If A-r od comes back to the Yanks ..... They have to bring out Yoko to sing.......
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/doctor_yankees_rod_told_quad_strain_fmCqizGfwTYkOPwOhb139I
Doctor says he sees 'nothing significant' on A-Rod's MRI; Yankees GM says star was in violation of league rules for seeking second opinion
- Last Updated: 7:43 PM, July 24, 2013
- Posted: 2:10 PM, July 24, 2013
- Yankees Blog
Jay Nolan
Alex Rodriguez in Tampa today.
ARLINGTON, Texas -- A doctor who declared Alex Rodriguez healthy is already distancing himself from the matter, in the wake of the explosion created by his initial interview with WFAN’s Mike Francesa.
Michael Gross, chief of orthopedics at Hackensack Medical Center, told The Post in an interview today that he looked at an MRI of A-Rod’s injured left quadriceps and said, “I don’t see anything significant.” In addition, he said he spoke on the telephone with A-Rod, who told him he was having no pain.
However, Gross added, “I can’t clear him to play. I’ve never examined him. He knows I can’t clear him to play. I wouldn’t even call it a second opinion. The Yankees have nothing to do with me. The only thing he said to me was he feels he’s ready to play.”
CBS Sports, on its website, reported that the Yankees are working on speaking with Gross. The doctor figures to be amenable to such a discussion, as he said, “(Yankees team physician) Chris (Ahmad) is a good doctor. I’m sure he did see something. I just didn’t see it. I’m not questioning what he saw. I’m not questioning his judgment. I’m not trying to contradict him at all.”
Yankees GM Brian Cashman released a statement Wednesday night saying that Rodriguez has violated league rules by going to Gross.
"Contrary to the Basic Agreement, Mr. Rodriguez did not notify us at any time that he was seeking a second opinion from any doctor with regard to his quad strain," Cashman said.
Cashman added that Rodriguez complained of quad tightness July 12 when the GM suggested A-Rod move his rehab assignment from Tampa to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. At that time, Rodriguez refused the transfer of his assignment.
Then Sunday, A-Rod "advised that he had stiffness in his quad and should not play on Sunday or Monday," Cashman said.
“As always, we will follow the rules and regulations set forth in the Basic Agreement, and will again re-evaluate Alex in Tampa tomorrow, as our goal is to return him to the lineup as soon as he is medically capable of doing so," Cashman saud,
A-Rod, who has told the Yankees that he’d be ready to play Friday night against Tampa Bay, seems to be miffed that he’s not back on the field. Today at the Yankees’ minor-league complex in Tampa, the rehabilitating Curtis Granderson told reporters that A-Rod wanted to take batting practice, only to be rebuffed by Yankees officials.
“Only thing I saw was that he was in the locker room, he had a bat in his hands, he was ready to hit, but they wouldn’t let him hit yet because he had to do something," Granderson said. "I don’t know exactly what. The next time I saw him he was on his phone, so I don’t know if he lifted in between there or there was a big gap between then. Hopefully he’s doing whatever he can to get back on the baseball field, which I assume he was doing.”
Rodriguez arrived at the Yankees’ complex in Tampa at 11:14 a.m. in a Chevy SUV, driven by girlfriend Torrie Wilson.
Wilson came back to pick him up and the couple left the complex at 3:30 p.m. Rodriguez lowered the window and quickly said, “I feel great. That’s all I have to say,” before giving a thumbs up as Wilson sped off.
Players are entitled to seek out second opinions, but it’s usually done in coordination with the team and for sure isn’t immediately disclosed via the player. And then the doctor in question usually doesn’t declare his analysis to not be a second opinion.
Gross said a mutual friend, a physical therapist, connected him with A-Rod, and that A-Rod arranged for Gross to receive the MRI. A source close to A-Rod insisted that A-Rod properly took the MRI from Columbia-Presbyterian and authorized Gross to examine it.
