Alex Rodriguez Vows to Fight Reduced Suspension

MVP baseball player Alex Rodriguez’s drug suspension was cut to 162 games from 211 by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, but the New York Yankees third baseman is still ticked and vows to fight to the...
Alex Rodriguez Vows to Fight Reduced Suspension
Written by Pam Wright
  • MVP baseball player Alex Rodriguez’s drug suspension was cut to 162 games from 211 by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, but the New York Yankees third baseman is still ticked and vows to fight to the bitter end.

    “The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one,” Rodriguez said on his Facebook page on Saturday. “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.”

    Major League Baseball released a statement stating that it stands by the belief that A-Rod should miss the entire season.

    “While we believe 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,” said the statement.

    The original ruling of a 211-game penalty was given on Aug. 5 “for attempting to cover up his violations of the program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the office of the commissioner’s investigation” after Major League Baseball‘s investigation of the Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs.

    Rodrigues vows to fight the ruling in court and reiterated his claim that he has not taken any performance-enhancing drugs while with the Yankees, although he did admit to using PEDs in 2009.

    “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,” Rodriguez said. “I am confident that when a Federal Judge reviews the entirety of the record, the hearsay testimony of a criminal whose own records demonstrate that he dealt drugs to minors, and the lack of credible evidence put forth by MLB, that the judge will find that the panel blatantly disregarded the law and facts, and will overturn the suspension.”

    Image via Wikimedia

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