Night Off For Yankees As A-Rod Drama Keeps Boiling Over
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Yankees had the night off Monday, and were much in need of it emotionally after a hotly-contested game with the Red Sox.
As CBS 2's Otis Livingston reported, the game saw Alex Rodriguez get hit with a pitch, and later hit a home run across the same pitcher -- as he continues to appeal his suspension and feuds with team management.
The beaning was the most intense moment of the weekend series in Boston, and as always, Rodriguez was in the middle of it.
He was plunked by Ryan Dempster's 3-0 pitch leading off the second inning Sunday night. It struck his left elbow pad and ricocheted off his back.
The Yankees ended up winning the game 9-6.
But Livingston said Rodriguez may also be treated like the villain when he is back in the Bronx, by the people signing his paychecks.
The newest high-powered addition to Rodriguez's legal team, Joseph Tacopina, told the New York Times over the weekend that A-Rod's camp feels that Yankees management conspired to ruin Rodriguez's career by misdiagnosing his hip injury last October.
He said the Yankees allowed Rodriguez to play during the playoffs, while his doctors ordered him to have surgery in the off-season.
"About 10, 12 days later, after Detroit, I found out that I had a big hole in my left hip, and I needed to have immediate surgery, so that's that," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez batted .120 (3 for 25) with no RBIs in last year's playoffs, and Tacopina claims an Oct. 11 MRI revealed the left hip injury. The Yankees maintain Rodriguez complained then only of a problem with his right hip, which was operated on in March 2009.
"I'm not comfortable talking to Alex on this stuff because I feel like we're in a litigious environment," Cashman said.
And then there are many who think Rodriguez's folks are going in this direction to avoid the question of his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs.
Rodriguez is among 14 players disciplined by MLB this summer following its Biogenesis investigation. Former NL MVP Ryan Braun accepted a 65-game suspension and 12 players agreed to 50-game penalties.
The 38-year-old Rodriguez made his big league season debut Aug. 5, the same day his suspension was announced. He had been sidelined since left hip surgery in January and his return was delayed by a leg injury in July.
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