Article from “The Guardian”
I don’t usually post / reprint articles from newspapers or news magazines in this space, but I just finished reading this one in the British publication, “The Guardian” (U.S. Edition), written by Jonathan Bernhardt, and thought it was more than worth the use of my space. See what you think:
The On Deck Circle 
It’s interesting stuff, but I wonder about how large the larger implications are. Hamilton is a fairly unusual case, given the particular nature of his demons and the level of his on-field performance, plus the fact that his is not a case of performance-enhancing drugs. It’s antoher foible of ownership–someone else that Moreno grossly overpaid, and now he’s looking for any way to act on his buyer’s remorse, the CBA be damned. The public nature of how this is playing out is also unssettling; if the Comissioner was not more or less the office boy of ownership (sadly, Manfred is looking to be simply a younger version of Grampy Bud) he could tell Moreno to knock it off.
Hi WK. Those are interesting points you raise. Yes, Hamilton’s case is atypical of the kinds of issues that are “normally” discussed as far as baseball drug policy is concerned (see A-Rod, for example.) To me, though, the most salient point the author makes is his observation that when it comes to the how the owners of large businesses use any means necessary to enhance their own profits even while utilizing obviously unethical behaviors to do so (while demonizing the employee who, even though he did address his issues by the book, will still probably face widespread public scorn), they generally have at least quietly tacit public support on their side. Why so many people now tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the Big Guy (to oversimplify the matter) over the Little Guy (in this case, still a highly paid professional), is probably an issue for a psychoanalyst to figure out.
Good to hear from you,
-Bill
Interesting article. Thanks, Bill, for bringing it to our attention.
v
You’re welcome, V.
-Bill
Thanks for posting this article—I would have otherwise missed it. A smart guy I used to work with always read the Sports page of his newspaper first. His theory was that it was where you are most likely to get the scoop on future Labor/Management trends.
Cheers,
Allan
Interesting theory, and probably something to that. Glad you liked it, Allan.
-Bil