Integrity in sports, already a virtue in decline, was obliterated under three yards and a cloud of dust or called out on a third strike, depending on one’s preference.
First, Major League Baseball finally ended its agonizing silence and announced the suspension of 12 players in the latest scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs. Conspicuously absent from the list was the name of Alex Rodriguez, who has snubbed Commissioner Bud Selig at every attempt for compromise.
Later in the day, however, Selig announced a 211-game suspension of Rodriguez, which would have put the all-star baseman on ice for the rest of 2013 and all of 2014. Curiously, the commissioner failed to invoke the “in the best interest of baseball” clause, breathing new life into the Yankees’ fading star.
On Monday night Rodriguez played and singled in his first game, waving the banner for cheaters everywhere.
Word also came out of Baton Rouge recently that troubled LSU running back Jeremy Hill was given a measly 40 hours of community service at the Bishop Ott Center and additional probation time for his latest transgression. Hill was potentially facing jail time, but two judges ruled otherwise.
Monday evening LSU coach Les Miles reinstated Hill, despite the running back’s vicious attack of an unsuspecting victim and a celebratory high-five with a friend, the kind usually reserved for the end zone.
The cases of Rodriguez and Hill are examples of a sports world with misplaced priorities, where ticket sales and spinning turnstiles blur right from wrong.
Justice would have better been served if Selig had immediately suspended Rodriguez under the “best interest” clause, thereby effectively ending Rodriguez’s season and likely his career. By the time Rodriguez exhausts his appeal and serves his suspension he will be 40 years old and his career likely over. But thanks to Selig he has the opportunity to don a uniform and collect millions along the way.
In Baton Rouge, Miles fumbled an opportunity to send a message to not only his team but also the community. By being reinstated Hill understands that no matter how heinous his behavior or actions he has the legal system and his coach in his hip pocket, ready to come to his rescue.
What kind of message did Miles send to his team and young people overall? That one can sucker punch an individual, causing injury, and walk away unscathed?
Clearly, that is the wrong message.