Do Charity Work, Get Benched And Fined

ESPN senior writer Rob Neyer discovered a great little nugget adding to the bizarreness that is the Washington Nationals baseball team in his latest Monday Mendozas blog. Apparently, Nats outfielder Elijah Dukes -- who has been one of the few players doing anything remotely good on the ball field for the team this season -- was benched, fined $500 and threatened with a demotion to the minor leagues after he showed up to the park a mere five minutes late after the team's usual reporting time. Fine, teams have rules. But here's the kicker - Dukes was doing charity work for the Nats at a local Little League. 

The worst manager in the major leagues, Manny Acta, gave this explanation: 

"He was late for work, he broke a team rule, and we are going to change the culture here — regardless of how well a guy is playing," Acta said. "And it was a bizarre situation, because he was doing something that we encourage our players to do: He was out in the community doing something for some Little League program and just showed up late to work. He was very remorseful about it. He felt bad, but we have to lay the law on whoever."

This just seems utterly ridiculous to me. Dude, you're already in a season full of embarassment, you're probably going to get fired in a few months, and you decide to bench a guy for doing something YOUR OWN TEAM INSTRUCTED HIM TO DO, and subject your team to another PR disaster that you didn't need. Listen, I know you want to lay down the law, but there are exceptions... like, you can bench and fine a guy if he comes into the clubhouse drunk, but not if he was being a good, tardy samaritan. 

Should The Union Identify The Other 103 Names?

A-Roid is like, "Yo, this isn't fair."

[LINK:] Fehr rejects drug suspicion talk

Major League Baseball union head Donald Fehr says the union will try to ensure that the list of 103 names of players who tested positive for steroids in 2003 will remain confidential. But is this fair? The biggest name on the list, Alex Rodriguez (hereafter referred to as A-Roid, or A-Fraud, you pick) has already been revealed, forever tainting the baseball star's career and legacy. Test samples and records were supposed to be destroyed, but Fehr says the players' association didn't have enough time to make arrangements after the results became final Nov. 13, 2003. Obviously the guilities don't want their careers to be jeopardized if their names are released, but as much as I hate the guy, not revealing the rest of the list isn't fair to A-Roid. In all likelihood, he would've been the biggest name on the list under any circumstance, but the fact that there are 103 other guys who tested positive for banned substances who aren't getting scrutinized means that 'Fraud is the media's sole scapegoat in this snafu, and he'd sure like to have some company to take some of the burden off his back. My main man Brad Lidge is also heralding the release of the names for the sake of his fellow players. Says the closer:

"I wish they would just come out and say who the 104 players are because it's not fair for the other players," Lidge said last week. "We're all lumped in with them, and people think most players did it during the steroid era. But all of us didn't cheat. I don't care how they do it, they should name all of the players on the list." [link]

What do you guys think? I know we're all tired of the steroids talk. I want to see this go away as much as anyone so we can all just enjoy normal baseball again.