Author: Matthew Clemente

60 Minutes: A-Rod, PEDs and Suspension

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60 Minutes: A-Rod, PEDs and Suspension

It is incredible to think that one person could embody all that is wrong with baseball, yet Alex Rodriguez manages to pull it off.  A-Rod is the epitome of the overpaid, doped up player who cares more about his ego than the fans.  Sunday, on 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley discussed Major League Baseball’s case against A-Rod, including an interview with his chief accuser, Anthony Bosch. 

Here is how the story began: 

Yesterday, Alex Rodriguez, considered one of the best baseball players of all time, was hit with the longest doping suspension in history. After a contentious private hearing, Major League Baseball’s arbitration judge took the Yankee third baseman out of the game all of next season. This, despite the fact that there is no positive drug test for Rodriguez. After the decision, Rodriguez repeated that he has never taken performance-enhancing drugs in the years that he’s played for New York.

Tonight, you are going to hear details of the evidence for the first time — much of it from Anthony Bosch, who ran a secret doping practice for pro athletes. It was last summer, after Bosch was exposed, that Rodriguez and 13 others, all Bosch’s clients, were suspended. All accepted their penalties except Rodriguez who appealed. In Rodriguez’s appeal hearing, Tony Bosch testified for five days, behind closed doors. Tonight, he speaks publicly for the first time.

Betting on the End of the World

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The most recent episode of the Planet Money podcast discusses a new book by Yale historian Paul Sabin entitled The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth’s Future. In 1980, economist Julian Simon challenged biologist Paul Ehrlich to a bet. Ehrlich came to fame by writing The Population Bomb, which argued that unchecked population growth would led to the end of mankind. Economist Simon believed Ehrlich’s assertions were unfounded. The two devised a debate to test the proposition.

Here is a description of the podcast from the Planet Money website:
A famous biologist predicts overpopulation will lead to global catastrophe. He writes a bestselling book and goes on the Tonight Show to make his case.

An economist disagrees. He thinks the biologist isn’t accounting for how clever people can be, and how shortages can lead to new, more efficient ways of doing things.

So the economist, Julian Simon, challenges the biologist, Paul Ehrlich, to a very public, very acrimonious, decade-long bet. On today’s show: The story of that bet, and the ugly precedent it set.