Davidoff: Drinking, driving and discipline

 We’ve seen plenty of off-the-field drama already in this young baseball season, as well as the hand-wringing that often can accompany it.

When Cleveland’s Shin-Soo Choo was arrested last week for driving under the influence, he became the sixth Major League Baseball player to get rung up for a DUI in 2011.

The string of offenses embarrasses MLB. It’s not good for anyone. Yet this issue demands a far more complex conversation than the seemingly ubiquitous, “Hey, how come Ozzie Guillen gets suspended for using Twitter but Derek Lowe drinks and drives and goes right back to work?!”

The answer is, because Guillen committed his transgression in the workplace and Lowe (and Choo, and the four other players) didn’t. The collective bargaining agreement protects players, rightfully, from being punished for matters outside MLB’s jurisdiction. It’s apples and oranges. It doesn’t make sense to compare the two.

The language concerning alcohol usage will change, subtly but importantly, as the players and owners negotiate a new CBA that will start next season. As first reported by Fox Sports, alcohol will likely be classified as a “drug of abuse,” similar to cocaine and marijuana. That would get the player treatment and set him up for discipline with repeat offenses.

That works. Just remember, ballplayers are citizens, too. They have rights just like the rest of us.

Doing the right thing

SEE PHOTOSMLB's longest hitting streaks

When news broke late Sunday night that a U.S.-led mission had killed Osama bin Laden, it’s quite possible that Citizens Bank Park became the largest group audience in the country to process that development. It turned into an emotional, memorable night, as Phillies and Mets fans united to chant, “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

The game was still going on, in extra innings, when U.S. President Barack Obama officially announced the news, which begged the question: Should the Phillies have played Obama’s address (or at least the start of it) on their scoreboard?

“We didn’t want to pre-empt the President’s address, which was originally supposed to be televised at 10:30, but was delayed (by about an hour),” Bonnie Clark, the Phillies’ vice president of communications, wrote in an e-mail. “At that point, most of our fans already heard the news through their cell phones or from other fans, so we chose to not announce it on Phanavision(CQ).”

Tough call. On one hand, it would’ve been an emotional catharsis of sorts for fans to hear the news officially. On the other hand, you don’t often broadcast a terrorist’s death on a ballpark scoreboard. Being there that night, I wish the Phillies had done something, but I can’t fault them for their decision.

The pitching market

The prevailing sentiment, at this early juncture, is that the trade market won’t feature top-flight starting pitchers like Dan Haren, Cliff Lee or Roy Oswalt, all of whom were dealt last July. Of course, circumstances can change dramatically between now and then.

One executive from an American League team, speaking on the condition of anonymity, agreed that Seattle wouldn’t be trading Felix Hernandez, who is signed through 2014. “If they don’t think they can win by 2014,” the executive said, “they might as well sell the team.”

St. Louis looks like a contender, which means that Chris Carpenter will stay put. If the Cardinals somehow fell flat, then Carpenter could use his “10-and-five” rights (ten years in the majors, five with the same team) to ensure his destination and also expedite his free agency. The Cardinals have a $15-million option on the right-hander for 2012. Carpenter could force a new team to void that option, making him a free agent this coming winter, in return for agreeing to a trade.