Rodriguez's Strategy - Sound and Fury - NYTimes.com Alex Rodriguez sang his innocence aria to Mike Francesa at WFAN on Wednesday, and you could not help wondering what the next step in his media tour would be. Will he soon find himself in the welcoming arms of Oprah Winfrey? Will he take the hot seat with Bob Costas? Or dance a little with Ellen DeGeneres before fielding a few easy questions? Katie Couric is surely not on his list. Rodriguez denied taking performance-enhancing drugs in an interview with her on "60 Minutes" in 2007, then admitted in February 2009 that he had done so, but only after Sports Illustrated reported that he had tested positive for a banned substance six years earlier. Rodriguez's publicist, Ron Berkowitz, said Thursday that there was no campaign plan, no scripted rollout of television interviews that would reinforce the dual messages of his 40-minute Francesa interview: first, that Bud Selig is the cowardly commissioner of baseball for not testifying at the arbitration hearing over the 211-game suspension that Selig has imposed on him, and second, that he is not guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs (in the particular case Major League Baseball is waging against him), obstructing justice or intimidating witnesses. "Yesterday was a spur-of-the-moment event," Berkowitz said of Rodriguez's appearance on WFAN (and consequently the YES Network). We gave Mike a ring about 20 minutes before, to tell him we were coming over. Rodriguez had just walked out of his arbitration hearing, angry at the arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz, for his decision not to order Selig to testify. If Selig would not testify, Rodriguez insisted, neither would he. Rodriguez's case was also made, a little earlier, by one of his lawyers, Joe Tacopina, on Michael Kay's ESPN Radio show. Kay calls Yankee games on YES. But Francesa is the key media personality in the Rodriguez media strategy, whatever it is. A powerful voice in New York sports, Francesa brought another asset: He has flayed baseball's investigative process in the Rodriguez case. "You know," Francesa said during the interview, "I feel you're getting railroaded." Later, he added, "You stating you didn't do anything, you should be fighting tooth and nail." For now, the Francesa interview could be the only one Rodriguez, the Yankees" third baseman, will need for a while if he believes that his angry song of himself has tilted public sympathy his way. But that sympathy may be ephemeral or meaningless. Rodriguez may believe that he is playing to a potential jury pool - he has sued Selig and M.L.B. - that is suspicious of powerful sports commissioners, but there is no guarantee his case will ever make it to trial. Still, he is reveling in being told that people hate him but feel that Selig is out to get him to secure his legacy as an antidrug zealot. Nonetheless, the noise that Rodriguez and his team have been making for months about M.L.B."s conduct has had some success in deflecting attention from accusations that he used drugs to an investigation that he has said he believes has been abusive and unable to turn up credible evidence against him. Without any evidence for the public to examine, as in a trial, noise from a noisy Rodriguez is all there is to discuss. The arbitration hearing ended Thursday, without testimony from Selig or Rodriguez. But Rodriguez's camp vowed to release evidence in the case on Friday regardless of Horowitz's ruling, although the process is supposed to be confidential. "The public has a right to know," Berkowitz said. The lawyers won't disrespect the process, so it'll be something they can show. Whatever is released - witness transcripts or exhibits - will surely make Rodriguez look his best and Selig his worst. On Thursday morning, some of Rodriguez's reliable supporters, organized by a group called Hispanics Over America, gathered to assail Selig, and to pray, chant, sing and cheer outside M.L.B."s Park Avenue headquarters. Fernando Mateo, a local businessman who is president of Hispanics Over America, brought religious leaders wearing the white coats of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization. "Alex Rodriguez is not alone," said Rubén Díaz Sr., a state senator and a pastor. One woman in the group brought a sign - "Bud Selig is the accuser!!! Be a man and testify" - that echoed some of Rodriguez's comments on WFAN. Selig and baseball's chief operating officer, Rob Manfred, who did testify in the Rodriguez arbitration case, have not yet asked for an audience in the Court of Francesa. But last July, Selig was a guest on David Letterman's late-night show before he suspended Rodriguez. Letterman asked if Rodriguez would be in a group of major leaguers that he was expected to suspend. "I'd rather not say," Selig said. But Letterman must have been too adorable to resist. Because you know, don't you? Letterman said. "I do, I do," Selig said. The answer is I do. His body language suggested that he was screaming to shout Rodriguez's name. Rodriguez noted that exchange to Francesa. All of this is optics and sound bites. Rodriguez took the stage and denied every accusation against him. But will the evidence - all of it, not just what Team A-Rod divulges - fully exonerate him? He must hope that his cries of absolute innocence to Francesa do not unravel as they did after he told Couric that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs and had never been tempted to. Email: sandor@nytimes.com Steve Eder contributed reporting.