Regardless of who you might be rooting for or against, there's no doubt this whole A-Rod situation keeps getting wackier every day.
I haven't seen this many whacks since Michael took over the Corleone family from Don Vito. With merely 40 to her credit, Lizzie Borden pales in comparison. Tony Soprano would hang his head in shame as an underachiever.
According to an AOL story circulating about (hey, if it's on the internet, we all know it's true, right?), the whacking has ratcheted up in the Big Apple. This isn't just about A-Rod fighting his Bud Selig mandated suspension anymore. Others have jumped in.
Enter stage right NY Yankees' President Randy Levine. Never heard of him? Me neither. But this is the sort of thing that happens when the patriarch of a "family" passes on to that big shipyard in the sky like the late Don (Firing George) Steinbrenner did a while back. It's always a scramble to see who will emerge as the next "boss", Don Steinbrenner's apparently clueless inheriting ninos aside. And isn't that the way it always seems to happen? The old man fights and claws his way to the top, whacking everybody that gets in his way, but after he's gone his spoiled kids don't even seem to know which end of a gun the bullets comes out of? But I digress...
Also enter stage left one Joseph Tacopina, A-Rod's latest "mouthpiece".
Loyal lieutenant Brian Cashman, the long-time general manager of the Yankee family, seems to have been brushed aside. This turf-war has gone on to higher authorities. Idle thought: "Cash man" is the perfect name for this guy. As basically the "bookkeeper" of the organization, it was Cashman that negotiated all those bazillion dollar multi-year contracts the Yankees still find themselves saddled with -- including A-Rod's.
And now the gloves are off. It's hardball time.
The mouthpiece says the Yankees tried to influence A-Rod's hip surgeon to make sure the operation didn't go exactly perfectly, so he wouldn't be able to play any more, and the Yankees could cash in the insurance policy on the $114 million dollars they still owed him.
The Underboss countered with saying the family had provided A-Rod with top notch medical care and he'd be more than happy to release all of A-Rod's medical records. All Rodriguez has to do is say OK. Am I the only one that sees a disconnect between those two arguments?
But then it gets more interesting. Levine also said he's willing to provide transcripts of all phone conversations between A-Rod, the team, and the doctors.
Stop right there and think about that.
How, pray tell, would the family be privy to the content of such conversations unless they had recorded them somehow? The Yankees are certainly a storied baseball franchise, but they aren't exactly the CIA or the National Security Agency that can play political football with such issues. Unless A-Rod signed off on having these conversations recorded -- highly doubtful -- presenting such evidence to Fred Horwitz, the arbitrator that will likely eventually hear A-Rod's appeal of his suspension -- could very well blow up in the Yankees' face. You're not supposed to do that.
The mouthpiece Tacopina appears to be licking his chops over such a showdown in "court". To boot, he claims to have a ton of emails back and forth between his client and the Yankees, which will further torpedo the family's case. Hey, nothing illegal about that. If his client (A-Rod) decides to entrust his attorney with to and from personal correspondences made via the internet -- that's admissible evidence in ANY court. There's a difference. A big one.
And now there are those that claim A-Rod had his own lieutenants somehow procure information from Biogenesis on other players, including a couple of his own teammates -- only to have it leaked to authorities to somehow bolster his own case.
This has to be the dumbest theory I've ever heard. First, without subpoena powers like Major League baseball apparently was granted, there's no way A-Rod would have access to such information. And second, why would A-Rod, who's trying to get back in the good graces of his teammates, do such a thing to further damage his credibility in his own clubhouse? It doesn't make any sense.
And of course there are still the morons that claim Rodriguez has never admitted to using PEDs. Contrary to their delusions, he most certainly has -- publicly. A-Rod himself called a press conference a few years ago and said he "used" while with the Texas Rangers, but stopped in 2003. In the last 10 years, it appears no evidence to the contrary has ever been found, much less presented.
And don't look now, but it seems A-Rod can still play at a high level. After missing the majority of this season recovering from surgery, and a short stint in the minor leagues, it looks like he's quickly getting his old swing back in the "big show". His batting average keeps creeping up and earlier tonight yours truly watched him sock a home run to dead center field in Boston's Fenway Park.
Quite a poke.
So in the end, what do we have?
In this corner is one Joseph Tacopina, sometimes referred to as the most hated lawyer in New York -- by prosecutors. They hate it when they get out-smarted, and Joey Tac has done so many times. He's now representing Alex Rodriguez.
And in the other corner stands the full might, fury and unlimited budget of not only Major League baseball, but Randy Levine, Prez of the NY Yankees, who is seemingly on a mission to "ice" that little twerp once and for all. After all, the Yankees DO have a contract on Rodriguez, right? But who would have thought they would take it literally?
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Perhaps even Lizzie, Don Vito, and Tony will tune in from beyond to learn a little something about modern day whacks.
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