He made it official - hes going to fight. After Major League Baseball suspended New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez for 211 games on Monday, he declared he would appeal his punishment. That said, heres your breakdown on the performance-enhanced road ahead. On what basis did Major League Baseball suspend A-Rod? Heres MLBs statement on the suspension: "Rodriguezs discipline under the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program is based on his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and human growth hormone, over the course of multiple years. Rodriguezs discipline under the Basic Agreement is for attempting to cover up his violations of the Program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commissioners investigation." So this means that baseball relied on two different agreements when suspending A-Rod. The first is the Drug Policy, which provides that a player can be suspended if he tests positive for PEDs (didnt happen here) or if there is evidence he used PEDs (happened here). Beyond the Drug Policy, MLB suspended A-Rod under its Basic Agreement, which provides that a player may be disciplined for conduct that is detrimental or prejudicial to the best interests of baseball. So the basis for the suspension has a couple of prongs to it. When will the appeal be heard? According to the Drug Policy, the whole appeal process, including the decision, should take about a month. Thats how it generally goes down. But not here. In situations where you have a positive drug test being appealed, the appeal can be disposed of in 30 days or so. Those types of cases can be more or less straightforward. However, with A-Rod, there was no positive drug test. Rather, MLB based its suspension on volumes and volumes of documentary evidence, like text messages, emails, and testimony in the form of affidavits (or sworn statements). Before A-Rods lawyers are ready to appear before the arbitrator, they will carefully review all the evidence and consider its reliability and truth. They will do this evidentiary piece by evidentiary piece. That takes a lot of time. So expect the appeal to be heard after the season – maybe in October or November. So later rather than sooner. Since A-Rod can play pending his appeal, he will play the rest of the season and into the playoffs if the Yankees make it that far. This assumes he doesnt get hurt or test positive. Who is the arbitrator? His name is Fredric Horowitz, hes 64 years old and specializes in labour and employment arbitration. After MLB fired arbitrator Shyam Das when he overturned Ryan Brauns suspension, Horowitz was hired to replace him and handle these types of grievances. Hes been a full time arbitrator since 1988. If you want to learn more about him (and have nothing better to do), click here to read his CV. So let me get this straight: MLB or the Union can fire Horowitz if either dont like his ruling? Yep. That seems like a lot of pressure? Theyre used to it. How does the arbitration hearing work? Its a bit like a mini trial. Both sides present their evidence and call witnesses. It is, however, less formal than a trial. What type of power does the arbitrator have? The arbitrators ruling will be binding on the parties. So whatever he decides, the parties have no choice but to follow it. Horowitz has the discretion to change the suspension. He may, for example, lower the suspension to 150 games. He also has the power to completely vacate or overturn the suspension. Hes powerful. What will A-Rod argue at the appeal? Ultimately, A-Rod will focus more on the length of the suspension and less on the merit and substance of the suspension. He will say that the collectively bargained Drug Policy provides for a 50 game suspension for a first time offender like him, and as a result his 211 game suspension is not only excessive and heavy-handed, but also not in keeping with the Drug Policy. The Drug Policy calls for a specific punishment for a first timer, and that punishment was ignored in favour of a far longer suspension. Also expect A-Rod to go after Boschs credibility. The founder of Biogenesis has allegedly engaged in criminal activity. As well, Bosch only cooperated with the league after it sued him. So A-Rod may question Boschs motives, and by extension the reliability of his evidence. So from A-Rods standpoint, Bosch is flawed and vulnerable to attack. Same thing for Porter Fisher, the Biogenesis investor who blew this case wide open. What will MLB argue? The league will declare that A-Rods suspension, while harsh, is completely warranted. MLB will argue that A-Rod has engaged in an extensive and continuous pattern of PED use since at least 2010. He also has a long standing relationship with Bosch that may date back to 2009. MLB may also allege that A-Rod obstructed its investigation, tampered with witnesses and generally interfered with its attempt to get to the truth. He may have also recruited players to Biogenesis. Ultimately, his pervasive and wide ranging pattern of wrongdoings is not only contrary to the Drug Policy, but also the MLBs Basic Agreement, which allows baseball to discipline a player for conduct detrimental to the game. So given these various factors, A-Rods suspension is reasonable. Who will win on appeal? Dont know. The evidence will rule the day, and without having the benefit of reviewing it, we cant know how