New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is not going to go down without a fight. If that wasn’t obvious before this week, it should have become so when he hired one of New York’s top criminal defense lawyers to represent him. While the general assumption is that A-Rod wants his suspension reduced, a new report from TMZ indicates it may be more complicated than that.
According to TMZ, Rodriguez wants the whole suspension wiped clean and is prepared to bring the case to federal court if he does not achieve that outcome during the appeal process.
The reason for A-Rod’s bold demand — A-Rod sources familiar with the investigation tell us Alex hasn’t tested positive and never ‘knowingly’ used PEDs since 2003 … the last season he admitted using ‘roids. Our sources say A-Rod has been drug tested 11 times between 2011 and the present … and all of the results were negative.
Our sources fume it’s ‘absurd’ Ryan Braun — who reportedly tested positive in 2011 and then lied about it — was only benched for the duration of this season. They say it proves MLB’s investigation of A-Rod and the Biogenesis Clinic has been ‘abusive and borderline illegal.'”
TMZ’s sources also reportedly claim A-Rod is planning to sue Major League Baseball for a number of things, including a violation of baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Apparently the scorned slugger feels that MLB has no evidence to support its claim that he intentionally impeded their investigation.
In an interview with WFAN on Tuesday, Rodriguez’s lawyer David Cornwell said A-Rod’s camp is challenging MLB’s claim that he used banned substances over “multiple years.”
It is hard to even fathom Bud Selig and MLB “losing” their battle against Rodriguez. That would be an incredible embarrassment for the league and a massive hit to the drug prevention program’s credibility.
