Alex Rodriguez has reached the rarified air of such legendary figures as Mike Tyson and Toronto mayor Rob Ford. There is no longer anything he can do that registers as a surprise, including storming out of his own hearing to appeal a 211-game suspension from Major League Baseball, which he did on Wednesday.
A-Rod having his suspension upheld, then showing up to New York Jets Hoodies Sweatshirts Yankees spring training in full uniform, living in a rented Winnebago and blasting The Standells Dirty Water until he is hauled away by police? Sure, why not?
A-Rod on Francesa denies any wrongdoing.
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A-Rod announcing plans to start his own baseball enterprise, the No Buds League, in which Bud Norris is allowed, but Bud Selig is not, because one Bud is fine, but, sorry, no Buds? Sure, why not?
A-Rod wrestling an alligator? Sure, why not?
Almost everything revolving around Rodriguez has been a sideshow for years, with co-stars ranging from Madonna to A-Rods own reflection in a mirror to a painting of A-Rod as a centaur. The ringmaster Greg Van Roten Jerseys just had enough with this iteration of The Great A-Rod and Friends, so he pulled the plug.
A-Rod later went on WFAN radio in New York and flatly denied everything from using performance-enhancing drugs to putting his phone number on a baseball and giving it to a female fan. The Yankee third baseman told host Mike Francesa he left the hearing because arbitrator Fredric Horowitz refused to order Selig to testify.
"He hates my guts," A-Rod said of the commi sioner. "One hundred percent, this is personal."
He added: "He's retiring in 2014 and to put me in his big mantle on the way out, that's a hell of a trophy," Rodriguez said.
Here was the statement from Rodriguez on Wednesday, : I am disgusted with this abusive proce s, designed to ensure that the player fails. I have sat through 10 days of testimony by felons and liars, sitting quietly through every minute, trying to respect the league and the proce s. This morning, after Bud Selig refused to come in and testify about his rationale for the unprecedented and totally basele s punishment he hit me with, the arbitrator selected by MLB and the Players A sociation refused to order Selig to come in and face me.
The absurdity and the injustice just became too much. I walked out and will not participate any further in this farce.
A-Rods statement brings to mind Billy Martins famous line about Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner: Ones a born liar, and the others convicted. Much like Martin, Rodriguez is not exactly a paragon of grace, morals, and good behavior himself, Saquan Hampton Jerseys but it does not mean that he is wrong.
One point that sticks out is that Rodriguez notes that the arbitrator for his case was selected by MLB and the Players A sociation. A-Rod has distanced himself from the union, going with his own team of lawyers and spinmeisters throughout his appeal. And Curtis Martin Jerseys when it comes to a farce, it is certainly important to remember that last year, in the wake of his ruling against the league in Ryan Brauns appeal of a 50-game suspension.
While Braun eventually took a 65-game suspension in the Biogenesis scandal that has ensnared Rodriguez, he had the right to appeal his initial suspension and get it to sed out on a technicality. So, too, does A-Rod have the right to fight a 211-game ban whose parameters have appeared from the start to be completely arbitrary the remainder of the 2013 regular season from the time the suspension was handed down, plus the entirety of 2014.
So long as Rodriguezs case remains under the jurisdiction of baseball, and not the United States court system, there are no subpoenas, and neither Selig nor anyone else is compelled to testify, let alone to offer sworn testimony. Trying to get in front of a judge rather than an arbitrator may be A-Rods only remaining move. That, or wrestling an alligator.