A-Rod's Lawyer Kicks It Up A Dozen Notches With New Accusations

The Alex-Rodriguez-New York Yankees-Major League Baseball threeway legal dance surrounding the Biogenesis case and A-Rod's resulting suspension has already been playing out like great TV drama.  As someone who's admittedly tired of all the steroid talk in baseball and really doesn't care about it, I'll admit that I find each new rumor and leaked story to be both fascinating and entertaining.  When the baseball season ends and the appeal happens, it's going to be absolutely wild.

How much wilder will it be after the latest story and newest twists laid out by A-Rod's legal team?  Probably somewhere between "much" and "way."  In a story published by the New York Times yesterday, A-Rod's newest lawyer, Joseph Tacopina went on the offensive in his efforts to build A-Rod's defense case.  He accused the New York Yankees of intentionally hiding MRI results revealing A-Rod's labrum tear and continuing to play him while he was hurt, working in collusion with MLB to void A-Rod's contract and ban him from baseball, and singled out team president Randy Levine for allegedly telling the doctor performing A-Rod's hip surgery "I don't even want to see him on the field again."  That's not just "looking to get on base" type of going on the offensive, it's swinging for the fences as hard as you can with a juiced bat.


Naturally, Levine denied everything yesterday.  He offered to release the team's medical records to refute the claims, with A-Rod's permission of course, and challenged Alex to "put up or shut up" if this was how he wanted to play his defense.  Obviously the nature of these accusations against the Yankees would be incredibly damning if proven true.  It's not just a major conspiracy against A-Rod being presented here, it's a conspiracy in which the Yankees are portrayed as the leader rather than MLB, and in which they violated not only rules of the CBA but broke the law to reach their desired end.  That's some heavy shit.

What makes this so entertaining is that it's playing out off the field and in the papers all while A-Rod puts on the happy face and goes out and plays ball.  He's the recipient of the longest non-gambling suspension in baseball history who's still on the field playing while both sides work to make their cases for the appeal, and now he's the central focal point of a possible larger conspiracy between the team he plays for and the league he plays in to remove him from the game.  And he's still on the field playing!  He's the most hated man in sports playing for one of the most hated teams in sports who's basically giving the finger to the league and his team every time he steps in the batter's box while also willingly trying to help them win games and make money.  If you as a Yankee fan can't get into this story somehow, I don't know what to tell you.

So Tacopina fired his big shots yesterday, Levine returned fire, now what?  We've got both sides calling each other liars and both sides offering up evidence that proves the other is lying.  It's like when George tried to prove to Susan's parents that he actually lived in the Hamptons.  A-Rod's lawyer is George, saying he'll prove his accusations are true with emails and medical records, his version of the fake house in the Hamptons (two solariums).  Levine is Susan's parents, saying OK, hot shot, prove it.  Because I know you don't have anything and I'm calling your bluff.  We've got at least 2 more months of this too before the appeal case gets heard, so strap in and get ready to get nuts.