Where the Players Rule

Each day last week, the midtown headquarters of Major League Baseball was the site of a surreal spectacle, both inside and out on the street. As a small but clamorous group of supporters congregated on Park Avenue, Alex Rodriguez presented his case to an arbitrator as part of what he himself has referred to as the fight of his life. Rodriguez is trying to overturn his record-setting 211 game suspension for allegedly using performance enhancing drugs. To do so, he's exercising the due process rights and economic freedom granted to him by baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement, something that was unavailable to players who played just a few decades ago.