Yankees challenge Alex Rodriguez

ESPN WALLACE MATTHEWS and ANDREW MARCHAND

BOSTON -- New York Yankees team president Randy Levine on Saturday challenged Alex Rodriguez to release his medical records to support assertions by Rodriguez's lawyer that the Yankees had misled their $275 million third baseman about the extent of his injuries in the hopes Rodriguez would be unable to play again.

"Alex should put up or shut up," Levine told ESPNNewYork.com in a telephone conversation Saturday afternoon.

The New York Times published a story Saturday in which Joseph Tacopina, Rodriguez's new attorney, alleged Levine had told Dr. Bryan Kelly, who was about to perform hip surgery on Rodriguez in January, "I don't ever want to see him on the field again."

"We will put up, mark my words, we will put up," Tacopina told ESPNNewYork.com on Saturday. "[Levine] is always a very big talker, but he is going to be humbled eventually. He is acting in a way that if his bosses and superiors and the Steinbrenner family have any sense of decency, if they are true to what the Yankees' heritage is, they would be appalled with how their president is acting. We will put up."

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