PEDs, Players' Ignorance Continue to Hurt the MLB

Before the season began, Bryce Harper made headlines with his comments about the lack of "fun" in baseball. The "Code" of baseball was challenged, and with it came an uproar from both current and retired players. Baseball has always been a man's game. Not "man's game" as in physical stature or strength, like football, but more towards the side of a sport being centered around respect and integrity. The game is littered with rules you'll never set eyes on in the official rule book and that's what makes the game such a beautiful sport. And while I don't agree with Harper's reasons for saying baseball isn't fun, I do believe that the game of baseball as a whole is not as fun as it used to be and Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins is the latest reason for that.

Gordon will serve an 80-game suspension this season

It was announced this morning that the 2015 National League batting champ and current second baseman for the Marlins will serve an 80-game suspension as a result of a failed drug test. While taking PEDs is pathetic and dishonest in its own right, Gordon made matters worse when he claimed that he did not know that he had ingested the drugs. How do you not pay attention to what you're putting in your body? I don't think people are secretly spiking his food or sneaking pills into his meals, which either means Gordon is lying or he's just flat out clueless. It not only hurts Gordon's physical health in the long run, but it kills the reputation of an All-Star and shows a complete disrespect to the game.

That's why baseball has become so hard to trust and be viewed as fun. PEDs have become a constant reminder that even when things are going so well in baseball, there are still players who feel it necessary to cheat and ruin the integrity of the game. And what makes this even worse is that guys like Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire have now ruined the perspective of fans and analysts whenever a player enjoys success. Take Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta for example: Arrieta has become the best pitcher in baseball over the past year and has had historic outing after historic outing. He has been an irreplaceable piece of the rise of the Cubs and has provided more excitement than any other player on the roster. Yet Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless spoke about Arrieta on ESPN First Take earlier this week and wondered aloud if Arrieta was using PEDs.

While it's ludicrous to think that someone would undermine a guy's work ethic with an accusation like that, you can hardly blame Stephen A. Smith for calling attention to Arrieta's rise to stardom. Was Smith careless in how he phrased his accusation? Yes. Was the thought behind his words justifiable? Probably. That's the way the baseball world works now and that saddens me. If you have any sort of success, the assumption is almost always that that player's success is due to PEDs of some sort, not his own work ethic and improvement. The cheaters of the late '90's and early 2000's created that culture, and it has stuck with baseball ever since.

Arrieta's meteoric rise has recently raised questions about PEDs

Gordon's suspension is the first of its kind for this season, but it falls in line with a long list of other suspensions past cheaters have served. The biggest issue here is that the MLB is not doing anything to make an example out of anyone that will leave a lasting impression. Sure 80 games seems like a big number, but in the grand scheme of things it's only half a season. Who cares? Dee Gordon is 28 years old and in his sixth season. Once he serves this 80-game suspension he'll come back and serve no further punishment. In the grand scheme of what could be a 12-15 year career, is 80 games without pay really a big deal? No. It is estimated that Gordon will lose about 1.65 million dollars during this suspension, but in comparison to the 50 million dollar contract he signed this past winter, 1.65 is pocket change.

The bottom line is that suspensions and fines are not punishment enough for the guys who don't play the game the right way. If you want to stop the use of PEDs or at least lower the number of guys using them then you ban the guys who break those rules. It's absolutely inexcusable to have guys like Pete Rose banned from baseball for betting on his team to WIN, yet the guys who cheat and set a bad example for younger athletes basically get a slap on the wrist in the long run. The MLB has its priorities real mixed up, and baseball will not recover unless the discipline does more damage.

To connect this all to Harper's desire to make baseball more fun, there is no way that that can truly happen. Players can do all the bat flips they want, they can celebrate in any way they desire, but if players continue to cheat and call the integrity of the game into question then baseball will never be as fun as it should be. I absolutely love the game of baseball and it is a sport I follow faithfully, but why should I enjoy watching America's oldest sport if my favorite player will be questioned about PEDs any time he has a successful season? There is no trust in baseball, it has become guilty until proven innocent and it should not have to be that way. It's time the MLB starts taking itself and these PED violations more seriously because, ironically, taking things more seriously would translate to more fun in baseball.

Voters Swing and Miss on NBA Coach of the Year

They've been the team in the spotlight all year long. Heck, they have potential to be one of the greatest teams in the history of sport should they conclude the season with a championship. The Golden State Warriors have dominated, in every sense of the word, the athletic world this season and recently concluded a 73-9 regular season. With that comes a focus on winning a championship and completing what would be the greatest season in NBA history. Yet there is now an undeserved accolade involving the Warriors' head coach, Steve Kerr.

