More Friction Between Yankees and Rodriguez

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Alex Rodriguez was hit by a pitch in the Yankees' game against the Red Sox on Sunday, prompting both benches to clear.

BOSTON — Feeling betrayed and disappointed by his star player, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman sat in the visitors' dugout at Fenway Park on Sunday, calling Alex Rodriguez a liar and saying he no longer trusted Rodriguez enough to discuss any substantive matters with him. Yet when Rodriguez is in the batter's box, Cashman roots hard for him to succeed.

"These are unique times," Cashman said.

Indeed they are. While Yankees officials fumed Saturday night over accusations by Rodriguez's lawyer to a New York Times reporter, Rodriguez had dinner at the home of David Ortiz, the popular Red Sox slugger.

Almost daily, a new development arises in the drama surrounding Rodriguez, with the player and his team having reached an astonishing level of antagonism. Cashman said in his 16 years as general manager of the Yankees, he had never seen anything like it.

In the latest development, Rodriguez and his camp are planning to file a formal grievance against the Yankees over their handling of his medical problems, despite the afterglow of the Yankees' 9-6 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. If a grievance is filed, it will follow the declaration by the Yankees' president, Randy Levine, on Sunday that Rodriguez "put up or shut up."

"If he's going to file a grievance, that's great," Levine said. "That will finally put all the medical issues to rest. And if he is willing, we will be happy to release all his medical records to the public."

Rodriguez did not comment before the Yankees' game, but he said he would address the issue afterward.

A lawyer for Rodriguez, Joseph Tacopina, said in an interview with The Times first published online Saturday that the Yankees withheld information from Rodriguez during the playoffs last season that his hip was injured. It was one of several accusations directed against the Yankees and Major League Baseball.

The Yankees think Rodriguez and his legal team are attacking them over the medical issues as a ploy to distract people from the 211-game suspension he was issued for his suspected connection to the now-defunct clinic Biogenesis. Rodriguez is appealing the penalty.

"Alex and his team will apparently say anything to divert attention from the real issue of did he or did he not use P.E.D.'s," Levine said, referring to performance-enhancing drugs. "They said I would receive a commission if I got the team out from under his contract. That's not true. They said we fined him $150,000. That's not true. They said we didn't give him the best medical care. That's not true.

"It's really sad that we're in Boston in the middle of a pennant race in crucial games and this is what this organization has to deal with. It's about time he lived up to his commitments to his teammates and the organization."

Tacopina also charged that Dr. Bryan Kelly, who operated on Rodriguez's hip earlier this year, told Rodriguez that Levine said he did not want Rodriguez ever to take the field again. Kelly's lawyer would not confirm the allegation, but Cashman said he was on every conference call with Kelly and Levine regarding Rodriguez's hip and said no one ever told Kelly such a thing.

Cashman called the situation, which has accelerated into new territory the past few weeks, a distraction to the team. But he said the players and Manager Joe Girardi had done a good job of tuning it out. In fact, when Rodriguez was hit by a pitch from Ryan Dempster on Sunday, Girardi came flying out of the dugout to Rodriguez's defense and was ejected. Several Yankees spilled onto the field, and the bullpens emptied, suggesting that on some level Rodriguez's teammates still backed him.

"If it were something on the field, like he wasn't hustling or something, then maybe it would bother guys," Lyle Overbay said before the game. "But it's not a distraction to us. I don't even think it's a distraction to him."

Phil Hughes said the matter did not even come up in regular conversation. "Players are so regimented with their routines and the things we have to do to prepare for a game, we don't even think about it," he said.

But Cashman said it had been a distraction to him because of the work that he had had to put in to deal with it. He mentioned how many times he had defended Rodriguez in public and seemed hurt Rodriguez would choose to make such defamatory charges against him and the Yankees.

"Listen, none of this stuff is productive," he said. "Being involved with Biogenesis isn't productive. The allegations, at least, of being involved with Biogenesis. None of this stuff is productive."

Cashman also outlined what he said were contradictory comments by Rodriguez regarding his medical situation and said that Rodriguez had lied to him.

When Rodriguez had a quadriceps injury last month, he told Cashman on the phone he did not have a problem with the team's medical staff, Cashman said. A few days later, Rodriguez had a doctor go on the radio to contradict the Yankees' diagnosis.

Cashman said that at the time, he felt like Katie Couric, who interviewed Rodriguez on "60 Minutes" in 2007, when he denied using P.E.D.'s. Two years later, he acknowledged using them during his time with the Texas Rangers.

"I know at that moment of time I was lied to," Cashman said.

The last conversation between Cashman and Rodriguez was Friday in the team hotel, Cashman said. Cashman said he merely said hello; there was no discussion of the suspension, no dispute about the medical issues or any of the public confrontations that have come up in recent weeks.

Cashman called the current atmosphere "litigious" and said he was afraid that something he said to Rodriguez could be used against him in a legal proceeding.

"A hello, goodbye, and that's it," Cashman said, "because anything else, I don't want to be distorted, to be quite honest."

Yet, as general manager of a team in the playoff chase, he still hopes Rodriguez will hit home runs. On that front, Rodriguez came through on Sunday, hitting a leadoff drive in the sixth.

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