honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 7:23 a.m., Monday, March 2, 2009

MLB: Rodriguez joins Dominican team workout

By STEVEN WINE
AP Sports Writer

JUPITER, Fla. — Alex Rodriguez reported for the World Baseball Classic today, joining the Dominican Republic team and hoping he's done answering steroids questions for a while.

Rodriguez arrived at his team's camp in the morning for an early afternoon workout. He emerged from a Maybach — an elite German car that sells for $350,000 — driven by his brother and carried a New York Yankees equipment bag into the clubhouse. When a handful of fans standing beyond the parking lot gate cheered for him, he pumped his fist.

The Dominican team gathered at the spring training complex used by the St. Louis Cardinals. As the Cardinals stretched on a practice field, manager Tony La Russa said he enjoyed watching the Dominican stars arrive.

"I'm a baseball fan," La Russa said. "Pedro Martinez in our clubhouse — that's neat stuff."

Rodriguez met for two hours Sunday with Major League Baseball officials. They wanted to speak with him about his positive drug tests from 2001-03 while with the Texas Rangers. The commissioner's office said Rodriguez was "cooperative" in an interview with baseball's Department of Investigations and Labor Relations Department. No further details were revealed.

Earlier Sunday, A-Rod hit a pair of RBI doubles during a spring training game against Cincinnati in Sarasota.

"I'm only talking about baseball," he said. "Opportunity of a lifetime playing in the WBC. I'm excited about that."

Rodriguez was accompanied to the Tampa meeting by lawyers Jay Reisinger and James E. Sharp. Also present were union general counsel Michael Weiner, MLB vice president of investigations Dan Mullin, MLB executive vice president for labor relations Rob Manfred and senior vice president and general counsel for labor Dan Halem, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because he wasn't authorized to discuss details.

MLB wanted to learn about security issues involving a trainer from the Dominican Republic and the cousin the three-time MVP said injected him with a banned substance called "boli."

After being lifted from Sunday's game for a pinch runner in the fifth inning, Rodriguez declined to discuss when or if the MLB meeting would take place.

"I'm just excited that I have a game every day," he said. "That's where I belong. It's fun to be back out there."

He left the ballpark in a car with teammates Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira.

Rodriguez and the Dominican Republic will play three pre-tournament games against major league teams starting Tuesday against Florida.

"He's going to have to go through traveling and be on road trips eventually," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "So, this can be a helpful thing in a sense. The fact he's going to play in different ballparks might give us an idea of what's going to happen during the year, and it may not. It also might be a good thing for him to go through."

Girardi thinks the support system Rodriguez has with the Yankees also will be in place during the WBC.

"It's my belief that playing for his country, those players are going to build that same wall," Girardi said. "It might take a couple days, but I have a feeling a lot of those players have come out and are behind Alex. I'm hoping that takes place. We'll have to see if that's the case."

___

AP Baseball Writers Ronald Blum and Mike Fitzpatrick and AP freelance writer Mark Didtler in Sarasota, Fla., contributed to this report.