“I have no agenda in this,” Gross said. “I think that’s probably why they asked me, because I’m not a big name, a famous guy. I’m not Alex’s doctor. I’m not the Yankees’ doctor. In my opinion, I didn’t see much going on.
“I’m happy to say that, because it’s factual. All I’m saying is, this is what I saw or didn’t see. What they do with it, what they make of it, have fun.”
With Howie Kussoy
And then he needs to file a grievance through the Major League Baseball Players Association and say that the Yankees are preventing him from playing major league baseball; that the Yankees have essentially falsified his medical condition to keep him off the field.
He needs to do that right away if he is indeed being victimized this way by his employers. Don't have Ron Berkowitz, who also does work for Roc Nation Sports, Jay-Z's outfit, do the talking for him. He needs to tell us himself what the Yankees are trying to do to him.
"We have to respect the process," A-Rod has said again and again and again during his minor-league rehab assignments every time he has been asked about his ties to Anthony Bosch and Biogenesis, his way of saying he doesn't want to answer any questions about Biogenesis.
But here is Rodriguez's idea of the process: He not only says that the Yankees are preventing him from playing the game he loves – because he loves it so much – but also wants suckers out there to believe that the Yankees are somehow colluding with Major League Baseball as a way of beating him out of the $100 million or so that the Yankees still owe him.
If Rodriguez, or his new flacks have evidence that proves this baseball version of a right-wing conspiracy, they need to come forward with it.
But before they do, they ought to consider the long and winding road that A-Rod has taken back to the big leagues during this rehab, and really from the when he started rehabbing from his most recent hip surgery:
Because it was Rodriguez who didn't want to show up for a rehab game in Tampa after spending part of his day sitting with MLB's investigators and probably hearing a lot of the evidence they have against him in the Biogenesis case, then meeting with the Players Association to discuss that evidence.
It was Rodriguez who didn't want to report to an assignment in Buffalo because – wait for it! – pain in his legs.
It was Rodriguez who decided he didn't want to play third base last weekend and then took himself out of the lineup entirely before heading back to New York for an MRI on his quad.
And way back at the beginning of this opera, it was Rodriguez who chose the surgeon he wanted to perform his hip surgery, the great steroids expert Dr. Bryan T. Kelly (the "T" must be for team player), who later announced to the world that baseball drugs couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the condition of Rodriguez's surgical hip.
If he is coming back to the Yankees, the Yankees wanted him to come back and play third base for them. Only on Saturday the same guy who wants the world to believe that he is fit for duty decided he wasn't fit to play third base and the next day didn't play at all. And this is the Yankees' fault how?
From the time the old man, George Steinbrenner himself, was running the Yankees, it is not as if he or his executives ever got a soft place to land here. But A-Rod himself, or his flacks – I would throw in his lawyers, but you can't keep track of their comings and goings without GPS trackers – has to explain, and in great detail, how the Yankees have done anything in this whole process except go by the book.
The only time that Rodriguez could have had a case of hurt feelings was when Brian Cashman, the team's general manager, told him to shut up, after Rodriguez did everything except hire one of those William-and-Kate town criers to announce he'd been cleared to play before the Yankees themselves did.
But whether Cashman blew his top that day or not, after a decade of dealing with a diva like this, he has clearly been a lot more lenient with Rodriguez than with Capt. Derek Jeter, whom he told not to come back until he was ready to play shortstop. Jeter was scheduled to play short in his second game back, but got hurt in his first.
But A-Rod, as part of the professional victimization and general flackery to which he has given himself over to, has decided the Yankees are out to get him, and has been able to get suckers to somehow buy into that.
IOne of these days, we are going to find out exactly what baseball has on this guy, the one who says he loves and respects baseball so much. Then everybody can decide how good the case is against Alex Rodriguez.
But before that happens, Rodriguez's people try to make a case for him against the Yankees, and baseball. He wants us to believe, even after what we have seen from him at the plate and on the bases and in the field in the minors, that he is being prevented from earning a living.
If he believes that, say so himself. Then either file a grievance or get lost with this stuff.
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