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Reuters

Embroiled in a doping scandal that has sent shockwaves through Major League Baseball, New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez was booed and jeered on his comeback from a lengthy hip injury against the Chicago White Sox at Cellular Field.
Playing his first game of the season after recovering from surgery conducted in January, Rodriguez received little sympathy from fans of either team just hours after the third baseman was handed a 211-game ban for alleged doping offences.

"I'm a little disappointed that he's able to play tonight," said Jodi Rudd, a New York Yankees fan, who had travelled from Arizona to watch his team lose 8-1.
Rodriguez's ban runs until the end of the 2014 season and although the suspension does not start until tomorrow, the 38-year-old can continue playing while appealing the decision.
White Sox fan Rich Modelski said Rodriguez, the only one of 13 suspended players to challenge his ban, should have accepted the punishment.
"Everybody else took the suspension but this guy's hiding behind the fact that he had injuries and that he took these steroids and everything else to get back to playing," he said.
"Everybody else in baseball's got injuries and there's a lot of guys that don't take the performance-enhancing drugs."
Modelski's 23-year-old son Jay said he was disappointed in the actions of a player he had grown up admiring. "It's kind of a shame that a guy making US$30 million a year has to stoop to this level to try and show how good he is. His talent alone should have been enough," he said.
United States Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart said there was a growing sense that the tide had turned in favour of clean athletes and that Rodriguez would eventually pay the price for his cheating. He also blasted Rodriguez for his selfishness in appealing his suspension, saying his presence on the field was an insult to clean players.
"He [Rodriguez] ought to take the responsibility, do the time that he is ultimately given and do what's right for baseball now," Tygart said. "Instead he is dragging it out, creating chaos around him. Now that he is healthy enough to play it is just going to frustrate clean athletes and while he wants to call his teammates his brothers and that stuff, they're not happy.
"The decision to dope is a very self-centred decision. Now playing while you appeal, to me, is just another selfish decision on par with the decision to dope."
Bucking the trend of negative comments, New York manager Joe Girardi said the Yankees were glad to have Rodriguez back. "I think guys were happy to see him. He's a teammate of ours. He's a friend of ours," Girardi said.
"People have asked me, is this a good day or a bad day in baseball. I think it's both. It's another black eye for us that we're trying to clean this game up.
"But I think it's really good, the combination of [the players'] union and Major League Baseball working together."
The Texas Rangers' Nelson Cruz and Detroit's Jhonny Peralta, meanwhile, both meekly offered apologies after accepting their 50-game bans.
Cruz admitted an "error in judgment" which he said stemmed from his desire to bounce back faster from a gastrointestinal infection that caused a dramatic weight loss shortly before spring training.
Peralta said he had "no excuses", offering thanks to friends, family, fans and teammates as he promised to "do everything possible to try and earn back the respect that I have lost".
Reuters, Agence France-Presse


Fans greet Rodriguez with boos, jeers after doping ban

Yankees' Alex Rodriguez leaves a news conference in Chicago. Photo: Reuters

Alex Rodriguez is booed by fans

Yankee's fans show their disgust with Rodriguez's doping ban. Photo: Reuters

A-Rod defends the indefensible

Alex Rodriguez does his best to look thoughtful. Suspended for 211 games, he can play during the appeal process. Photos: EPA, Reuters

New York Yankee A-Rod and 12 others banned in doping scandal 

Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees has vowed to appeal the sanction. Photo: AFP

Sport

Other Sport

Little sympathy for disgraced slugger as he plays his first game of the season just hours after being handed a 211-game ban for doping offences


Playing his first game of the season after recovering from surgery conducted in January, Rodriguez received little sympathy from fans of either team just hours after the third baseman was handed a 211-game ban for alleged doping offences.


Fans greet Rodriguez with boos, jeers after doping ban

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Little sympathy for disgraced slugger as he plays his first game of the season just hours after being handed a 211-game ban for doping offences

Little sympathy for disgraced slugger as he plays his first game of the season just hours after being handed a 211-game ban for doping offences