Monthly Archives: August 2013

“Why the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq Are Politically Sustainable” and “Immigration and The Mexican View of Our History.”

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I was surprised this morning to note that two posts had been linked-to from outside the US. The first of these Here deals with why the low KIA totals in those wars are the result in equipment improvements that keep soldiers alive but allow grevious injury.

The other post is “Immigration and the Mexican View of Our History.” Here Most Americans are ill informed of this history which is viewed by Mexicans the way a person from Alabama views the Civil War. This was explained to me by a Mexican lawyer in Mexico City. Take a look to better understand the Mexican point of view.  If this link doesn’t work, see ARCHIVES for May 3, 2013.

Tomorrow, I will be back on the baseball beat, as I want to see how the Royals do in Detroit and whether the Dodgers will lose again.

August 17, A Review

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I was thinking about the date today and that it means there are two weeks of August left, but that only two weeks of August and then a serious month, September, arrives, when the NFL starts and MLB finishes the regular season.  As the Vikings have lost two pre-season games, I will join my fellow fans by ignoring that fact. Denial is big around here.

The Twins have been playing well since the All-Star Game, but are still well out of the race. However, the Division is competitive, if having Kansas City 6.5 games out in third, makes it competitive. The Royals won a double header in Detroit yesterday with pitching, and that is how to beat the Tigers. Kansas City Royals Emerge was posted on June 18 and discusses how this team is rapidly learning how to win. I think it is good enough now to beat the Tigers and that will be the best baseball story of the season. That is, unless you look at the Dodgers, who were in last place in June and have won 41 of 49 games since.  This is the triumph of baseball culture as this team played horribly, but the long season allows for a rebound and what a rebound it has been!

I mentioned the difference between baseball and the games that watch a clock in MLB, Where You Have to Give the Other Guy a Chance that quotes Earl Weaver.

This is the year that I became fixated with the Miami Marlins. Yes, the team that is 28 games behind the Braves. I have watched it play close games and lose and it is now playing close games and winning its share. When young, poorly performing teams show a habit of tenacity and relentless pursuit of wins, it often becomes a habit of winning. Not this year or maybe next, but keep your eyes on these players in Miami. This style of play indicates good management at all levels and that augurs well for the future.

Remember that there are two weeks left of August, but then it is September and it becomes serious. Stay tuned.

Human Growth Hormone, Testosterone, Biogenesis and the MLB Supplement Game

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MLB is trying very hard to rid itself of performance enhancing drugs. It has banned a long list of steroids and other products. Recently, Commissioner Selig has suspended 13 players for between 50 games to 211 games for Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman. These suspensions were based on evidence of drug use obtained from the records of Biogenesis, a Miami Youth Clinic.

Last night at dinner with my friend, Jeff Husband, I decided to get the story from him. Jeff is a noted orthopedic surgeon at Tria and one of the leading hand surgeons in the country. (I learned that from another friend who told me she had been operated on by the “leading hand surgeon, Jeff Husband”.) I asked Jeff just what it was that Biogenesis was giving these players. He then explained the Human Growth Hormone (hGH) and testosterone therapies that Biogenesis offered. He said this sort of therapy was common.  For example, hGH had legitimate uses but he was not sure of the beneficial effect in athletics. For a description, look here.

For testoterone, again the benefits are increased strength, lean body mass, and endurance, but the potential side effects, he mentioned many, were very dangerous. For a description look here. However, it seems that players are very eager to take these supplements to enhance performance, and they think it works. What is it that the players seek that causes them to risk life, health and their careers by using these products?

The simple answer is “Youth.” We all think of that and recall some point in our lives that we would like to return to, but most of us recognize that there are benefits to maturity, as well, and we bask in those benefits. For a baseball player, that point in time is when they were 27 and they were at the peak of their perfomance. If they can maintain that level for just a few years, they will have signed a multi-year, mega-million dollar contract, and can then stop using. It is a very enticing prospect and one that is hard, if not impossible, to resist.

Jeff and I are not immune to that prospect, and, some years ago, we started using a product called Protandim. My introduction to Protandim occured while lawyering a stock trade for one of the inventors of the product.  I found it to be beneficial. Then the stock deal tanked and I ended up defending a client in a suit brought by the inventor. Now Protandim was supposed to be a magical combination of herbs and spices, that working synergistically, cured all ills, The formula was secret as to the ratio of the various ingredients, but they were listed on the package.

During the pre-trial discovery process, I deposed the inventor and came away with the impression that there was no way this fellow was ever going to invent anything of scientific merit. I then looked at the product and investigated the ingredients, mainly Turmeric, see here . I found that the beneficial effect of the product was due almost entirely to the large amount of Turmeric, an Indian spice in the Ayurvedic tradition, that it contained. I now know others who have discovered Turmeric.

The point of this story is to point out that the search for youth is not just for athletes, but for all of us. Protandim is sold in a multi-level distribution program that is very popular.

