Alex Rodriguez walks out of MLB’s arbitration hearing, slams Bud Selig on Mike Francesa's radio show
Alex Rodriguez’s future in baseball is more uncertain than ever after a theatrical day in which he punched a wall, pounded his fist on a table, told Major League Baseball chief operating officer Rob Manfred that the process is “f------ bulls---,” and stormed out of his doping arbitration.
And he wasn’t finished.
A couple of hours later, A-Rod took to the radio to castigate Bud Selig and proclaim his innocence in the Biogenesis scandal, denying publicly for the first time (albeit not under oath) that he took the performance-enhancing drugs MLB says he took in what it has described as the most egregious doping case in baseball history.
“Did you do any PEDs?” WFAN’s Mike Francesa asked.“
No,” Rodriguez said.
He added that he had “missed my daughter’s birthday, first time, she’s 9 on Monday. I was here, and I wasn’t there for Natasha.”
“You’re saying you did nothing wrong, you did not do what they’re accusing you of doing?” asked Francesa.
“That’s correct,” Rodriguez said.
Alex Rodriguez vents on Mike Francesa's radio show after losing 'my mind' during Wednesday's hearing.
Wearing a dark gray suit and polka-dot tie on the YES simulcast, Rodriguez described himself as persecuted by MLB and undermined by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz’s ruling Wednesday morning that MLB had properly designated Manfred as the representative who explained the penalties the league imposed rather than putting Selig on the stand.
“Today I lost my mind,” Rodriguez said. “I banged a table, kicked a briefcase and slammed out of the room.”
He went on to attack the 79-year-old Selig, who lives in Milwaukee and whose office is there.
“I know you don’t like New York, but you’ve got to come face me,” Rodriguez said of the commissioner. “This is my legacy. I’m part of history. You tell me why I should serve one inning. Cause you’re retiring next year? That’s not fair, Mike.”
“This has been a disgusting process for everyone,” said Rodriguez, who told Francesa he had been prepared to testify Friday if Selig took the stand on Thursday.
“This should end with Selig on Thursday and me on Friday,” he said. “Put your money where your mouth is. . . . Let the arbiter decide whatever he decides.”
MLB spokesman Pat Courtney told the Daily News that MLB has the right under the collective bargaining agreement to select the person it wants to use as a witness to explain the penalty the league has settled on in a doping case.
“In the entire history of the Joint Drug Agreement, the commissioner has not testified in a single case,” Courtney said in a statement. “Major League Baseball has the burden of proof in this matter. MLB selected Rob Manfred as its witness to explain the penalty imposed in this case.
Mr. Rodriguez and the Players’ Association have no right to dictate how baseball’s case is to proceed any more than baseball has the right to dictate how their case proceeds. Today’s antics are an obvious attempt to justify Mr. Rodriguez’s continuing refusal to testify under oath.”
A-Rod also told Francesa the whole mess could have been avoided had Selig agreed to meet with him, adding that an owner, who sources have told the Daily News is White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, advised A-Rod to meet with Selig, and to take an attorney.
“I reached out to Selig several times early on and said, ‘Hey, I’ll fly up to you in January, I’ll fly up to you in February, I’ll come sit in your house, we can have coffee, we can have brunch in your house in Milwaukee or in a Starbucks, and anything you want to ask me, I will go without an attorney,’ ” Rodriguez said.
“An owner, a third party who is very well-respected — who I won’t mention, Mike — very well-respected and is considered a friend of mine and a friend of Selig’s, said, ‘You should probably go, but take your attorney.’ I said, ‘I’m not taking an attorney, I’m going by myself, man-to-man.’ Then I made the same offer to Rob Manfred. Both of them, they said, ‘We don’t want to see you; we want to see you at the end.’”
According to a source, Rodriguez was given multiple opportunities to meet with MLB officials, and declined. He was also already represented by counsel and the Players’ Association at the time, which would have made a “man-to-man” meeting impossible.
