Hispanics Across America, the group that has organized boisterous shows of support for Alex Rodriguez outside the Park Avenue office building where he is contesting his 211-game drug suspension, has placed a full-page advertisement in The New York Times asking for fair treatment for the Yankees' third baseman. The advertisement also attacks what it terms the double standard of Major League Baseball in seeking such a large punishment for Rodriguez, and singles out Commissioner Bud Selig for harsh criticism.
The advertisement, which appears in Friday's editions of The Times, says that Selig has often displayed "willful blindness" during baseball's steroids era and is a "disgrace to the game." It says that Rodriguez should be held accountable if he has done anything wrong, but that if he has, he should be treated like other first-time drug offenders, who normally are suspended for 50 games.
In seeking to suspend Rodriguez for a far longer period, Major League Baseball is contending that he not only has used performance-enhancing drugs, but that he also sought to obstruct a drug investigation that it was conducting in South Florida. M.L.B. officials could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday night about the advertisement.
Since Rodriguez's arbitration hearing began earlier this month, dozens of his supporters have gathered on Park Avenue and 46th Street, where Major League Baseball's headquarters are located and where Rodriguez and his lawyers have arrived on many mornings to spend the day challenging the suspension baseball is trying to impose on him.
Rodriguez's supporters have greeted him when he arrives, and when he normally departs around 6 p.m. They have also displayed signs attacking Selig; Randy Levine, the Yankees' president; and, more recently, Brian Cashman, the Yankees' general manager.
But those signs are modest in size and handwritten. While The Times does not disclose the cost of an individual advertisement in the newspaper, a full-page black-and-white advocacy ad, which is the category the Rodriguez advertisement falls in, can cost upwards of $100,000.
Fernando Mateo, the president of Hispanics Across America, signed the advertisement that appears in The Times. On Thursday, he also brought several New York State legislators to the gathering of Rodriguez supporters on Park Avenue. All expressed support, in one form or another, for the player.
State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Democrat of Manhattan, noted that he had grown up a Yankee fan within walking distance of the Stadium.
"If A-Rod did something wrong, I hope he shows some contrition," Espaillat said. "But he should not get one day more than the others got." Espaillat also contended that Selig was singling out Rodriguez for harsher punishment to shift the blame for baseball's steroid problems away from himself.
Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa, Democrat of Manhattan, said of Rodriguez: "We want a fair process, nothing less."
State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., Democrat of the Bronx, said, "Two hundred and eleven games is unfair, unjust and discriminatory."
Meanwhile, the arbitration hearing continued. When it finally ends, the arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, will determine whether to uphold the 211-game punishment for Rodriguez, reduce it or throw it out altogether.
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