In all seriousness, the last thing I want to do is to write about Jenrry Mejia again. It’s going to be an exciting year for the Mets, and there are so many great and positive things to write about and discuss.
However, he called a press conference, and WOW, do we need to address his allegations.
First, Mejia alleged that baseball threatened him with a third suspension if he didn’t name names. Essentially, Mejia is asserting that the way MLB handles its steroid policy is nothing short of how Senator Joseph McCarthy handled his hearings. For not naming names, Mejia alleges he was suspended a third time even though he was not using a banned substance at the time of the so-called failed test.
Now, Mejia only admitted to being guilty the first time, which he chalked up to an accident. He said the subsequent tests were not accurate. When pressed on whether MLB was issuing false positives, Mejia’s attorney said the information is confidential. Despite the confidentiality asserted here, it did not prevent Mejia from making that assertion.
Second, Mejia has alleged that MLB has hacked into player’s social media accounts. Following the Cardinals’ hacking scandal this is no small allegation. Mejia is not only asserting baseball has infringed upon his rights, he is also accusing baseball of criminal behavior. If true, this is a scandal that could rock baseball. If false, these allegations are nothing short of defamation.
Of less surprising news, Mejia says he is innocent, and he will appeal the suspension through the Player’s Union. It’s interesting to note that he never appealed the second suspension. As such, no court case as of right now on the positive test issue. As we’ve seen in past cases, these appeals happen behind closed doors, which is a shame. With all that Mejia is claiming, I’d love to see this on live TV.
This press conference has raised many issues regarding how MLB handles people who test positive for PEDs. If MLB is willing to bargain with a tainted player for information, it puts the legitimacy of the policy and what’s on the field in question. Conversely, if MLB is creating false positives and hacking into player’s social media accounts, it shows the great lengths baseball will go to in order to catch PED users. At this point, this all seems a little far fetched . . . at least I hope it is.
But maybe it isn’t. Supposedly, a lawsuit is going to be filed with respect to the allegations on how baseball was supposedly hacking into social media accounts. How this case progresses will not only have an impact on the credibility of the people running the sport, but also labor relations. Baseball has not had labor strife for about a decade now. If the Player’s Union hears that the owners are hacking into their accounts, and they obtain actual proof, it will impact the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations in dramatic ways.
The last thing anyone wants is the kind of mistrust and strife between the players and the owners like we saw in the seventies.eighties and nineties. There are a multitude of issues to be addressed in the next CBA. If either side believes they cannot trust the other side, negotiations may stall and linger. If that happens, the chances of a strike or lockout vastly increases. As it was in 1994, another strike is every baseball fan’s worst nightmare.
The Mejia drama has taken some strange twists and turns thus far, and by the looks of it, the drama is not going away any time soon.
