Bud faces tough case on ban, By: T.J. Quinn
07-14-06
If Barry Bonds is indicted for perjury and tax evasion, as is widely expected, Major League Baseball has its own decision to make: Whether or not to suspend him.
History suggests MLB would have a tough time taking any action.
The only time MLB suspended a player for being charged with a crime - but not convicted - was in 1980 when the Rangers' Ferguson Jenkins was arrested for possession of cocaine, marijuana and hashish in Canada, before baseball had a drug policy. When Jenkins, facing criminal charges, followed his lawyer's advice and refused to answer questions from MLB officials, commissioner Bowie Kuhn immediately suspended him. Arbitrator Raymond Goetz, however, overturned the suspension two weeks later.
"He says you can't suspend a baseball player just on an allegation, and (the commissioner) can't make them cooperate because it violates their Fifth Amendment rights. He implies that if it's a severe crime like a murder you might," Robert Kheel, who teaches sports law at Columbia Law School, said of Goetz's decision. "As a matter of historical precedent, it makes it very difficult to suspend in baseball." Kheel said he could not speak specifically to Bonds' case.
Players such as Darryl Strawberry, Steve Howe and Dwight Gooden were suspended for specifically violating baseball's drug policy, so their cases wouldn't serve as a precedent to a Bonds indictment. If Bonds were suspended, it would be without pay.
Commissioner Bud Selig's lawyers looked into the issue when the book "Game of Shadows," which said Bonds knowingly had used steroids before he ever heard of BALCO, was excerpted in February. Instead of pursuing a suspension, Selig opted for an investigation into the entirety of baseball's steroid history.
Even serious crimes haven't been enough for other leagues to suspend players who did not violate rules specifically outlined in their labor agreements.
The Baltimore Ravens' Ray Lewis, charged with murder, and the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, charged with rape, continued to get paychecks until their cases were resolved. When Strawberry was suspended for 120 games in 1999 following an arrest for cocaine possession but before he pleaded no contest, it was because the arrest violated the terms of his aftercare program.
One other aspect of Goetz's decision may be relevant: Jenkins' arrest, he said, had nothing to do with his place of work.
If MLB decides it wants to take this opportunity to go after Bonds, the union would likely file a grievance, and baseball might have to argue convincingly that Bonds' indictment for perjury would cast such a shadow over the game as to damage it. A tax-evasion charge likely would be irrelevant. Otherwise, there would appear to be nothing in baseball's basic labor agreement that would allow MLB to suspend Bonds unless he was convicted or pleaded guilty.
