Bumbling Bud Bothered by Bubbly, not lack of MLB alcohol consumption policy
By Earl Nash
Bumbling Bud Selig is fretting like a modern day Temperance activist about players spraying champagne on each other to celebrate a milestone victory, while lives may be at stake, because the Commissioner has yet to create and implement an MLB policy for the responsible consumption of alcohol.
Oh, tsk, tsk, Alan; are you worried that someone else, somewhere else is having some fun?
These champagne shenanigans are so important that Bud has “talked to the clubs about [them] and will continue to talk to the clubs about [them].”
Would he prefer that they toss “greenies” in the air, dust each other with white powder, break out a team bong, or does he envision cake and ice cream with balloons and confetti?
While Bud is tut-tuting about this critical issue, he is oblivious to more urgent matters and has failed to:
"Update the MLB drug policy that is now well behind the scientific curve.Take action on the dangers of shattering bats that maim and injure players and fans.Implement a game-wide alcohol consumption policy.Resolve a three-year long controversy about territorial rights in the Bay Area."
DRUG POLICY
Sleeping Selig instituted his drug testing policy rather belatedly, 16 years after the Federal government made steroids illegal in the U.S. HGH is microscopic protein substance, and the IGF-1, in a typical dose, will flush out of the blood stream in 3- 8 hours. This season MLB is using a new, sophisticated test called a carbon isotope ratio test (CIR), also known as IRMS, that would identify the presence of synthetic testosterone in urine.
Bonds’ former “private trainer,” Victor Conte told The Daily News [New York] after Cabrera was busted, that he believes the most popular performance enhancers in sports are not necessarily the undetectable designer steroids he provided athletes with more than a decade ago from his BALCO offices near San Francisco, but the kind of simple, fast-acting synthetic testosterone Cabrera is believed to have tested positive for. “I’m told that they rub it on their hands or under their arms,” he said, adding that the “trans-dermal” creams, as they’re known, clear the system in six to eight hours and don’t breach the 4-to-1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio that triggers a positive test under most programs.
SHATTERED BATS
While players and fans are maimed and injured by shattering bats, Selig has failed to act on MLB-sanctioned tests the that showed that solid wood bats shattered into potentially lethal, spear fragments, but the bats with the thin protective veneer of “The BatGlove” prevented the bat from shattering into several sharp pieces.
Didn’t Bud read the report that said that the very test sequence and protocol that he issued to test the Rauso brothers’ “The BatGlove” had a 100% success rate?
Tests conducted at the MLB labs show that the virtually invisible adhesive veneer did not change the dynamics, performance or exit speed of the baseball or the overall performance of the bat and made then more durable.
Hasn’t Bud talked to the Arizona Diamondbacks President & CEO, Derrick Hall, who immediately implemented the tape in the minor leagues, where it proved itself in game situation?
Didn’t Bud see that Mark Grace, former Diamondbacks first-baseman and FOX Sports Arizona announcer, who developed and aired a 3-Part Series: The Dangers of Broken Bats?
He has had the report on the results for three years and his negligence will one day result in a major law suit against a team or MLB, or even against the Commissioner.
ALCOHOL POLICY
Since there is a hodge-podge of policies among the 30 teams, it is past time for Bumbling Bud to:
1. Collect the policies developed by 19 of your teams and read them.
2. Ban alcohol consumption by players during “the work day.” [The time between when he arrives in the clubhouse until the game that day is over.]
3. Require any player who drinks after a game to take a breath test before leaving the park.
4. Require any player who drinks during a team-paid flight to take a breath test before leaving the plane.
5. If a player fails to take a breath test and is convicted of a DUI on his way home, or to the hotel, he is fined and suspended for $[X} and [X] days.
6. Second incident of proven DUI, bigger fine and suspension.
7. Third DUI, during the same regular season, lifetime ban.
8. All fines collected put into the MLB foundation for alcohol rehabilitation.
There’s some free advice, Bud; try earning some of your $22 million; work out the details with your gang of lawyers and the Players’ Union; now get your ass in gear today, before a player gets drunk and kills someone.
OAKLAND A’s MOVE TO SAN JOSE
In March 2009 Bud appointed a “blue ribbon” committee to investigate the A’s/Giants dispute.
In September 2010, 75 Silicon Valley CEOs drafted and signed a letter to Bud Selig urging a timely approval of the move to San Jose.[12]
In May 2011 San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent a letter to Bud Selig asking the commissioner for a timetable of when he might decide whether the A’s can pursue this new ballpark, but Selig did not respond.[13]
Since Bud appointed his Blue Ribbon Troika, the Mets, the Yankees, the Minnesota Twins and the Miami Marlins have moved into new parks.
https://bosoxinjection.com/2012/09/20/how-buds-bumbling-could-bring-billy-beane-to-red-sox/
Instead of worrying about players celebrating by spraying champagne on each other, he should be worried about being charged with “depraved indifference” or “criminal negligence,” due to his inability to establish policies on drugs, alcohol, and dangerous bats.
Mr. Commissioner:
Are you willfully negligent due to a lack of courage, or are you just plain stupid?
"Will it take someone being killed by a drunken player driving back from a game?Will it take a fan being seriously injured, maimed, or killed by a shattered bat?"
Before you receive your first subpoena, earn some small part of you $22 million salary by taking time out from your tiny temperance temper tantrum and get a comprehensive alcohol consumption policy in place—there are “Lives in the Balance.”
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“Lives in the Balance,” Jackson Brown.
Original image credit: ©Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE
3/12/2011; photo shopped by Earl Nash 10/15/2012, Bosox Injection