Baseball season is officially over, but Alex Rodriguez still pops his head up every now and again.
The embattled Yankees third baseman released a statement Thursday lashing out at Major League Baseball’s handling of his case, and calling Bud Selig out by name, saying the commissioner is “turning a blind eye” to crimes being committed by the league, according to USA Today Sports.
“I am deeply troubled by my team’s investigative findings with respect to MLB’s conduct,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “How can the gross, ongoing misconduct of the MLB investigations division not be relevant to my suspension, when my suspension supposedly results directly from that division’s work?
“It is sad that Commissioner Selig once again is turning a blind eye, knowing that crimes are being committed under his regime. I have 100% faith in my legal team.”
Rodriguez went on to say that he’s putting up such a fight only to protect himself along with “the next 18 year old coming into the league, to be sure he doesn’t step into the house of horrors that I am being forced to walk through.”
After receiving word of A-Rod’s statement, MLB vice president Rob Manfred released one of his own.
“This latest, sad chapter in Mr. Rodriguez’s tarnished career is yet another example of this player trying to avoid taking responsibility for his poor choices,” Manfred said. “Given the disappointing acts that Mr. Rodriguez has repeatedly made throughout his career, his expressed concern for young people rings very hollow.”
Rodriguez is appealing a 211-game ban that was handed down to him in the wake of his involvement with the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal. In October, Rodriguez and his lawyers filed a lawsuit against MLB, accusing the league in engaging in a “witch hunt” in their persecution of him.
