LAKESIDE… Just in the past week, MLB has issued another major suspension to a player accused of using a PED. Kansas City Royals player Miguel Tejada was given a 105-game suspension by MLB for testing positive for Adderall, which is technically an amphetamine but is now considered to be a PED by MLB and the NFL. And the Milwaukee Brewers’ suspended star Ryan Braun is supposedly about to come clean about his entire story and issue an apology as well. For Braun to do this now that he has finally had an accusation stick and end up in his being suspended is a bit too little, too late for me.

If you will remember, it was Braun who tested positive for testosterone use back in 2011, which was announced shortly after he was awarded the NL MVP award for the season, but then publicly challenged MLB on the results. This led them to eventually take the results to a review panel, which overturned the test results, the first time a player ever had success with challenging a result. Braun’s case against MLB regarding the results was about the handling used and the expediency with which Braun’s specimen samples made it to the laboratory.

An expert testified that even some less than ideal handling of the samples would not have changed the results. To be fair, they also stated that a second test managed by an independent lab returned tests that showed normal testosterone levels. I heard a prominent sports physician state on a radio show that the manner in which the original sample was handled wouldn’t have altered what the test showed MLB, and that was that Braun had high levels of testosterone in his system.
Braun hemmed and hawed in the media, and of course the panel backed him up, or at least created enough doubt to get MLB to back off of the possible 50-game suspension staring him down. Round one went to Braun. Was MLB concerned with a legal system that might be tilted toward the accused and decided they couldn’t win? Were they trying to save face after the newly crowned league MVP tested positive?

In the ensuing madness of this summer’s latest round of suspensions, whereby MLB is appearing very much to be in a “put the hammer down” mode (finally, I might add), handing out multiple, long-term suspensions to 13 players including Braun and Yankee icon Alex Rodriguez, the league appears to be treading carefully, going out of its way to ensure that due process and player rights and MLBPA processes are respected. And that is as it should be, I would note, even if it serves to further enflame fan angst over this entire gone-on-too-long debacle.

In its quest to make sure everything is being done in an above-board fashion, is the league appearing as a weak player in all of this? It is a fair question. Out of the 13 players suspended in the one big sweep, only Rodriguez is appealing his suspension. All of the others accepted theirs, are serving them, and will move forward afterward. A-Rod’s appeal seems to only be a quest to perhaps get his 214-game term reduced. I do not believe MLB would have moved forward with these until they were convinced they had iron-clad cases against the accused.

And as much contempt as I have for this decades-long debacle, I understand that players’ legal rights must matter and must be respected. That A-Rod was the only one who is pursuing an appeal of his suspension also speaks volumes to me…


THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE will play host to seven, yes, seven, s-e-v-e-n!, outdoor games this upcoming season! There will be six stateside games and an additional Heritage Classic to be played north of the border in Vancouver, BC. The first will be held on New Year’s Day and will feature the two teams slated to play in last year’s cancelled tilt (due to lockout), with the Red Wings facing the Maple Leafs. I have to tell you that I absolutely love these games. There are some fans, though, who are claiming the NHL is going overboard here and will ruin the unique nature of these games.

The response to that is that the NHLPA is a major financial benefactor here based on their share of  merchandise sales. And since the game was not held last year, the league and PA got together to help remedy that situation. For the local boys, the Wild, well, they will be in a winter classic—it just will not be anywhere near the State of Hockey. Yes, the game they will play in will be held in that state that built the foundation of American hockey, California. They will meet the San Jose Shark on January 25th.  

Is this a slap in the face to the State of Hockey? I am taking it as such. You know, out of the three big hockey-producing states—Minnesota, Michigan, and Massachusetts—I am and always will be partial to the NorthStar State. And you can successfully make the argument that no state in the union has done more for the game than Minny. So, what gives? Well, this contest, in this format has nothing to do with tradition, or history, or who has done what for the game. It is, and I think I can now state this with 99.9 percent certainty, all about TV ratings and keeping the league’s TV contractors happy, and apparently the Wild aren’t viewed favorably in that light.

In fact, I now strongly doubt the TV demographics for the Wild will ever change to the extent that the league would consider awarding the club an outdoor game. It also matters not that only about half of the league’s 30 teams are in actual “hockey climate” locales at this point. The game is now looked upon as a ratings and merchandise extravaganza exclusively. Otherwise, please explain to me why two California-based teams are getting games BEFORE the State of Hockey? PEACE