Kallas: Outside The A-Rod Arbitration Hearing — Day 4
By Steve Kallas
» More Columns
As Alex Rodriguez had promised, he showed up for today's (and every other day's) hearing of his arbitration in Manhattan to appeal his unprecedented 211-game suspension. As had previously happened on Days 2 and 3, there were many A-Rod supporters waving flags, chanting and with even a few new posters (more on that later).
Newsday has reported that Anthony Bosch continued his testimony on Wednesday (Day 3) and Thursday (Day 4) at 245 Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan. It would seem virtually impossible (absent an unlikely settlement) for the arbitration to be over in the allotted five days (due to scheduling conflicts, if it is not over, it will not continue next week).
Anthony Bosch, baseball's key witness against A-Rod, has now testified for the better part of three days. Baseball has probably introduced their "mountain" of evidence against A-Rod through Bosch and A-Rod's legal team has probably cross-examined Bosch to try and damage his credibility before arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.
As has been stated here before, while they may very well hurt Bosch's credibility, the real test will be the content and reliability of the documentary evidence, which apparently includes phone records, emails and text messages.
OUTSIDE THE ARBITRATION
Once again there was a loud crowd of A-Rod supporters outside of 245 Park Avenue. The number on Thursday was about 125-150, not nearly as many as the day before. New posters included "A-Rod is the Face of Baseball" and "A-Rod is the Babe Ruth of Baseball."
When A-Rod walked out of the building on Thursday at about 5:50 PM, he once again waved to the crowd and then was engulfed in the crowd, signing autographs, posing for pictures and shaking hands.
While he was doing this, one of his main lawyers, Joe Tacopina, patiently waited in front of the building for A-Rod. When asked by WFAN if Anthony Bosch was still on the witness stand, Tacopina apologized and said he simply couldn't comment.
When asked if he could give WFAN a two-sentence quote to possibly be read on Mike Francesa's 1-6:30 show, all Tacopina could do is smile and say, "Tell Mike I said 'Hi,' and that I'd love to talk with him, but I simply can't."
After 10 minutes of signing and posing with the crowd, A-Rod, Joe Tacopina and a few others got into that same Lincoln Navigator and drove off.
Day 5 of the arbitration takes place on Friday, October 4, and then we will just have to wait and see when it will resume.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories
