how wonderful it is that the MLBPA and Bud Selig are collaborating in the best interests of baseball. Because that’s not the truth.

The truth is, although the evidence could very well be as overwhelming as the media makes it seem, Major League Baseball weaseled its way through some indefensibly sketchy avenues to make sure they got Alex Rodriguez‘ ass, and Ryan Braun‘s, with secondary players like Nelson Cruz acting as nothing more than a small fragment of the collateral damage.

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