this will unfold. The past may suggest we will see a reduction in the length of the suspension (maybe to 150 games), but thats just a guess. If the evidence is strong, Horowitz will leave the suspension as is. What if A-Rod doesnt like the arbitrators ruling? If A-Rod is dissatisfied with the arbitrators decision, he could take his case to court. Generally, courts dont like interfering with the decision of arbitrators since arbitrators are specialized and know their area pretty well. So unless the decision is really bad, a court may just tell A-Rod to live with it. However, merit of an appeal aside, if A-Rod heads to court, this case could drag on for years. He has threatened to fight this and dig in, so court is possible. Well, thats not fun. No its not. None of this is. Eric Macramalla is TSNs Legal Analyst and can be seen on TSN SportsCentre and heard on TSN Radio 1050. You can follow him on Twitter @EricOnSportslaw. Ivan Rodriguez Jersey . A knee to the thigh might have stung him the most, but his sixth straight double-double made up for the brief burst of pain. 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LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Oregon opened the Maui Invitational with a disappointing loss, won in overtime and closed with a click-on-all-cylinders win.Winning the tournament was the goal, but getting better with each game wasnt a bad consolation.Chris Boucher scored 21 points, Tyler Dorsey added 19 and No. 13 Oregon beat Connecticut 79-69 on Wednesday in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational.Obviously, we still have a lot of stuff we need to work on offensively and defensively, but I think we took a step, said Oregon forward Jordan Bell, who had 12 points. I think every game we got a little better.Oregon (4-2) lost its opener to Georgetown, but bounced back with an overtime victory over Tennessee on Dillon Brooks long 3-pointer. The Ducks wanted to get off to a fast start in their Maui finale and did just that, racing to a 15-point lead in the opening 4 1/2 minutes.UConn (2-4) chipped into the lead by halftime, but the Ducks started flying again, building the lead back up to 17.Dylan Ennis added 15 points for Oregon, which shot 54 percent and made 9 of 21 from 3-point range.Jalen Adams led the Huskies with 27 points and Rodney Purvis added 13.Comes down to fundamentals: play defense and execute on offense, UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. I dont know what else to say. Energy and youve got to play defense. They made shots and we didnt make shots. Simple game. Theres no secret to it.The Ducks attacked the Huskies from the opening tip, scoring the games first 10 points, racing out to an 18-point lead.Ollie called a timeout 41 seconds into the game and Adams, the Huskies leading scorer, headed to the bench at 17:03 after picking up his second foul.I dont think we were just playing with the intensity we should have, Adams said. We didnt match their intensity or their energy and I think we have to work on that. Weve got to build on that.Oregon pushed the lead to 21, but the Huskies came roaring back.UConn started hitting shots it was missing earlier, while the Ducks went more than 8 minutes without a field goal, trimming the lead to 339-28 by halftime.ddddddddddddOregon revved up again to start the second half, hitting 5 of its first 7 shots to push the lead to 53-34.UConn had one more run. The Huskies whittled away at the lead and got it down to eight with 3 minutes left, but couldnt make up any more ground.I just thought our energy level today was much better because of the ball movement and getting some shots down, Oregon coach Dana Altman said.BIG PICTUREOregon finished the Maui Invitational with a flourish after a dud of a start. The Ducks should get better as Brooks, their leader, builds up stamina in his return from offseason foot surgery.UConns young team is still trying to gel. The Huskies struggled against Oklahoma States pressure in the opener, Chaminades perimeter shooting the next game and the Ducks flock of athletes in the finale.BROOKS PROGRESSIONBrooks was limited to eight points in 13 minutes in Oregons opener against Georgetown, his first game back since offseason foot surgery.The preseason All-America was back to his Duck-leading role against Tennessee in the second round, scoring 17 points and hitting the game-winning 3-pointer with 22 seconds left in overtime.Brooks was limited to nine points in 18 minutes Wednesday, but did all the little things the Ducks need, like playing defense, distributing the ball -- five assists -- and providing leadership.LARRIER OUTUConn announced Wednesday that sophomore forward Terry Larrier will miss the rest of the season with a torn left ACL.Larrier was injured Monday night against Oklahoma State while driving to the basket. Hes expected to be out eight months.UConn was expecting a big contribution from the 6-foot-8 Larrier, who sat out last season after transferring from Virginia Commonwealth.UP NEXTUConn hosts Boston University on Nov. 30.Oregon hosts Boise State on Monday.---More AP college basketball at http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-Top25 Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Jerseys 2018 Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale China Jerseys NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Authentic Jerseys ' ' '