Biggio an armed cheater?

Craig Biggio came two votes shy last week of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. One of those who didn’t vote for him was Jerry Dowling, a former cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Dowling published on his personal website his ballot, which included Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens.

Why didn’t Dowling vote for Biggio, a seven-time All-Star and 1999 NL MVP with 3,060 career hits? Because, Dowling wrote, he’s a cheater.

Come again?

No, Dowling had no problem voting for Bonds, McGwire and Clemens, all of whom have failed to get into the Hall of Fame because of their links to performance enhancing drugs. But, Biggio’s bulky arm and elbow pads he wore during at bats was too much for Dowling.

“I refuse to vote for a guy who cheats,” Dowling wrote, “as Biggio did with all that armor on his arm, so he could get hit with pitches and trot to first base as a result. He made no attempt to avoid getting hit and actually stuck that arm out further, incuding the ball to smack him.”

Biggio led the National League in being hit by a pitch five times and had 285 in his career, which ranks second all time.

For the record, Dowling said he voted for Bonds, McGwire and Clemens because “those guys had the numbers long before they juiced.”

So, just to be clear, PEDs are okay, elbow pads aren’t, according to Dowling.

A-Rod the Duck

Alex Rodriguez is likely facing a year-long ban from Major League Baseball after an independent arbitrator slapped him with a 162-game suspension, plus the 2014 playoffs, for his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs.

Rodriguez and his legal team have pledged to fight the suspension in federal court. But if they’re not successful, Rodriguez has an opportunity to play baseball this year.

The Long Island Ducks, a team in the independent Atlantic League, are open to letting Rodriguez take up a roster spot this season.

The Ducks have in the past employed former big leaguers Bill Hall, Dontrelle Willis and Armando Benitez and team President Michael Pfaff confirmed in a an email to Newsday that the Ducks would give Rodriguez a shot.

“While some MLB suspensions have been honored by the Atlantic League in the past, if Alex Rodriguez were unable to participate in the major leagues this season, we would be open to exploring giving him a chance to play, stay sharp and and competeagainst a high level of competition while helping the Ducks chase a third consecutive championship,” Pfaff wrote.

The dog did it

Texas Rangers fans upset about Derek Holland’s injured right knee have a direction with which to point their ire.

Blame it on Wrigley. Not the Chicago Cubs’ antiquated stadium, but Holland’s standard-sized boxer with the same name.

Holland told the Dallas Morning News on Saturday that he suffered torn cartilage in his left knee while playing with his dog at his home, and not while playing in a hockey game last week as some had suggested.

“I was running around with the dog and took off up the stairs,” Holland told the newspaper. “He chased me and ran up under me and undercut me, and I slammed my head on the steps.

“It could have been worse. I could have cracked my head open.

I was doing a typical guy thing, clowning around with the dog thing, and this happened.”

No punishment was given to Wrigley, Holland said.

“I yelled at him,” he said. “But I didn’t put him on waivers.”Quote of the day “She is going to be a monster - she is a

monster already.” Mississippi State women’s basketball Coach Vic Schaefer,

on Arkansas freshman

forward Jessica Jackson

Sports, Pages 18 on 01/13/2014