MR. POPULARITY: Not every fan was happy to see Alex Rodriguez last night, with one holding up a “cheater” sign as Rodriguez signed autographs before the game. (N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
The most important deadline in Alex Rodriguez’s career — and right up there in Bud Selig’s legacy, too — arrives tomorrow evening.
Rodriguez showed once again last night he’s not going away easily.
The Post has learned Major League Baseball yesterday notified A-Rod and other players linked to Biogenesis they have until 6 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow to settle on suspensions for their alleged involvements with the now-shuttered anti-aging clinic in South Florida. MLB intends to announce all of the suspensions on Monday, multiple sources said — perhaps hours before Rodriguez could be scheduled to make his 2013 major league debut for the Yankees in Chicago.
But not before taking another shot at the Yankees and MLB.
“There’s a lot of layers,” Rodriguez said after playing a rehab game for Double-A Trenton. “I will say this: There’s more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field. That’s not my teammates and it’s not the Yankee fans.”
When asked who the parties were, Rodriguez said: “I can’t tell you that right now… And I hope I never have to.”
Rodriguez homered in a rehab game for Trenton at Arm & Hammer Park and said he had been told by general manager Brian Cashman and assistant GM Jean Afterman yesterday the team plans for him to play Monday against the White Sox.
A lot could happen before then.
Of all the Biogenesis players, A-Rod’s case stands out as the biggest, in terms of his alleged offenses (obstruction of baseball’s investigation in addition to purchasing illegal performance-enhancing drugs), and also the most contentious. The other players, in a group of about nine that features Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli, Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz and Detroit shortstop Jhonny Peralta, are all facing suspensions of around 50 games, and there remains optimism all of them will accept without an appeal.
There have been conversations between MLB officials and their Players Association counterparts and also between the PA and Rodriguez’s legal team, but there was little indication yesterday A-Rod and MLB had made any progress in finding common ground.
Selig has been threatening to suspend Rodriguez for life if he doesn’t plea to a lesser punishment, yet that could prove an overreach by baseball’s commissioner — legally and public-relations wise — for a player who is viewed as a zero-time offender by baseball’s laws.
For all of his bluster, A-Rod could relent and agree to a lesser penalty; MLB would like to suspend him through the 2014 season. That deadline could be pushed back if the two sides feel they’re progressing toward a settlement. Undoubtedly, Selig would like to announce Monday all of the cases have been resolved, boast of his sport’s toughness against illegal PEDs and encourage fans to refocus on the pennant races. Even a single appeal, especially by Rodriguez, would keep the Biogenesis saga alive.
Rodriguez didn’t sound ready to relent last night.
When asked why he felt entities were against him, Rodriguez initially said he wasn’t sure.
Then he fired away at his employers.
“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Rodriguez said. “I think we all agree that we want to get rid of PEDs. That’s a must. I think all the players, we all feel that way. But when all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that’s concerning for me, it’s concerning for the present and I think it should be concerning for future players, as well. There is a process.”
If there is no agreement with A-Rod, Selig must decide whether to keep the beleaguered third baseman on or off the field during the appeals process. He could accomplish sidelining Rodriguez by using the “best interests of baseball” clause in the Basic Agreement, a route that would emphasize the obstruction charge. If MLB wanted to lean primarily on its purported evidence that A-Rod used illegal PEDS as often as every season from 2009 through last year, then that would fall under the Joint Drug Agreement, and Rodriguez could keep playing as he awaited his hearing.
Last night marked A-Rod’s 14th minor league game of the season and he went 1-for-2 with a walk and a mammoth home run to left-center that he admired before trotting around the bases.
Rodriguez had spent nine days rehabilitating in Tampa before joining Trenton yesterday afternoon. He is scheduled to play again for the Thunder tonight, and if he emerges healthy, he would rest tomorrow before presumably meeting up with the Yankees in the Midwest.
“I’m mentally prepared to play for five more years,” said Rodriguez, who insisted he’s not ready to retire.
“It’s not time for me to hang it up. I have a lot more fight in me.”
Whether A-Rod actually plays in a Yankees game this season or ever again, even with a return so close, is very much up in the air. The clock is ticking.