MICHELLE: Alex Rodriguez has withdrawn his lawsuits; he says he will accept the season long suspension. Didn’t he say in dramatic fashion he was going to fight forever and defend himself, Ross, right? ROSS: It was funny, Michelle, because throughout this whole process he was going to fight this battle to the bitter end, truth will come out. Well, apparently, Alex Rodriguez has had a change of heart. A-Rod has dropped all of his lawsuits, all of it against Major League Baseball, against the commissioner Bud Selig and against the Players Association. Now,  the dismiss of the lawsuits were filed today at the Federal Court in New York City and it appears that the Yankee slugger has made peace with his suspension for the upcoming season which also includes play-offs games. Attorneys also said that A-Rod will not be attending spring training. Rodriguez will also forfeit his 25 million dollar salary that he would’ve made for the year he’ll be 40 years young when he’s eligible to return in 2015. Now, the league issued this statement today regarding the dropped charges:” We believe that Mr. Rodriguez’s actions show his desire to return the focus to the play of our great game on the field and to all of the positive attributes and actions of his fellow Major League Players.” Now the Players Union also issued a statement saying: “Alex Rodriguez has done the right thing by withdrawing his lawsuit. His decision to move forward is in everyone’s best interest”. Now, Rodriguez was suspended for violating the League’s substance abuse policy after he was linked to the bio-genesis scandal. The scandal was first reported back in January of last year and on August 5^th Major League Baseball handed out a 211 games suspension, but after going through arbitration the suspension was reduced on January 11^th to 162 games, including the post season games. Two days later, A-Rod filed lawsuits at Federal Court against the League, the commissioner and the Players Association and that led to tonight’s decision of Rodriguez dropping all lawsuits. Sports attorney, Ted Corless, joins us live from Tampa. Ted, the big question, why did A-Rod have a change of heart and decide to drop the charges because he’s always claimed that he didn’t do anything wrong? TED CORLESS: As a lawyer my favorite part of the lawsuit is the end, which is what we have now. The problem with A-Rod continuing with all of these lawsuits is that at some point in time he was going to find himself under oath in a deposition and he was going to have to say officially whether or not he has used the substances that triggered the suspension. Unfortunately, there is a mountain of evidence to suggest that if he had said that, he might very well had been subject to perjury for saying those things under oath. This was an important time for him to make that decision because they had to answer the motion to dismiss that had been filed by Major League Baseball in the injunction here.  ROSS: Ted, if the lawsuits did go to court, in your opinion, how would they have played out? TED CORLESS: There really were two pieces of this lawsuit. One of them was an effort by A-Rod to stop injunction before the suspension was examined by the federal judge. That was the injunction. The 2^nd part was a lawsuit that challenged the underlined substance of the allegation, that the arbitration was unfair to him. The first part, which was really the injunction, would have had no option, no opportunity to survive given that what he would’ve had to demonstrate is that he was going to win, ultimately, in the lawsuit, which he never was. And second is that if the injunction weren’t entered that he would somehow have sustained additional damages that the other lawsuit couldn’t have resolved. Both of those things were nearly impossible. ROSS: Ted, real quickly. Can A-Rod’s attorneys develop a new strategy in hopes of getting him back on the field? TED CORLESS: No. The mere fact that he filed this lawsuit for the injunction and then punts it, that would have been evidence against him if he ever decided to come back and challenge it. This is truly the end of this drama. ROSS: Ted Corless, thank you very much for your time and your insight and Michelle, it’s interesting to know that if he would’ve gone forward with the lawsuits he would’ve costed a reported 10 million dollars for each case. MICHELLE: Ok, it’s not about the money with A-Rod, let’s just be clear. He could stay in court for 20-30 years if he wants to. A-Rod is the kind of person that needs the fans to like him and perhaps he finally realized that moment is gone. He’s lost the fans. A lawsuit is not going to change that. ROSS:  And a PR set on the Friday when everyone, kind of, bur the news. But, A-Rod also said that he also wants to do some broadcasting after his retirement so, of course. MICHELLE: We’ll see. Alright, Ross, thank you so much.