The Yankees hope it’s much ado about nothing. Rafael Soriano isn’t so sure.
Just days after All-Star reliever David Robertson suffered a bone bruise while ferrying empty boxes downstairs in his house, Soriano returned from an exhibition game to discover dozens of boxes on the second floor of his rented home. After family, friends, and neighbors insisted they had no knowledge of the boxes’ origin, a baffled Soriano suspected a practical joke at the hands of his teammates.
That is, until he was asked to review surveillance footage from a mounted security camera. On it, security personnel had identified what was initially described as a “pudgy, redneck maintenance man wearing a Yankees cap.” It was Soriano who noticed something strikingly familiar about the burly young man who face was obscured by the bill of his cap.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Soriano said. “The guy was a dead ringer for my teammate.”
When the suspect exited the premises and pumped his fist as he banshee screamed, Soriano feared it might prove more than a mere coincidence. He referred the matter to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department, which took Chamberlain into custody for questioning. Charges have yet to be filed and, though he declined to comment for this story, Chamberlain insists he is innocent.
Manager Joe Girardi described the situation as a “personnel matter that would be handled internally and confidentially,” adding that “he hoped the gentleman in the video embraces a stringent cardio routine, because he was gassed after only 15 minutes of low impact aerobics.”
