Alex Rodriguez's appeal finally has a resolution, and it's not one the slugger was hoping for, as he was suspended for the entirety of the 2014 Major League Baseball season. As you might expect, Twitter was absolutely ablaze with reactions upon hearing the verdict.
First, the news, via
New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez will be suspended for the entire 2014 season, as an independent arbitrator upheld the majority of a 211-game suspension Major League Baseball assessed him in August.
The Saturday ruling by Fredric Horowitz will cost Rodriguez $25 million in salary, and cast considerable doubt over the All-Star's career. Rodriguez will turn 40 during the 2015 season.
Not surprisingly, Rodriguez was less than pleased with the verdict. Here's a portion of the statement he released, via Nightengale:
The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one. This is one man's decision, that was not put before a fair and impartial jury, does not involve me having failed a single drug test, is at odds with the facts and is inconsistent with the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement and the Basic Agreement, and relies on testimony and documents that would never have been allowed in any court in the United States because they are false and wholly unreliable. This injustice is MLB's first step toward abolishing guaranteed contracts in the 2016 bargaining round, instituting lifetime bans for single violations of drug policy, and further insulating its corrupt investigative program from any variety defense by accused players, or any variety of objective review.
In the immortal words of one of the Internet's favorite memes: You mad, bro?
He also noted in the statement that he would take the case to federal court. There is risk in doing so, however, as Joel Sherman of the New York Post notes:
And as T.J. Quinn of ESPN tweets, it's certainly no guarantee that A-Rod will get this case to federal court in the first place:
A-Rod's legal troubles may not just be initiated by his own defense, as Buster Olney of ESPN notes:
For what it's worth, not everyone completely disagrees with Rodriguez's stance. ESPN's Bomani Jones, for one, agrees with A-Rod on some fronts.
Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk agrees with Jones:
On the other hand, as Jon Morosi of Fox Sports notes, many of A-Rod's complaints don't necessarily represent the opinions of the MLBPA:
That being said, the MLBPA did not agree with the ruling, as Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports passes along:
While this saga seems far from over, it seems unlikely Rodriguez will play for the New York Yankees again. This suspension will ultimately be held up, more than likely.
He is still under contract for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons, however, so the real question is this: Will we ever see Rodriguez suit up for an MLB team again? Or will he choose to retire after this lost season?
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