By Eddie Castro
For the New York Yankees, it sure has been a busy week as they begin to fill in holes to their ball club as spring training is nearly a month away. This past Saturday, the team found out the fate of third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Independent arbitrator Fredrick Horowitz made the decision to reduce Rodriguez’s suspension from 211 to 162 games, thus putting an end to A-Rod’s 2014 season and postseason. With a full year of him being out of baseball, the Yankees save his $25 million salary for this coming season. He is eligible to attend spring training with the team , however, the Yankees could very well put an end to his plans and relegate him not to attend to avoid yet another media circus. I think even Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle have a better chance of suiting up at Steinbrenner Field next month. Since Rodriguez is no longer on the current 40-man roster, the Yanks will have the right to send him to work out with minor leaguers instead of his fellow major league teammates. After the ruling on his reduced suspension, Rodriguez went on record stating: “No player should have to go through what I’ve gone through.” Rodriguez’s team of lawyers will now plan to seek an injunction and take the current matter to federal court in attempts to have arbitrator Horowitz’s decision overturned.
To make matters worse for A-Rod, there was an interview that aired on Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” featuring the founder of the Florida clinic Biogenesis, Anthony Bosch. According to Bosch, Rodriguez threatened his life after Bosch rejected his request to sign an affidavit that stated he (Bosch) never gave the Yankee third baseman any performance-enhancing drugs. It was reported that Rodriguez suggest Bosch leave town and take some money and head to Colombia until the case was over. Bosch said when he turned down that offer, his girlfriend received a text in Spanish that said Bosch would not live until the end of the year. A-Rod’s lead attorney, Joseph Tacopina, denies it and clearly says there was no act of bribing at any time. Bosch also stated in the interview that he(himself) injected Rodriguez with performance-enhancing substances.
So the next step is where will the Yankees go from here? Now that it’s been clear that A-Rod will not be in pinstripes this year, the team will need to add his position to all the other needs of their ball club. He is still owed $61 million for the 2015-2017 seasons, and after his suspension, there is a possibility that the Yankees would pay the rest of the money owed to him and release him. Therefore, Rodriguez may very well have already played his last game in baseball.
Sports Notes: (Basketball) The Knicks and Nets are turning it around. Both teams have won 5 of their last 6 games. The Knicks look to keep the momentum going when they host the current top team in the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers. The Nets have played very good basketball under Jason Kidd despite Brook Lopez being on the shelf for the rest of the season and Deron Williams out a few games after receiving a cortisone shot in his ankle. The Nets head to London to play the Atlanta Hawks as the NBA goes global. (Football) The NFL’s Final Four is set. In the AFC, it will once again be Brady vs. Manning. The Patriots head to Denver to play the Broncos. In the NFC, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick looks to get his team back in the Super Bowl as they play Russell Wilson and the fanatical fans that are the “12th man” that comes with playing the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. That is one of the factors why the team has lost only one home game in the past two years. Tough game coming up. Any comments about this week in sports? E-mail me at CastroEddie714@Gmail.com.