A-Rod's attorney refutes claims in '60 Minutes' segment
Yankees slugger seeks to overturn MLB suspension
The attorney for New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez will file an injunction in federal court Monday morning in an attempt to stop a season-long suspension from Major League Baseball from taking effect.
Joe Tacopina confirmed that planned filing to New York Post reporter Ken Davidoff late Sunday. An arbitrator decided Saturday to trim Rodriguez's suspension from 211 games to the entire 2014 season, including any Yankees playoff games. That means that the new suspension will last 162 games at minimum and 181 games at maximum.
The planned filing comes one day after Anthony Bosch, the founder of the Miami-based Biogenesis clinic that allegedly supplied performance-enhancing drugs to Rodriguez and a dozen other major leaguers, told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he received $12,000 per month in cash to keep the Yankee star on performance-enhancing drugs.
Bosch claimed that Rodriguez often took testosterone orally right before games, in the form of a "gummy" that could easily be confused for a piece of chewing gum or sunflower seeds.
"Now, all of a sudden, his levels of testosterone are higher," Bosch told CBS. "It gives him … more energy. It gives him more strength. It gives him more focus. And in combination with the growth hormone, that combination would make playing the game of baseball a lot easier."
Bosch also revealed that he occasionally had to inject Rodriguez with the drugs himself, due to the slugger's fear of needles, and also said that when the man known as "A-Rod" first came to Bosch in 2010, Rodriguez asked for whatever drugs fellow slugger Manny Ramirez had taken. Ramirez had been suspended 50 games for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2009 and was suspended for 100 games in 2011.
Bosch revealed to interviewer Scott Pelley that Rodriguez's primary goal was to hit 800 career home runs, which would be the most by any major league player ever. Bosch also told Pelley that he gave Rodriguez specific instructions on how to beat a drug test, telling the player to only collect the middle of his urine stream in the cup provided.
"That was extremely important because most of the metabolites are either in the beginning of the stream or at the end of the stream," Bosch said.
In a statement released late Sunday, Major League Baseball's Players Association said that it would consider filing a grievance over Bosch's appearance on the program.
"It is unfortunate that Major League Baseball apparently lacks faith in the integrity and finality of the arbitrator’s decision and our Joint Drug Agreement, such that it could not resist the temptation to publicly pile-on against Alex Rodriguez," the statement read. "After learning of tonight’s ‘60 Minutes’ segment, players have expressed anger over, among other things, MLB’s inability to let the result of [Saturday’s] decision speak for itself.
"As a result, the Players Association is considering all legal options available to remedy any breaches (of baseball's collective bargaining agreement) committed by MLB."
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