The AP's Noah Trister wrote Marlins 2B Dee Gordon's 80-game suspension "flies in the face of at least one aspect of the PED narrative." Gordon, who is "listed at 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds," has just "eight home runs in 495 major league games." But the evidence "suggests that positive tests can come from many different types of players." Sluggers "may get the headlines when a scandal like that unfolds, but it's hard to pin all of baseball's drug issues on them" (AP, 5/2). Meanwhile, ESPN's Tim Kurkjian said while the punishment for PED violations could go up, as some players want, the league and the MLBPA "worked hard to get to 80 games." Kurkjian: "To just say, ‘Alright, now we're going to a year,’ it's not that easy to just change it like you want to” (“Baseball Tonight,” ESPN2, 5/2).
SAVE THE DATE: In Las Vegas, Taylor Bern notes there has been "a lot of belief locally that an expansion announcement from the NHL is coming in the near future." The timeline for setting up a franchise to compete in the '17-18 season "is rapidly coming to a close, with July 1 essentially as the drop-dead date." Eventually, "patience is going to run out, especially since the league has now laid out its plans for the expansion draft that Vegas would use to build its team" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 5/3).
TAP OUT ALREADY: In Vancouver, E. Spencer Kyte wrote fighter Conor McGregor is "not going to bully the UFC into doing anything." That is a lesson he "should have figured out during his initial standoff with the company, so doubling down with a 'Cut the bullshit. Run it back' message isn’t suddenly going to make" UFC execs "reverse course and give him everything he wants" (THEPROVINCE.com, 5/1).
VIVA LA VIDA: ESPN.com's Martin Bater reported the NHL is "setting its sights on Mexico as it strives to grab the attention of U.S. Hispanic fans." The league is "mulling over the possibility of playing two preseason games in Mexico City." Live hockey "moves people in a way that it just doesn’t on television, so bringing the product itself to fans is vital" (ESPN.com, 5/1).
