Rodriguez Banned From Baseball for 2014 Season for Violating Anti-Doping Rules

An arbitration panel has ruled that Major League Baseball (MLB) can ban New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez for the entire 2014 season, Bloomberg reports. Rodriguez was suspended for violating the league’s antidoping rules. MLB originally suspended Rodriguez for 211 games. The panel reduced the suspension to 162 games, including playoffs.

In August, MLB announced it was suspending Rodriguez and 12 other players. The league said it suspended Rodriguez based on his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited, performance-enhancing substances over many years.

In a statement, Rodriguez said, “The number of games sadly comes as no surprise, as the deck has been stacked against me from day one. This is one man’s decision, that was not put before a fair and impartial jury, does not involve me having failed a single drug test, is at odds with the facts and is inconsistent with the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement and the Basic Agreement, and relies on testimony and documents that would never have been allowed in any court in the United States because they are false and wholly unreliable.”

He said he intends to fight the suspension in a federal court.