'Devil's Advocate' in A-Rod's corner

A cocky, slickly dressed, Perry Mason-minded, despised, mistrusted, flamboyant 47-year-old Skidmore College graduate named Joseph Tacopina is the man to whom Alex Rodriquez, a cocky, slickly dressed, despised, mistrusted, flamboyant, 38-year old baseball player, turned to when it was time to sue MLB.

Who could have ever imagined such a pairing?

According to this NBCNews.com story, Tacopina is known as "the devil's advocate" and "the most hated lawyer in New York." He has perfectly slicked back hair, fancy suits, a yacht and a Maserati.

"He's a little too good looking," a private detective named Bill Stanton said.

He takes on high profile cases with unpopular defendants. He represented an NYPD police officer accused of rape, and won an acquittal. He represented Joran van der Sloot, who was accused of killing Natalie Holloway. He represented former New York state senator Hiram Monserrate, who was on trial for slashing his girlfriend.

"I know I'm very good at what I do," Tacopina told NBCNews.com. "The results speak for themselves."

Now, he is representing Rodriguez, the New York Yankees third baseman who has been suspended by Major League Baseball 211 games for alleged violations of baseball's drug agreement and labor contract.

Tacopina leapt out of the bushes, screaming about the Yankees doing some dastardly thing or another. Rodriguez got him to stop and for a while where it looked like A-Rod would go quietly into the night.

Well, Friday morning Rodriguez filed a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court saying MLB's goal all along was to "improperly marshal evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez."

Rodriguez is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

He also filed a lawsuit against Yankees team doctor Chris Ahmad and New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Rodriguez says they misdiagnosed a hip injury that kept him off the field most of this year.

Rodriguez has hit 654 home runs, which places him fifth in baseball history. Missing the next 211 games would almost certainly cost him a chance to catch Babe Ruth (714).

Rodriguez is fighting for his legacy, a legacy that has now been dinged with two PED scandals. It's hard to imagine Rodriguez coming out of this with much of a legacy left.

But A-Rod has Tacopina.

"God forbid I would ever get in trouble," Stanton said. "He would be my first call."