A quick search of the web disclosed a multitude of such products, each offering the benefits that the baseball players were seeking from hGH and testosterone at clinics like Biogenesis. The search will continue as it always has, I only hope for good outcomes and the avoidance of the dangers of overuse, which are ever present. Sports must maintain its vigil, abusers suspended and others educated. I hope for sucess in this area soon.

Top 40 baseball rule myths

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Top 40 baseball rule myths.

MLB Playoffs 2013- updated September 12.

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MLB’s playoff format was changed for 2012 by adding a one game playoff between the teams with the second highest winning percentage among non-division winners. Previously, the team with the highest winning percentage was the wild card and played the winningest team, if that team was not in its division, for the Division Championship, prelude to the League Championship Series.

What this means is that contenders in August and September are focusing on that second wild card position and that creates some interesting scenarios. In the National League, the scenario is who plays whom with five teams all but guaranteed playoff positions. The second highest winning percentage is Cincinnati’s  .556. 65 wins v. 52 losses. No one else is close. The only question is whether the wild cards, all from the NL Central,  will include èittsburgh or St. Louis, depending on whether the Pirates can hold its 3 game lead over St. Louis. That will be close, but this one game playoff, Cincinnati v. either St. Louis or PIttsburgh, will be very competitive.

In the American League, the situation is not so clear as there are three teams Tampa Bay, Oakland, and Baltimore, that will make up the two teams that playoff for the Wild Card position in the Division Series. If Oakland beats Texas or Tampa beats Boston and wins the Division, make the changes that implies. It will be interesting.

The determining factor will be the teams’ ability to win under pressure. See here The games will be largely determined by the ability to catch the ball and make plays in the field, the most rudimentary of baseball actions.

UPDATE- I now include Kansas City and New York in the Wild Card Race as both teams have played very well. There will be two wild cards this year, so pay attention.

NY Daily News Links Alex Rodriguez and Victor Conte

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The New York Daily News here wrote about a meeting between Alex Rodriguez and Balco founder, Victor Conte who spend four months in jail for his connection to illegal steroid distribution to athletes, Marion Jones, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. The meeting took place in San Francisco in May 2012. Conte told Rodriguez that he could only offer legal supplements and commented on a blood test. He then sent Bonds supplements that he creates at SNAC, his supplement company. Thus story only adds to the story of how Rodriguez was seeking enhancement from different sources and Conte would only supply legal products. In fact, after looking at the product labels, these are products that I can buy at TAO.com  here in Minneapolis while eating vegan chili. The only new story is Conte’s marketing genius in linking his products to Rodriguez.  I am sure sales will be brisk this week.

MLB, Alex Rodriguez, and the Reason Rules Are Important

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Sports leagues, like MLB and the NFL, are run according to rules that create the values they sell. This is the essential element in their operation and one that must be protected with vigor. Why is this? Some ask why the use of drugs is a problem anyway. The analysis of this issue starts with an examination of what is the product sold by these leagues.

The basic element of the product is a game played according to a set of rules. The value of a game is based, first, on the league it is being played in. This is the trademark value of the league. All fans recognize that the price, hence value, of their ticket, starts with the league. A NFL ticket is worth more than a high school ticket. Second, the value is based on the quality of the play, the skills of the players and the rules that control the operation of the league and the play of the game. These rules, roster limits, player eligibilty, selection (drafts etc.), transfer and playing rules are all aimed at creating a system where there is competitive balance among the teams. Success is based on the skills of the executives who implement the rules and select the right players, but the rules also limit their ability to dominate by being too successful. Third, the reason these rules, and rules banning performance enhancing drugs are part of this, are important in that it is through these rules, competitive balance is assured so there is value to the game, and this value is based on the fact that the outcome of the game, even one between the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox, is in doubt.

The outcome’s being in doubt is what separates sports from other forms of entertainment, like theater. There is no doubt that King Lear will die at the end, and fans do not attend Lear in the tens of thousands as they do in sports. (If Lear, from time to time, rallied to recover his throne, attendance may be improved!)

This gets us to MLB’s suspension of Alex Rodriguez and a dozen other players for the illegal use of performance enhancing drugs. The outcome of the game must be based on a player’s natural skills and not the skils of some chemist. By imposing these rules by suspendiing players, MLB is protecting the sine qua non of its existence, competitive balance that is undertood to be fairly achieved.

The imposition of these penalties is important and the only question is whether they are severe enough to actually deter the illegal action.
If this were the Olympics, the players would be automatically suspended for two years for the first offense. In baseball, the first suspension is for 1/3 of the season, the second for 5/8th of a season. Only a third positive test results in life time suspension. In the era of multi-year contracts, anything less than a lifetime ban is meaningless.

