It's sounding more and more like last week's HGH busts will be the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that touches off the next series of labor/management wars in major league baseball.
Today's New York Daily News reports that the Angels -- with a great deal of support from the league -- are looking for a way to void Gary Matthews Jr's recently-signed five-year, $50 million contract. Matthews, clearly anticipating a legal battle, has reportedly retained attorney Robert Shapiro -- a member of the O.J. Simpson defense team.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time baseball has attempted to use the steroid issue as a way to chip away at the guarantees inherent in all MLB player contracts. Barry Bonds' contract for 2007 reportedly contains a clause that would allow the Giants to void the deal if Bonds is indicted; most observers believe the clause would never stand up to a legal challenge. There was also some conjecture that the Yankees would try and void Jason Giambi's contract after Giambi's testimony in the BALCO case. Those whispers died down considerably when Giambi started hitting.
Funny, that.
Clearly, we haven't heard the last of this.
More on MLB and Steroids
How can baseball make a substantial move to put the "Steroid Era" in its collective rear mirror? Clearly, the commission headed by George Mitchell, has no juice; the strongest thing Mitchell and team can do to compel a player to testify is to ask REALLY nicely. But ESPN.com columnist Gene Wojciechowski offers an interesting alternative: amnesty. When the only alternative seems to be, "We'll have to resign ourselves to never getting to the bottom of all this," offering some form of amnesty to suspected steroid cheats seems like a pretty reasonable option.
Over at SI.com, John Heyman notes an interesting coincidence: three of the ballplayers caught up in the HGH rumor mill -- Matthews, Jerry Hairston Jr. and David Bell, are all sons of ex-major leaguers.
In the same column, Heyman offers Reggie Jackson's take on Barry Bonds and the home run chase.
Originally published at About Baseball
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