Yankees offer up Stadium as A-Rod's next apology tour venue

The Alex Rodriguez apology tour has already made stops at MLB headquarters in New York and the Yankees offices, where he met with owner Hal Steinbrenner, team president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman on Feb. 10. Where will it go next? As of that face-to-face meeting, the Yankees were anticipating some sort of news conference or video apologizing to the fans for his actions. Should he go with the news conference, they were happy to offer up Yankee Stadium as the venue.

This according to Teri Thompson, Bill Madden, and Nathaniel Vinton, who each contributed to the latest New York Daily News A-Rod update. Of course, they're quick to point out the offer is about far more than the Yankees simply being kind. They want to do everything they can to lessen the circus that will undoubtedly surround A-Rod once he reports to spring training site in Tampa, Fla. Honestly, it's not likely this gesture would make a difference, but you had to expect they'd try.

At this time, A-Rod has yet to respond to the offer. No public apology appears to be in the works either, but it's the hope of league officials that A-Rod will take that step before returning to the field.

“He owes it to the Yankees fans who are paying money to see him play next year to explain himself,” one baseball official told The News. “They deserve an explanation.”

And just how extensive should that explanation be?

Some observers also believe that if Rodriguez hopes someday to be voted into the Hall of Fame, he would need to explain his admitted steroid use and his role in Biogenesis, one of the most damaging drug scandals in the game’s history.

That would be a lot to get off his chest and a lot for fans to absorb. The timing probably wouldn't be the best either, regardless of location, as it would undoubtedly create a new line of questions and therefore a new line of distractions heading into camp. With that said, though, the sooner he does come forward with his explanation, the sooner people might consider moving on, so it would be quite interesting to see how far he would go with it.

Again, as of right now there are no plans set in stone for A-Rod to meet with the media or address the fans, which probably has the Yankees pretty nervous. However, with position players not scheduled to report until Feb. 26, there's still time for their preferred resolution.