Baseball has a rule calling for a lifetime ban for gambling, Pete Rose, for example, and no one gambles in baseball. The game’s integrity is protected by that rule. Maybe it is time to do the same for drug cheaters.  We are dealing with the value of a game and that is all they have, so it is time to impose the rule that wipes out the multi-year contract. That will be effective in ending this curse.

MLB, New York Yankees, and the Alex Rodriguez Drama

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The baseball world is waiting for the long anticipated release of the names and penalties to be assessed against MLB players who obtained performance enhancing drugs from the Miami clinic, Biogenesis. None of the players failed drug tests, as all charges are based on non-analytical positive evidence such as oral testimony, emails and records obtained from Biogenesis.

Alex Rodriguez is the most well known of the players, but Jhonny Peralta, the Tigers shortstop, is thought to be one of them and the Tigers have already traded for a replacement, but back to ARod.  This is the most interesting case as he admitted steroid use while with Texas and has been accused of such behavior before the Genesis deal. He is said to have recruited players for Biogenesis, which is another crime, as they say.

ARod could face a lifetime suspension, so he is trying to negotiate with MLB for a lesser sentence. It was said today, that MLB is not negotiating so much with ARod as they are negotiating with the Yankees. This raises interesting issues that I find troubling. The evidence is in and MLB has it. It must apply the rules to all players and do so without inquiring of the player’s team as to what it wants to achieve. For example, say the Yankees say “we want him for the rest of this year, but want his remaining $100,000,000 contract blocked for life.”  That would mean that MLB would suspend     Arod for life, but, because he can appeal his suspension, he could play next week.  Similarly, other teams may want the player, Peralta, for example, could appeal a suspension and finish the season, or accept a fifty game suspension and be eligible for post season. The timing of this is not by chance!

If Arbitrator Horowitz upholds a life time suspension, both the Yankees and MLB win. If he limits the suspension to a year, for example, ARod wins, and MLB’s drug testing program is impeded as to future suspensions. In this decision, the Arbitrator will look at other lifetime bans, Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, for gambling, for example. I believe that gambling is an attack on the underlying integrity of the game and is the most serious offense against the game as that directly effects the outcome of the game, and has a negative impact on fans who want to trust the outcome is legitimate. This is not to diminish the PED effect, but the Arbitrator will also look to other drug cases, Steve Howe for example, where a lifetime ban was overturned by Arbitrator Nicolau, because MLB did not offer drug treatment. (Howe’s drugs of choice were primarily cocaine and marijuana.)

There is another factor in the ARod case. The Commissioner has power to by-pass the appeals process and suspend for life “to protect the integrity of the game.” Here the risk is that a court (or an arbitrator, I will have to check the proceedural rules) will find the penalty excessive and over turn it.
Furthermore, and this may be the most important factor, is that taking away a player’s appeal rights that exist in the basic union contract is to invite war with the Player’s Association which had been compliant with the suspensions as long as suspension appeal rights were not limited. This could be very damaging.

All in all, this will be a very interesting week. ARod will appeal if suspended and play for the Yankees this week or he may negotiate a deal and accept a lesser penalty. That case will then control drug penalty cases in the future. The Commissioner will be very careful as well, as his power is at risk. Maybe it is better to save that for gambling cases in the future.

MLB is now taking a strong stance against drug use, and, as Henry Aaron is thinking, it is about time.

Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis and MLB

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Alex Rodriguez is a third baseman, from time to time, for the New York Yankees.  He was named in Biogenesis documents and other testimony as a user of performance enhancing drugs, one of these players, Ryan Braun, of the Milwaukee Brewers, was suspended for the rest of the 2013 season on a plea bargain last week.

The case against Rodriiguez is based on “non-analytical positive” evidence. This is evidence other than a positive drug test and includes oral testimony, documents, emails and the like. This sort of evidence was used by the United States Antidoping Agency in its succesful case against Lance Armstrong and is commonly used in Olympic and other doping cases.

What is significant here is MLB’s strong stance against doping. Over the long period that steroids have been present in the game, MLB has taken a soft position and the union has presented obstacles to a real doping policy. In fact, the union took the position that “steroids are no more damaging to a player than smoking.”  This lead to the soft position on Barry Bonds following the BALCO scandal.

Now, however, MLB is taking the hard position and is considering a lifetime ban on Rodriguez based on his admitted PED use in the past that constitutes the three uses that allows such a ban. Rodriguez will appeal such a ban to Arbitrator Horowitz. Commissioner Bud Selig has said he may invoke special powers to by-pass this step under his “integrity of the game” authority.  This marks a signiificant escalation in MLB’s scrutiny of doping and is allowed by public comments by players that they want the game cleaned up. The player sentiment is what gives MLB management the sense that this sort of action will be effective, and causes the union to be realistic.

This is all very good, but we can all lament the fact that it has taken so long. Baseball’s most cherished records for single season and career homeruns have been lost to a serial doper. At least it is taking the proper action now.