Alex Rodriguez Could Reportedly Be Facing Suspension For Illegal Poker Game

If I were to say to you that Alex Rodriguez could potentially be facing a suspension from Major League Baseball, what would be your best guess as to the root cause? Would underground poker game even crack the top five? Well, that appears to be the problem, because MLB is reportedly deciding whether or not they should suspend A-Rod for taking part in an underground poker game.

No word on if the games in question are like the basement games that so many of us take part in, or if it's more like the poker scene in that James Bond movie with Daniel Craig, but one of them allegedly turned violent. But it isn't just that A-Rod was playing, it was that MLB has talked to him about it before, according to our Jeff Sullivan.

Why would Rodriguez be suspended? For no other reason than he's been warned about this before. Wallace Matthews writes at ESPN that Rodriguez was warned not to participate in underground poker games back in 2005, so it stands to reason that Selig wouldn't respond well to continued disobedience. If it can be proven that Rodriguez did indeed play in these games - which, of course, it probably can't, unless you have a lower standard of proof than our legal system - then the threat of a suspension becomes very real.

If this is in fact something that MLB has warned him about, and if they do find that he has been playing in these games, then a suspension is likely. Less for the games themselves, and more for doing it against their best wishes, I would imagine.

But in the grand scheme of things that a player can get suspended for, this has to be towards the bottom end of seriousness. Everybody plays poker, A-Rod just technically isn't allowed.