Kerr's surgery sidelined him for 43 games

During the off-season, Kerr underwent a very serious back surgery that sidelined him for the first half of this season. Unable to even leave his house to attend practices, Kerr handed the head coaching duties over to Luke Walton while Kerr worked to recover from the procedure. Life was not much fun for Kerr having to sit at home and watch his team begin the season 24-0, all while dealing with excruciating pain. It's honestly a sad story, one that kept Kerr from being a part of the first half of this phenomenal year.

However, now Kerr is back and helped lead the Warriors to a 39-5 record once he returned to the sidelines. His team, obviously, captured the number one overall seed and is currently in the middle of a first round series with the lackluster Houston Rockets. And while the Warriors deal with the loss of their MVP, Stephen Curry, the team did receive the great news today that their head coach was voted Coach of the Year. An award that will surely be celebrated in the Bay, but still manages to raise eyebrows around the league.

I understand the Warriors broke the '96 Bulls record of 72-10 this year. That's an undisputed fact and truly a testament to the grit of this Golden State bunch. But Kerr does not deserve Coach of the Year for multiple reasons. Yes, the wins the Dubs collected in Kerr's absence technically go under his name because he was still the head coach during his recovery, but Kerr did as much coaching in those games as the fans who were sitting at home did. Which would be absolutely nothing. He was not on the bench, nor was he whispering in Luke Walton's ear telling him which plays to run, which substitutions to make, or when to call a timeout. That was Luke Walton's team and those were Luke Walton's coaching moves. Kerr did not have any presence during the first half of this historic season, not because he didn't want to be there, but because his surgery kept him out. Again, all the sympathy in the world for Kerr and the utmost respect for working to make a full recovery. But he should not get a free pass just because his team broke a record. He was not there for those wins, they do not belong to him.

Not only was Kerr absent for the first half of the season, but even when he returned, what coaching was there to do? Kerr was handed a perfect situation.. If you look at the roster the Warriors have, a roster with three All-Stars in the starting lineup, how could you possibly fail with that group? Not saying a coach should be penalized for having great players, but when you look at Kerr's situation in relation to other coaches around the league, Kerr hasn't done half the work that other coaches have done.

Lillard is the only returning starter from the '14-'15 Blazers

If anybody should be upset about Kerr being named Coach of the Year, it should be Terry Stotts of the Portland Trail Blazers. Over the summer, Stotts lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, and Robin Lopez. Four of his five starters. FOUR. That brought back Damian Lillard and forced CJ McCollum to rise to the occasion, which he did, earning this year's Most Improved award. So now, instead of above average role players in Matthews, Batum, and Lopez, alongside one of the best power forwards in the game in Aldridge, Stotts was left with a then-inexperienced McCollum, Mason Plumlee, Al Faroq-Aminu, and Noah Vonleh. Take one look at that starting lineup and tell me which of those four players you'd love to take in a pick-up game as opposed to any other players in the league. Not one player on Stotts' team was named an All-Star, yet here the Blazers sit, all tied up with the Los Angeles Clippers at two games apiece in the first round.

That's the issue with the NBA postseason awards. The Coach of the Year usually goes to the coach with the best record, not the coach who has done the best coaching job given the roster he has. Likewise, the MVP rarely ever goes to the most VALUABLE player. It will usually go to the most OUTSTANDING player. There is a difference. In this case, Stotts did a better job of coaching than Kerr and that starts with the fact that Stotts was able to be with his team for the entire season. You would never award a player who missed half the season the MVP, so why would you award a coach the COY if he wasn't even in the same building as his team for half the season?

More to the point, Kerr wasn't even willing to chase the 73 wins as the season wound down. He vocalized several times his desire to rest guys down the stretch, even if that meant sacrificing a shot at breaking the record. It was the players who overrode him and said that 73 wins was clearly the focus. In the long run, that's not such a big deal as plenty of coaches rest players towards the end, but to have that shot at history and not initially be willing to take it is another negative in the Steve Kerr coaching resume, albeit a small one.

Again, no disrespect whatsoever to the Golden State Warriors and their season. They showed up almost every night ready to play and approached the opportunity to break the Bulls' record with an intensity and an urgency. Hats off to them for a phenomenal season. They deserve praise for what they've accomplished. However, it's wrong to award Steve Kerr Coach of the Year when he was not around for half the season. I think that shows a lack of respect to the coaches who did their job for the full season, and I think that gives a double standard when considering all the postseason awards that are given out.

Maybe the Warriors would have still broken the record with Kerr at the helm all 82 games, but who knows? It would be okay if the NBA named Kerr and Walton co-recipients. That would then be well-deserved for both coaches. But to credit Kerr with the success that Walton led the Warriors to, and then shut out the other coaches who were present all 82 games is a terrible look. It has been a great season and one that will go down in history, but the NBA made a poor decision on who was named the Coach of the Year.