Home Runs... Peds.... and the smell of politics.....

  At  exactly seven am I heard some host on the CBS Sports Radio network deliver an insipid commentary about how Ryan Braun destroyed the concept of sports idols for young baseball fans everywhere.  Excuse me while I grab my vomit bag and then my tiny fiddle.  You know my feelings about idols and role models; there are no none.  Idols and role models DO NOT EXIST.  They're a myth, a spook story, something to drive ticket sales or profit margins or ratings needles or what have you.  I don't think, in my heart of hearts, that Ryan Braun's suspension will suddenly having young baseball fans turning their backs on America's past time.  And if some kid is sitting there weeping about how let down they feel by Ryan Braun then you know what;  it's their parents fault for not schooling them on how oh so un pretty this here world can be.  So this is the media spin for today.  Ryan Braun has broken the hearts of young baseball fans all across America and Bud Selig is suddenly being viewed as some Wyatt Earp like character with a white hat on.  Let's be clear here.  Selig was ALLOWED to suspend Ryan Braun by the MLBPA.  That's the difference here.  The MLBPA recognized that they needed to look like they were serious about steroids in MLB and they recognized that Bud Selig needed some good PR during the twilight of his tenure as the commissioner of America's Pastime.  Put two and two together and voila.... Ryan Braun is suspended for the remainder of the 2013 baseball season.  Did you notice that Selig went after the easiest mark here?  The Brewers are out of contention and who would be grudge Selig for suspending a superstar who was already seen by most of the baseball watching public as a dishonest, smug, pariah.  Suspending Ryan Braun wasn't about making a stand to clean up the game.  It was about politics and horse trading.  Would Selig dare suspend someone from say, the Red Sox, if Ryan Braun played for them?  Is Selig going to take the same steps to suspend Matt Kemp if Kemp is found to have violated the league policy on steroids?  I doubt it.  If more suspensions come down in bread and butter markets like say Los Angeles, it will be because the MLBPA will once again allow Bud Selig to once again look like an efficient leader of a billion dollar a year enterprise.  If Selig and the MLBPA were really the guys in the white hats, they would've stepped in and stopped the post strike renaissance in its tracks.  You know what the Ryan Braun suspension is?  It's a chance for Ryan Braun to do the press tour and perfect his mea culpas and it's a chance for Bud Selig and the MLBPA to stand triumphantly in front of every available camera as they shovel more fertilizer about the steroid era in baseball being eradicated forever.  The truth is, Braun will be back in 2014 and the fans will be there cheering him on and no one will be the wiser.  And then as the storm clouds of this so called day of recognizing finally pass you can be sure of one thing; there will be more guys like Braun who will try to beat the system.  And for every bio gensysis that gets shut down, there will be another one bound to pop up at some point.  There will be always be guys looking for an edge and there will be always doctors and or practitioners who will put the almighty dollar ahead of medical and or moral ethics.  If the players have proven one thing, it's the simple fact that they are a lot more creative and a lot more devious than Bud Selig can even imagine.  My money is on Bartolo Colon being suspended before Matt Kemp is.  Why damage the franchise that is the economic apple of Bud Selig's crooked eye when you once again punish a small market operation like Oakland?  Let's face it, Oakland doesn't move the economic needle like Los Angeles does.  Ah, the smell of hot dogs and apple pie and good old fashioned politics.  God bless you mister Selig.