A-Rod 'optimistic' about favorable ruling in doping case

Alex Rodriguez scored big in court on Friday when a federal judge dealt a huge blow to the 211-game doping suspension Major League Baseball hopes to slap on the embattled Yankees slugger, according to reports.

According to the New York Post, Manhattan federal Judge Edgardo Ramos sided with A-Rod's former PR maven, Michael Sitrick, granting him a stay.

That stay gets 'The Wizard of Spin' out of complying with the judge's Nov. 22 order to honor an MLB subpoena and appear before the independent arbitrator who will determine the ban while Sitrick appeals the ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the report said.

Rodriguez said that he was very optimistic about the arbitration case.

Ramos also vehemently rejected an MLB request to hold Sitrick in contempt of court and slap him with daily fines for wanting to appeal the order, which also requires the PR maven to turn over documents the league believes Rodriguez took from Anthony Bosch, owner of the now-shuttered Florida anti-aging clinic Biogenesis and baseball's star witness in the appeal hearing, the report added.