"I did nothing." - Rodriguez, several times.
Alex Rodriguez seemingly hit his breaking point Wednesday. After leaving his appeals hearing in a fit of anger in the morning, the troubled slugger then went on Mike Francesa's WFAN radio show in the afternoon to deny all the charges that have been levied against him over the last several months.
Even in the presence of one of his lawyers, Jim McCarroll, A-Rod had no reservations about denying any wrongdoing several times: "I did nothing ... with the Bosch nonsense, nothing." Even to more pointed questions about PED use and the charges of tampering with the league's investigation, Rodriguez's answer was a matter-of-fact "No."
Rodriguez went on to say that he "should not serve an inning" of the pending 211-game suspension that Major League Baseball has placed upon him, and that he's "disgusted" and "pissed off" at the system for allowing things to happen this way. A-Rod also had some not-so-great things to say about MLB and Bud Selig:
"He's retiring... and to put me on his mantle on the way out, that's a hell of a trophy."
He then added that the commissioner "hates [his] guts" and that the case against him is "100 percent personal."
After speaking about Selig, Rodriguez told about his relationship with Anthony Bosch, stating that everything he got from the clinic had to do with "nutrition and weight loss," and that none of it was outside of the parameters put in place by the league.
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Rather than watch the entire interview, why not see how the most epic Alex Rodriguez interview as it unfolded on twitter? You want that? We did that.The whole situation seems to have come to a head Wednesday morning when arbitrator Fredric Horowitz declared that Selig did not have to testify at the hearing. McCarroll said that the original plan was to have the commissioner testify Thursday and for Rodriguez to do so Friday, but iterated that his client would not be returning to the courthouse unless Selig testifies. Said Rodriguez: "I'm done. I don't have a chance. You let the arbitrator decide whatever he decides."
What the ramifications of Rodriguez's interview will be are anyone's guess at this point. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes that Rodriguez's comments might be the "single most blatant disregarding of a collective bargaining agreement" that he's ever seen, but also pointed that it probably doesn't matter at this point given how off-the-wall the rest of the case has been.
Full audio of the interview will likely be up on the WFAN website shortly.
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