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Lawyers, doctors & soundbites, oh my
This is where the Alex Rodriguez saga takes you now:
To an ambush on the “Today” show. To challenges and insults being ramped up by the parties through the media via Twitter. To interpretations of MRI exams.
This is not The Bronx Zoo II as much as The Bronx Zoo 2.0 — a real-time mud-slinging match in which about $100 million, the future of one of the most famous players in the game’s history and the integrity of a commissioner and the most famous franchise all are in play.
Everyone insists on the need for propriety and due process and a quieting of all the barbs and attacks, yet no one seems willing to cede an inch, which simply has intensified the frequency and nastiness of the barbs and attacks.
Rodriguez’s grievance against his 211-game suspension is not supposed to begin for another week or two, take all of September to play out and perhaps not produce a judgment from arbitrator Fredric Horowitz until November, maybe December.
As one person involved in the matter said: “It is a complicated case and it is going to take a while.”
PHOTOS: POST COVERS A-ROD THROUGH THE YEARS
Which means we are nowhere near the last leak, piece of innuendo or how-low-can-you-go moment — and there is always the possibility Rodriguez will seek remedies in court even after Horowitz has ruled. A lawyer working on the case said yesterday: “If you see the finish line, let me know, because I don’t.”
There is no lack of conspiracy theories and reality-TV types fueling the anger and antagonism from the A-Rod camp, MLB, the Yankees and the Players Association. Each insists on radio silence, yet there is a heightening of rhetoric, accusations and attacks what now seems multiple times a day.
Yesterday, less than 12 hours after Rodriguez spoke after a win at Fenway about the need to lower the noise around the Yankees, his new pitbull attorney, Joseph Tacopina, embarked on a loud media tour that resulted in more friendly fire toward A-Rod than points against his adversaries:
l On the “Today” show, Tacopina said he would love to speak more specifically about A-Rod’s involvement in the PED case, but was barred by the confidentiality language in the Joint Drug Agreement (JDA). MLB had heard that for the past few days and had enough, sending a letter to host Matt Lauer saying it would waive all the JDA provisions for A-Rod and the commissioner’s office surrounding Rodriguez’s entire time under the drug program. This, among other things, would allow MLB to make public a torrent of correspondence between A-Rod and Biogenesis’ Anthony Bosch it believes details Rodriguez’s voluminous usage of PEDs.
Tacopina was flummoxed on air by the ploy. Later in the day, he issued a statement calling it a “publicity stunt” by MLB and saying he could not sign off on it anyway without the Players Association’s consent. It was interesting to have someone participating in a publicity tour bemoan the other side’s “publicity stunt.” MLB VP Rob Manfred retorted by noting “the Players Association has never stood in the way of an individual player publicly disclosing his own drug testing history.” And I was told if Rodriguez asked the union to waive his JDA rights, it would strongly consider allowing it.
l Tacopina also told CNN: “Clearly there was a relationship [between Rodriguez and Bosch] — a consulting relationship.”
But on Jan. 29, not long after the Biogenesis story broke, A-Rod’s spokesmen put out a statement that said, “The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true. Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him.”
Tacopina and the rest of the A-Rod camp also continued to hammer at the Yankees’ handling of Rodriguez’s hip injury last October. They claim the Yanks hid the extent of the problem, sending Rodriguez out to play with a tear in the hip, perhaps to embarrass him into retirement in hopes they could save as much as possible of the $114 million left on the final five years of his contract.
An MRI report order of A-Rod’s right hip by Yankees team doctor Chris Ahmad from Oct. 11 — after Game 4 of the Division Series — and supplied to The Post by A-Rod’s camp, states of the left hip: “There is stable signal abnormality in the superior labrum, compatible with small tear.”
ESPN reported yesterday A-Rod’s attorneys were preparing a medical malpractice suit against Ahmad. The Yankees have contended a single MRI would be out of context because they had been dealing with degenerative conditions in both hips since 2009, when A-Rod had his right hip surgery.
The Yankees put out a statement yesterday to suggest if there was a conspiracy that it would have to involve the assistance of not only Ahmad but his hospital. It stated: “We relied upon Dr. Christopher Ahmad and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for medical diagnosis, opinions and treatment. The Yankees neither had any complaints from Alex Rodriguez pertaining to his left hip during the 2012 regular season and the Yankees postseason, nor did the Yankees receive any diagnosis pertaining to his left hip during that same period of time. Given the various allegations that have been made by Alex Rodriguez and his counsel, if you have any medical questions they should be directed to the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Dr. Christopher Ahmad.”
Neither Ahmad nor a Columbia Presbyterian spokesman returned calls from The Post.
