{"id":2943,"date":"2013-07-25T03:10:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T03:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=2943"},"modified":"2013-07-25T03:10:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T03:10:20","slug":"mlb-needs-to-drop-hammer-some-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=2943","title":{"rendered":"MLB needs to drop hammer some more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

There once was a time when I was addicted to big-league baseball.<\/p>\n

I’d wake every morning from April through September, get the morning paper and scan the box scores for my favorite players. My actual favorite was Mickey Mantle. I’d look to see how Mick did the night before. I’d grimace if he went 0-for-4; I was joyous when he had a good night at the plate.<\/p>\n

Those days are gone. Free agency took care of much of it for me, as players moved from team to team when their contracts were up.<\/p>\n

Now comes the Age of Cheating, the use of performance enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds will never be the home run king. In my book, that honor\u00a0belongs — still — to Henry Aaron.<\/p>\n

When Major League Baseball suspended 2011 National League MVP Ryan Braun for the rest of the season, I was delighted to see the league taking action — finally — against the cheaters. This suspension likely will preclude Braun’s induction into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

More suspensions need to follow. I heard today that Alex Rodriguez might face a lifetime ban in the case that ensnared Braun. That’s all right, too.<\/p>\n

MLB needs to set an example. It needs to make<\/em> an example of these players who have cheated their way into the record books.<\/p>\n

I am shedding no tears today over this development. Keep dropping the hammer.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There once was a time when I was addicted to big-league baseball. I’d wake every morning from April through September, get the morning paper and scan the box scores for my favorite players. My actual favorite was Mickey Mantle. I’d look to see how Mick did the night before. I’d grimace if he went 0-for-4; … Continue reading MLB needs to drop hammer some more<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[249,547,2101,2860,3046,3548,4062],"class_list":["post-2943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-barry-bonds","tag-henry-aaron","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mickey-mantle","tag-performance-enhancing-drugs","tag-ryan-braun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}