August 6th: Punishment Befitting the Crime

For the first time in almost 10 months, Alex Rodriguez’s name appeared in the lineup for the New York Yankees. It just so happened that his 2013 debut came the same day that his 211 game suspension for his alleged steroid use.

Alex took the field to a chorus of boos from the Chicago crowd, and proceeded to go 1 for 4 with a bloop single and a strikeout. If I were the starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, though, things would have gone very differently.

I believe that the game should be played with integrity. I've always been very outspoken about the fact that professional athletes are, first and foremost, entertainers, and therefore are expected to be public servants, in a sense. That being said, athletes also have the expectation of being held to the standard that viewers set for them.

There is a debate that, if baseball players are meant to truly entertain, who cares if they are taking steroids to do so. Fans want to see the home runs, and they don’t care what makes that happen. While this may be true, there are rules in place that restrict that kind of behavior, and whether it should or shouldn't be is a moot point. If you are doping, you are saying to the league and to its fans that the rules don’t matter, and therefore demonstrate a lack of respect for the game and its fans.

Rodriguez is not the only player who was given suspensions today. 12 others were handed bans for 50 games, each for violating the MLB drug policy. The reason that Rodriguez’s suspension is so much worse is that not only was he involved in taking the drugs, but also encouraging other players to use and trying to obstruct the MLB investigation when things got bad.

All of that being said, my approach as a pitcher would have been simple: take all of A-Rod’s at-bats away from him. If he is unwilling to take the suspension and get out of the game, do the dirty work for him. Every single at-bat, A-Rod should have either been hit by a pitch or intentionally walked, essentially taking away his opportunity for success.

This is, of course, not the cleanest of strategies, considering it would allow him to get on base every time, but this move is transcendent of the competition of the game. In the same way that his acts tarnished the game, it would be a symbolic gesture of the other team to say that it doesn't matter whether or not he gets on base, but the bigger picture of refusing to allow him to demonstrate success.

This is an extreme sentiment, but one that comes from a serious disdain for cheating in baseball. Bud Selig has done incredible work in the last few months to attempt to clean up the game, and Alex Rodriguez has not only been at the heart of the issue, but been a direct contributor to why the process has been so long and painful. That being said, the man needs to be shown that a lack of respect for the great game of baseball will not bode well for him.

Playing baseball is a privilege, and one that so few people get to experience. Alex Rodriguez has tarnished the game, and deserves a life ban. While that may not be legally realistic, baseball needs to show the player that he is a tiny piece of the game, and can and will be swiftly replaced. The faster the better.