By
Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)
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, e-mails 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.
@
COPYRIGHT 2013 BY STEVE KALLAS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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