This part of A-Rod’s offensive will not help Rodriguez in his fight against a PED-based suspension — though his group has claimed a conspiracy between MLB and the Yankees. It seems more designed to protect his remaining contract in a possible negligence suit — and to gain some public support.
Yanks hope A-Rod says Hey
The Yankees sure would love Alex Rodriguez to hit at least 11 more homers in the final 39 games. Obviously, that would mean he stayed hot as the Yanks tried to make a long-shot playoff run.
But it also would help in their budgetary future.
Rodriguez has five $6 million homer milestone bonuses in his contract, and the first is for reaching Willie Mays’ 660, which he is 11 away from doing.
The Yankees do not want to risk having to pay any of those bonuses in 2014 because they count toward the payroll when computing the luxury tax. The Yankees’ goal is to get under the $189 million threshold and avoid paying any tax at all next year. And that will be difficult enough without having $6 million more added to the ledger.
At the moment, A-Rod has a 211-game suspension pending, which would knock out all of next season. That would mean no bonuses and, even better for the Yanks, not having his $27.5 million annual average of his contract count toward the payroll. But there is always the possibility the arbitrator hearing Rodriguez’s appeal could slice the penalty in such a way to allow Rodriguez to play at least part of 2014 — and potentially reach that 660 milestone if the Yankees continue to employ him.
In punishing Dempster, Torre would have to back Alex
In six degrees of hatred of Alex Rodriguez consider this scenario: Joe Torre and MLB may find themselves protecting A-Rod.
Torre, who hardly counted Rodriguez among his favorite players to manage during his Yankee tenure, and Joe Garagiola Jr. are the main executives in charge of reviewing on-field matters for discipline for MLB. And The Post was told they were looking at Ryan Dempster’s sequence in which he threw behind, near and finally at A-Rod in the second inning of Sunday night’s game to determine if they will recommend a suspension for the Red Sox righty.
Dempster denied purposely trying to plunk Rodriguez, but there seemed little doubt about his intentions because he is known for having very good control and, in a four-pitch at-bat, he threw behind Rodriguez, inside off the plate twice and then hit A-Rod in the left elbow. If his hope were to make a statement against A-Rod for alleged steroid use or for allegedly being a rat who sold out other players to try to save himself, Dempster may have hit the unintended consequences button — because Rodriguez did derive quite a bit of support/sympathy for being treated like an on-field piñata.
And Dempster also put MLB in a tough spot. Home plate ump Brian O’Nora did not eject the veteran righty.
But if MLB does not suspend Dempster, it likely will lead to the A-Rod camp again suggesting that the Commissioners Office has his worst interest at heart. If there is no suspension, then would the Commissioners Office tacitly be saying to any pitcher with animus toward A-Rod that it is open season on him — there will be no punishment?
Plus, if there is a suspension, but it does not cover an extended period, you could expect the Yanks to be furious.
Because Dempster could accept, say, a five- or six-game suspension quickly — and MLB is supposed to rule today — and the Red Sox would not miss him. With off-days on Thursday and next Monday, Boston would not need a fifth starter again until Aug. 31.
Galea threat a ‘pinch’ hit
Yankees president Randy Levine’s counter-attack against Alex Rodriguez included the name Anthony Galea. So did that of MLB VP Rob Manfred.
As Bobby Valentine used to say, “That is an interesting coincidence. Just I don’t believe in coincidences.”
And there is no coincidence here. Both the Yankees and MLB have invoked the name as a threat.
When Rodriguez’s newest lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, claimed the Yankees, in general, and Levine, in particular, acted nefariously in handling A-Rod’s injured hip last year, Levine fired back by offering to release Rodriguez’s full medical dossier. He said, though, that A-Rod would have to release information about his treatment with Galea, the Canadian doctor convicted of smuggling HGH into the United States.
Rodriguez has admitted to seeing Galea following his right hip surgery in 2009, but said he received only legal treatments.
MLB officials have long believed A-Rod misled them about his care under Galea when they interviewed him in 2010. Rodriguez also allegedly appeared before a Buffalo grand jury in the Galea case in 2010, and it is possible his sealed testimony — and anything he admitted to under oath — could be opened if he makes his full medical record available.
Yesterday, in response to Tacopina’s assertion he was bound by confidentiality in the Joint Drug Agreement and couldn’t discuss Rodriguez’s case in full, MLB ambushed the lawyer on the “Today” show to say they would sign an affidavit freeing both sides to speak about A-Rod’s ties to the MLB drug program. Within the letter from Manfred, it read MLB would like to publicly disclose “all documents relating to Rodriguez’s treatment by Anthony Galea.”
joel.sherman@nypost.com