A-Rod's Attorney: "He Shouldn't Serve One Inning Of Suspension"
NEW YORK (CBSMiami) – New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez's new attorney stumbled his way through an interview with no answer about the specific charges against his client.
The appearance on NBC's Today show Monday morning came just after lawyer Joe Tacopina has gone to the New York Times to accuse the New York Yankees of intentionally keeping A-Rod in the dark about a hip injury that forced him to have surgery in the offseason.
Tacopina went so far as to say that Yankees president Randy Levine told the doctor who performed the surgery, "I don't ever want to see him (A-Rod) on the field again."
Tacopina went on the Today Show to talk about A-Rod and was prepared to not say anything about the claims because of the confidentiality of the Joint Drug Agreement with Major League Baseball. But, MLB officials sent NBC a letter saying if Tacopina would sign it, both sides would waive confidentiality and could begin openly talking about the case.
That's when Tacopina began to backtrack.
"We would love nothing more than to be able to discuss the testing history, the scientific evidence, and the testing of Alex Rodriguez, regarding this JDA, nothing more," Tacopina told the Today Show.
When asked directly if A-Rod used PEDs after his first admission, which was made after he was confronted with testing results by ESPN, his lawyer hedged.
"Alex admitted that in 2001 and 2002 that he had used performance enhancing drugs as a member of the Texas Rangers when it was not banned," Tacopina said. "He said since then, he has not."
"I will tell you this, this letter (MLB letter waiving confidentiality) is nice, they could have sent it to me last night and I would have been prepared," Tacopina said. "I would have been prepared to talk about the history and I have so many things I would love to say if there was a way to say it."
NBC's Matt Lauer cut off Tacopina asking that shouldn't the fundamental question about whether he used PEDs recently be answered before fingers are pointed elsewhere?
"What's been going on has been outrageous, anonymous leak after anonymous leak after anonymous leak, and it doesn't stop," Tacopina said of the case. "It has to stop because they (MLB) are perverting the process and the process should not be perverted."
"I'll tell you this, Alex Rodriguez, when we confront this evidence, will have been found not responsible to the point where he shouldn't serve one inning of a suspension," Tacopina said.
