Alex Rodriguez Arbitrator hit with full-season ban, plus postseason

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Alex Rodriguez gets SLAMMED! Arbitrator hits Yankees slugger with full-season ban, plus postseason

BY TERI THOMPSON, , MICHAEL O’KEEFFE , CHRISTIAN RED AND NATHANIEL VINTON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2014, 11:47 AM
UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2014, 2:13 AM


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...#ixzz2qCEf8e5s

He’s out.

Alex Rodriguez, once Major League Baseball’s biggest star, was slammed Saturday with an historic drug suspension that encompasses all of the 2014 season, including the postseason, and will cost the Yankee third baseman $25 million in this year’s salary and possibly the remainder of his star-crossed career.

The ban comes after a year of vicious attacks on Major League Baseball and the Yankees, public denials that he acquired massive amounts of performance-enhancing drugs from a seedy Miami dope den, and millions in legal bills from a team of high-profile lawyers, crisis managers and private investigators.

Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz struck the 14-time All-Star and three-time Most Valuable Player with the 162-game suspension, plus the offseason, in an endorsement of MLB’s accusations that Rodriguez scored an array of PEDs from Biogenesis, a now-shuttered Miami-area anti-aging clinic operated by Anthony Bosch, in clear violation of the game’s collectively bargained drug program.

Rodriguez’s camp announced the suspension — the longest drug ban in the history of the program — Saturday morning in a long statement in which he denied having used performance-enhancing drugs in the period in question and called the ruling an “injustice,” invoking what he called a “threat to guaranteed contracts,” and vowing to take the fight to federal court.

He also threatened to show up for spring training, theoretically a possibility depending on how Horowitz’s ruling is interpreted since the ban encompasses the regular and postseason and doesn’t specifically mention spring training. If he does appear at the Yankees’ Tampa complex, however, the club would likely send him across the street to the minor league camp.

“The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one,” said Rodriguez, who will be close to 40 years old when he is eligible to return. “This is one man’s decision, that was not put before a fair and impartial jury, does not involve me having failed a single drug test, is at odds with the facts and is inconsistent with the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement and the Basic Agreement, and relies on testimony and documents that would never have been allowed in any court in the United States because they are false and wholly unreliable.

“I have been clear that I did not use performance enhancing substances as alleged in the notice of discipline, or violate the Basic Agreement or the Joint Drug Agreement in any manner, and in order to prove it I will take this fight to federal court,” he continued. “No player should have to go through what I have been dealing with, and I am exhausting all options to ensure not only that I get justice, but that players’ contracts and rights are protected through the next round of bargaining, and that the MLB investigation and arbitration process cannot be used against others in the future the way it is currently being used to unjustly punish me.”

MLB, the Players’ Association and the Yankees cited their respect for the arbitration process.


“The MLBPA strongly disagrees with the award issued today in the grievance of Alex Rodriguez, even despite the Arbitration Panel’s decision to reduce the duration of Mr. Rodriguez’s unprecedented 211-game suspension,” the union said in a statement. “We recognize that a final and binding decision has been reached, however, and we respect the collectively bargained arbitration process which led to the decision.”

MLB said that while it believed the original 211-game suspension was appropriate, “we respect the decision rendered by the panel and will focus on our continuing efforts on eliminating performance-enhancing substances from our game.” The Yankees said they respect the joint program, the arbitration process, and “the decision released today by the arbitration panel.”

Bosch said through his spokeswoman that he, too, respects the arbitrator’s decision. “Tony Bosch doesn’t take joy in seeing Alex Rodriguez suspended from baseball, but he believes the arbitrator’s decision was appropriate,” his statement read. “He is glad to have the arbitration behind him and believes he can play a valuable role in the future by educating athletes about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.”

For the 38-year-old Rodriguez, the ruling could represent a death blow to his already PED-tainted career, even though the decision by Horowitz reduces the ban baseball commissioner Bud Selig imposed in August and is based on non-analytical evidence — Rodriguez has not failed a drug test since baseball’s 2003 survey testing year. He clearly will not take that small victory as a sensible stopping point in his legal crusade, however, and will continue his battle despite the odds against a judge interfering with a ruling issued under binding arbitration. Rodriguez has already commenced a lawsuit against the league and others he claims have conspired to frame him as the most tainted ballplayer since Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

He may also find himself heavily involved in the federal investigation into Bosch and Biogenesis out of southern Florida, a probe that has already resulted in investigators interviewing players linked to the clinic.

The statement released Saturday by the Major League Baseball Players' Association.

Horowitz’s decision comes about seven weeks after Rodriguez stormed out of his grievance hearing on Nov. 20, professing that he had been treated unfairly. The walkout saved him at the last minute from going under oath with denials.

The ruling wraps up a tumultuous process that began Aug. 5, the day Selig banned Rodriguez for doping and interfering with MLB’s Biogenesis probe. While Rodriguez immediately elected arbitration, more than a dozen other players implicated in the scandal accepted their bans. Most of them have already served 50-game suspensions (Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun accepted a 65-game ban) and are now free to take the field in spring training.

The arbitration process was a slow-motion disaster for Rodriguez, the best-paid player in baseball and once its biggest star. Evidence in the case suggests Rodriguez continued using steroids and human growth hormone long after he vowed he was clean — even after his relationship with Canadian HGH guru Anthony Galea embroiled Rodriguez in the federal grand jury probe that made Galea a felon.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...#ixzz2qCDmYuCY

[BigMeatballDave]

Well, bye...

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by BCD

Well, bye...

This.....Enjoy being blackballed from the Hall with Bonds and McGuire

[Eleazar]

[milkman]

Thread title fail.

[Cannibal]

Originally Posted by milkman

Thread title fail.

It was horrible.

[BlackHelicopters]

Damn shame.

[ping2000]

Must agree with above. Thread title caused a headache. Unless the arbitrator WAS banned for a year. If so, my apologies.