Hearing continues for Alex Rodriguez

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A-Rod Arrives At MLB Headquarters

Alex Rodriguez greets supporters as he arrives at Major League Baseball's offices on Park Avenue for a second day of meetings.

A-Rod Arrives At MLB Headquarters

NEW YORK -- New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was greeted Tuesday morning by about 50 supporters outside Major League Baseball's headquarters in midtown Manhattan, where his grievance hearing to overturn his 211-game suspension enters its second day.

The supporters, who said they were from a New York-based group called Hispanics Across America, surrounded Rodriguez at the steps of the Park Avenue office building and chanted "Alex! Alex!"

"A-Rod has been drug-tested more than any major league player and has never tested positive for the use of steroids," the group's president, longtime New York community activist Fernando Mateo, said in a statement. "[Team president] Randy Levine and the N.Y. Yankees are responsible for this unfair 211-game suspension."

Jeff Skopin / ESPN New YorkA-Rod's well-organized supporters gathered early in front of the MLB offices at 245 Park Avenue.

Rodriguez arrived in a black SUV with lawyer Joseph Tacopina at approximately 9:30 a.m. ET. He thanked the supporters in Spanish before heading inside. The supporters held signs that read "Randy Levine is the Devil" and "No Justice No Peace."

"We're not here to tell you that Alex is guilty or innocent," said Sergio Rodriguez, executive director of HAA. "All we are saying is, treat him fairly, the same way you have treated everybody else that has been in violation of the drug policy."

Rodriguez was suspended Aug. 5 for alleged violations of baseball's drug agreement and labor contract. Because he's a first offender under the drug program and the players' association filed a grievance to force an appeal, a suspension can't start until it is upheld by an arbitrator.

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