A-Rod, Yankees providing baseball's ultimate sideshow

Life with Alex Rodriguez breaks down in strange ways for the New York Yankees.

There's before and after games, and then there are the hours when A-Rod is on the field and at the plate. Between the lines, among the pinstripes, it's one for all and all for one.

They co-exist in a setting that has few if any parallels in baseball history - a suspended star who is appealing his penalty and provoking his bosses on a near-daily basis.

Hardly a Field of Dreams scenario, far from The Pride of the Yankees. Instead, the most famous team in the sport is directly at odds with its own guy, who also happens to be the game's highest-paid player.

Yet when Boston pitcher Ryan Dempster hit Rodriguez with a fastball at Fenway Park on Sunday night - after throwing one pitch behind A-Rod's knees and two more inside - the New York bench and bullpen immediately emptied to defend him.

"I'm not sure how I would feel if I was on a different team," center fielder Brett Gardner said. "But Alex is my teammate and obviously we're glad to have him back in the room and glad to have him back on the field, helping us win ballgames. It got us fired up."

Gardner was especially riled, barking angry words across the diamond toward Dempster.

At least that's more than Rodriguez and GM Brian Cashman say to each other.

"I'm not comfortable talking to Alex on this stuff because I feel we're in a litigious environment. So I am not comfortable anymore talking to him," Cashman said on Sunday. "Hello. Goodbye. And that's it. "

But Rodriguez and the Yankees have never been typical. And their dealings with each other just get stranger and stranger, stirring memories of the George Steinbrenner-Billy Martin-Reggie Jackson battles of the 1970s.

A-Rod always has been about the biggest: startling statistics and record-setting contracts.

And now he is mounting a huge legal effort as he tries to overturn the 211-game drug suspension announced on Aug 5 by baseball commissioner Bud Selig for violations of the drug agreement and labor contract.

The third baseman has four law firms and one investigations company working for him at the moment and has used six law firms in all since the start of the year.

Some players on opposing teams have criticized MLB's drug agreement for allowing Rodriguez on the field while his discipline is being appealed to arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.

The rules state penalties for a first offender who appeals are stayed until upheld by an arbitrator.

"How is he still playing? He obviously did something and he's playing. I'm not sure that's right," Red Sox pitcher John Lackey said last week.

After years of denials, Rodriguez admitted four years ago he used performance-enhancing drugs while with Texas from 2001-03.

When Dempster's first pitch nearly hit A-Rod, Yankees manager Joe Girardi moved to the top step of the dugout. When the 3-0 pitch struck A-Rod's left elbow pad and ricocheted off his back, Rodriguez glared at the mound and Girardi sprinted onto the field, screaming at plate umpire Brian O'Nora for not ejecting the pitcher and throwing a right hook a few inches in front of the umpire's face. Girardi was ejected for his profane tirade.

"You can't just start taking pot shots because you disagree with the way the system is set up," Girardi said. "Whether I agree with everything that's going on, you do not throw at people and you don't take the law into your own hands."

While critical of Yankees management, Rodriguez praised Girardi effusively.

"His support for me has been incredible. I love the guy. He's always been there for me," Rodriguez said. "His reaction is another example of how much he supports me and all my teammates."

New York owes Rodriguez $86 million from 2014-17, and A-Rod says he hopes to reconcile with Yankees team president Randy Levine and Cashman.

"I love this team. I love the fans of New York City," he said. "It's a very complicated situation but we're doing the best we can."

(China Daily 08/22/2013 page24)