“I'll never go back."

So said Yankee superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez Monday in a telephone conference call with reporters; A-Rod is referring to his well recorded visits to a number of clandestine poker clubs in New York City's gambling underground. Much has been made of his visits, especially when in the company of poker pro Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmmuth, and when a number of the clubs he visited were subsequently shut down by city police.

”Obviously, it wasn't the right thing to do," said Rodriguez after winning his second AL MVP award in three seasons. "In retrospect, it is probably a place I shouldn't have gone."

The baseball commissioner and his ball club worried his image would be tarnished. Reporters asked him if that was the case. “That’s for you to decide," he told them during the telephone conference call. "But I realize, I'll never go back."

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