(Jim Rogash)
Alex Rodriguez’s lawyer walked into an embarrassing ambush on national television yesterday, as Major League Baseball pulled a fast one on the slugger.
Joseph Tacopina started his segment on NBC’s “Today” show by declaring that he wanted to answer all questions about his client’s alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, but regretted that MLB’s enforcement of confidentiality rules prevented a public defense of the Yankee third baseman.
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That’s when “Today” host Matt Lauer surprised the big-bucks lawyer, pulling out a letter from MLB Executive VP Robert Manfred Jr. that offered to lift all confidentiality agreements under the league’s and the union’s drug-testing deal.
Lauer said all he needed was a signature from Tacopina, and the lawyer, his client and MLB would immediately be allowed to freely discuss Rodriguez’s drug history, the Miami lab Biogenesis and its founder, Anthony Bosch.
“That [conversation] would include all prior violations of the program committed by Rodriguez, all documents, records, communications, text messages and instant messages relating to Rodriguez’s treatment by Anthony Bosch,” said Lauer, reading from the MLB waiver.
“Would you do that?” the host asked.
A seemingly stunned Tacopina at first stumbled over his words, but didn’t take the bait.
“We’ve been asking, Matt, for that, for I don’t know, three or four weeks,” Tacopina said.
The lawyer later called Manfred’s letter a cheap stunt, and blasted the MLB executive for violating a confidentiality clause by giving the letter to the morning TV show.
“It’s nothing but a theatrical trap hoping I would sign,” Tacopina said in a statement. “The letter that was addressed to my law office with the words ‘Via Hand Delivery’ on top was, in fact, never delivered to my office but was instead given to the ‘Today’ show.”
Manfred fired back at Tacopina, saying the MLB Players Association doesn’t block members from speaking about their own cases.
“The Players Association has never stood in the way of an individual player publicly disclosing his own drug-testing history,” Manfred said.
Tacopina has been fanning the flames of A-Rod’s already-bitter feud with both MLB and the Yankees.
MLB hit Rodriguez with a 211-game suspension over his alleged ties to Biogenesis.
The Bronx Bomber is appealing that unprecedented penalty, a case that won’t go before an arbitrator until this winter, so A-Rod can continue to play for the Yankees this season.
Additional reporting by Joel Sherman