ORLANDO, Fla. — The Alex Rodriguez camp, never short on ideas, energy or mischievousness, is cooking up a new scheme that will raise the ire of his rivals in the Appeal Hearing of the Century.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Team A-Rod is contemplating calling well-known Major League Baseball figures — such as commissioner Bud Selig and Yankees president Randy Levine — to testify when his appeal of a 211-game suspension resumes Monday at MLB’s Park Avenue headquarters. Rodriguez’s attorneys will begin their presentation Monday after MLB used eight days (Sept. 30-Oct. 4 and Oct. 16-18) to argue its case.
It’s a typically muddy development in these proceedings. Each side is supposed to alert the other of its witness list, but as of Thursday, MLB had received just two names from Team A-Rod: that of an expert in retrieving Blackberry text messages, and of Dan Mullin, who is senior vice president of MLB’s department of investigations. Both witnesses tie back to one of A-Rod’s primary arguments: that he is the target of a flawed, corrupt investigation, personified by Mullin’s alleged affair with a female employee of Biogenesis, the shuttered South Florida anti-aging clinic where A-Rod allegedly purchased illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
MLB would try to block most of the bold-name witnesses from having to testify, particularly Selig. It would contend MLB COO Rob Manfred, who is MLB’s representative on the three-person panel overseeing the hearing, spoke on behalf of the league and its investigation and subjected himself to cross-examination by Rodriguez’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina.
The decision would come down to Fredric Horowitz, the independent arbitrator on the panel. If Horowitz rules in favor of Rodriguez concerning people who work in MLB (such as Selig and Levine), those people would be required to testify. That distinguishes them from people not affiliated with MLB, such as Michael Sitrick, the public-relations guru and former A-Rod crony who has been fighting MLB’s request to bring him to the witness stand.
Selig, asked Thursday about testifying at the hearing, declined comment. Levine said he had not been notified he would be asked to testify.
Rodriguez cancelled his 10 a.m. appointment Friday, at the Players Association’s office in Manhattan, to have an investigatory interview with MLB, which is a pre-condition to testifying on his own behalf. Two sources confirmed a published report A-Rod is in California and has flu-like symptoms and is unable to travel.
He could interview next week, but he still could decide not to testify out of concerns of facing further discipline and litigation from the investigatory interview.
As The Post reported on Wednesday, Horowitz is so determined to finish the hearing by Thanksgiving the proceedings will go 10 straight days, if necessary — from Nov. 18-Nov. 27, including the weekend of Nov. 23-24. Once the hearing has concluded, it’s expected to take three to four weeks for Horowitz to render a ruling.
Additional reporting by Joel Sherman