Boston Globe veteran Bud Collins contributed an article on Saturday featuring Marvin Miller’s take on the A Rod ordeal:

“This should never have gotten started the way it did because the commissioner broke one of the oldest rules by permitting the Red Sox to talk to Rodriguez. That’s tampering. That was a baseball rule installed by the owners long before the union existed. Selig had no authority to allow that exception. On the other side, the union was slow to pick up on it. That surprised me. There should have been no talks between the Red Sox and a player under contract. Period.

…”The pity is that the union didn’t step up immediately and object to Selig’s approval of what amounted to tampering by the Red Sox with Rodriguez. Rodriguez had no idea, but his quotes I’ve seen [yesterday] tell me he’s honorable and thoughtful. He said he does `understand the principle,’ and respects `the need to protect the rights of his fellow players.’ “

Thanks to loyal Banterite Murray for the link.