A-ROD vs. BUDZILLA: THE FIXITY IS IN (REDUX)

We are not particularly surprised to discover that Alex Rodriguez has capitulated in the wake of his kangaroo court suspension proceeding vs. the legal sea lions of Bud Selig. While we waxed tough on this subject some weeks back, we knew that the odds were stacked against A-Rod. Buzzy the fly (who, as you know, gets around...) reported to us a week ago that all the preliminary signs were bad: the court system was giving strong signals that they were unwilling to reopen the case.

All of which proves what we know already: long-term institutional corruption in the world of big money will prevail in 95% of the cases in which it is challenged. Once the arbitrator ruled that Budzilla wouldn't testify, the iron doors began their inevitable swing-slam on A-Rod.

The New York Post tried to banish A-Rod to Miami during the
2012-13 off-season; he might still wind up there in 2015,
particularly if the Yankees agree to pay most of his salary.

The embattled, overly-entitled, and poorly-advised patsy will spend 2014 trying to keep his batting eye sharp in preparation for what will likely be a controversial return. Silver-tongued wags in all nooks and crannies of the Internet have opined in all the flavors of derision (ranging from D to D+) that A-Rod will never play again, but such a scenario is extremely unlikely.

It's clear that A-Rod should have taken his case directly to the courts and bypassed the phonied-up arbitration process. What isn't so clear is why he didn't--the lingering possibility that he was guilty enough for a suspension longer than what would have been prescribed by the (amazingly elastic) rules in baseball's testing agreement. Given what's happened, however, a venue in which Selig and his seals could have been subpoenaed was the one to play in--not the stacked-deck masquerading as a short porch in which he was fooled by what might best be described as a "crypto-legal change-up."

Baseball fans, like most Americans, don't like to focus on lingering controversies: their preference is for more inchoate long-term stalemates. United in their peculiar preference for a particular type of divided consciousness, they are just glad that this tawdry matter is over. A-Rod is no downtrodden underdog, so no one will rise to his defense, even if the process by which he was scapegoated contains a dangerous precedent. They'll chalk it up as an aberration and put their heads back in the sand.

The only good thing to note in all of this is that Selig still plans to retire after the 2014 season. Who (or what) follows in his wake is still unknown, but it surely can't be any worse.