A-Rod Backers Launch Petition Website, Blast Selig
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Hispanics Across America has launched a petition site aimed at "stopping the injustice" with respect to the 211-game suspension given to New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.
Rodriguez's supporters -- led by HAA president Fernando Mateo -- have come out in force for Rodriguez's grievance hearing in Manhattan as the third baseman fights the ban related to Major League Baseball's latest performance-enhancing drugs scandal. The new site, supportarod13.com, features a petition, an A-Rod photo gallery and a link to donate to HAA.
There's also message from Mateo under the headline "Who Is Public Enemy No. 1 in Baseball?" The answer, according to Mateo, is Commissioner Bud Selig. (One protester was captured by a New York Daily News photographer holding a sign that read "Bud Selig is a child killer.")
"(W)e oppose the double standard MLB is applying to A-Rod," Mateo wrote. "And if they can do it to him, no Hispanic player is safe from unfair treatment.
"HAA will continue to fight for the rights of Hispanics where ever we see injustice."
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A dozen other players accepted 50-game suspensions for their ties to Biogenesis, the shuttered anti-aging clinic accused of distributing PEDs. Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun served a 65-game ban.
Rodriguez's appeal hearing resumed this week. A decision from arbitrator Fredric Horowitz isn't expected until well into the offseason.
Mateo said he invited some city and state lawmakers -- Senator Ruben Diaz, Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa and City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez -- to attend his press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday.
"I called them and they've been reading about what I've been doing, and I said to them 'You should come out and show your support.' And they said, 'We will,'" Mateo told ESPN.
Mateo ripped Selig and the league during an appearance on WFAN's "Boomer & Carton" show on Oct. 3.
"They go to third-world countries that have no freakin' electricity, no power, extreme poverty and they do whatever the hell they want," Mateo alleged on WFAN. "We're trying to change that culture. And you know what? The guy that should have been fired all along is Bud Selig, because he's the guy that allowed the Steroid Era to be what it is today."
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