It’s only getting seedier in the Alex Rodriguez saga that has baseball tearing itself to pieces.

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid player in baseball, has been banned for 211 games, starting on Thursday and covering the remainder of this season and all of next, for violations of Major League Baseball’s joint drug prevention and treatment programme and its basic agreement.

THE HEADLINES ebb and flow but this last week in American sport gushed in an entertaining torrent of confusion. It didn’t matter if the moment was glorious, seedy, violent or downright miraculous, skill and common sense ranked low and we, the humble onlookers, were all the better for it.