A Tale of Two Suspensions
Manny Ramirez was just suspended for using drugs for his lady parts that were on the list of banned substances. MLB told him what he tested positive for, which was on the list, and has no legitimate utility to Ramirez (unless he really does have lady bits) and most people can probably agree that the process was reasonably fair.
Contrast that with the experience of NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield. He was just suspended by NASCAR for failing a drug test. For what drug? NASCAR won’t say. Was it on the list of proscribed substances? Well, no, because no such list exists. Mayfield says he is on a prescription drug and also took Claritin D for severe allergies; there is seemingly credible speculation that NASCAR’s silence is in part due to an unwilingness to offend Schering-Plough, whose Claritin brand is a sponsor of driver Carl Edwards.
Each sport is effectively “run” by someone for whom I have little regard; Bud Selig is a liar and a scoundrel, but Brian France strikes me as a truly Faulknerian idiot man-child. I guess the difference is the legacy of Marvin Miller in baseball, compared with the largely unchecked power of the sanctioning body in racing (as evidenced by the pathetic obsequiousness of EVERYONE in the sport when discussing the sanctioning body and the France family).