Believe it or not, Ponson could be model to follow

The most famous instance of his misbehavior was a Christmas Day incident in Aruba that involved an alleged assault on a local judge and led to Ponson's being jailed for 11 days while awaiting disposition of the case. He also had a series of drunken driving incidents, the last of which precipitated the end of his Orioles career while he still had more than one year remaining on his guaranteed contract.

The Orioles based their refusal to pay the remainder of the deal on this clause in the standard contract: "The Player agrees to perform his services hereunder diligently and faithfully, to keep himself in first-class physical condition and to obey the Club's training rules, and pledges himself to the American public and to the Club to conform to high standards of personal conduct, fair play and good sportsmanship."

Now, to the unpracticed legal eye, it would seem fairly obvious that Ponson did not conform to a high standard of personal conduct, but it's a little more complicated than that. The union likely will make the case that the Orioles were well aware of Ponson's free-wheeling personality and penchant for bad-boy behavior long before they signed him to the contract at issue and that the club acted arbitrarily when it invoked the conduct clause to cut off his salary.

If the arbitrators side with the union, it would all but render the conduct clause meaningless and, perhaps, prompt ownership to seek more specific contract language in the next labor negotiations. If the panel votes in favor of the Orioles, it might embolden other teams to pull out of contracts when players either misbehave or fall badly out of shape.

It really could have some effect on the balance of power between the union and management. The MLBPA remains the most powerful of the American team sports unions, and all you need to do is look at the Goodell Doctrine to see how much more power the NFL has to discipline players than baseball management. That won't change with this one case, but Major League Baseball has gained some ground in this relationship in recent years - thanks, in part, to the steroid backlash that forced the union to compromise on other behavior-related matters.

Want my prediction? Ponson will get his money because the conduct clause is too vague and has been invoked too inconsistently to void the contract in this particular case.

Not that I care one way or the other.

Listen to Peter Schmuck on WBAL (1090 AM) at noon most Fridays and Saturdays.