BOSTON — In perhaps the most fitting action to occur in the history of mankind, the final day of the 2013 baseball season kicked off with a tense exchange of words between Alex Rodriguez’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina and Major League Baseball.
Tacopina, whose client’s 211-game suspension has dominated this baseball campaign, accused MLB of having no substantive evidence on Rodriguez. MLB, which filed a petition in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday to try to acquire more evidence against Rodriguez, countered by saying it had plenty.
“As we have said all along, Alex has never bought any documents related to Biogenesis, and he has repeatedly turned down offers from various individuals who approached him about buying them,” Tacopina said in a statement. “Alex unequivocally denies having exposed any players. This is MLB’s desperate cry for help. What happened to the ‘overwhelming mountain’ of evidence against Alex?
“Having now rested its case against Alex, this effort makes clear to the world that MLB doesn’t have what they said they have. What is perhaps most shocking — and the best evidence of their desperation — is that MLB would do this during the World Series.”
MLB said in its response statement: “We continue to be at a loss to explain how Mr. Tacopina can take the position that his client has done nothing wrong. First, it was Mr. Rodriquez did not use drugs. Now, it is he did not obstruct the investigation. Those statements are simply and demonstrably inaccurate. The action we took yesterday was necessitated by continuing efforts by Mr. Rodriguez’s lawyers to engage in a purposeful cover-up.”
On Wednesday, Judge Arthur F. Engoron ordered public-relations executive Michael Sitrick or his attorney to appear in court on Nov. 13 to explain why he shouldn’t testify in the Rodriguez hearing. MLB’s petition was tied into Sitrick’s refusal, thus far, to cooperate with the subpoena issued by the Rodriguez hearing’s arbitration panel.
Baseball is trying to compel Sitrick to appear at Rodriguez’s appeal hearing when it resumes Nov. 18 at MLB’s Park Avenue headquarters. Its petition claims Sitrick has refused to turn over documents the league believes Rodriguez took from Biogenesis owner Anthony Bosch, who has become MLB’s star witness, and subsequently leaked to Yahoo! Sports to publicize the inclusion of Brewers star Ryan Braun and A-Rod’s Yankees teammate Francisco Cervelli in the scandal.
Ironically, with Team A-Rod accusing MLB of trying upstage the World Series, Rodriguez was accused of the same transgression in 2007 when his agent at the time, Scott Boras, announced in the middle of the Red Sox’s title-clinching victory over the Rockies that Rodriguez was opting out of his contract with the Yankees.