Bean Ball: Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid player in the game, has been suspended for the full 2014 season for using performance-enhancing drugs. It’s the longest suspension for doping in baseball history.  Major League Baseball had sought a 211 game suspension, but an arbitrator cut that to 164 games, a regular season. Rodriguez will be banned from post-season play as well.

 A-Rod loses his $25 million salary next year, but would still have $61 million to go on his contract if he can manage to keep playing, but he’s been dogged by injuries. The suspension could also end up denying him a place in the Hall of Fame. Rodriguez says he never doped.

World: American hypnotist Scott Lewis died in a fall from a Sydney apartment balcony, according to Australian police. Lewis was in Sydney doing his act with six other performers appearing in “The Illusionists 2.0”.

Lewis had appeared at the Riviera in as Vegas for 9 years. Police said they didn’t know whether his fall from an 11^th floor balcony was accidental or intentional.

> The woman who fills the role of France’s first lady is in the hospital following reports that the president is having an affair with an actress.

Valerie Trierweiler, a 48-year-old journalist, is not married to President Francois Hollande but lives with him in the Elysee Palace. She’s been in the hospital for “rest and a few tests” according to her spokeswoman.

Nation: West Virginians in the Charleston area have entered their fourth day without being able to use the pubic water supply. Officials say it will take several days to flush the pipes and rid the system of a chemical solvent spilled into a local river on Thursday.

> Neiman Marcus now says its customer credit information has been hacked. The retail chain says it suspects it is the victim of the same hackers who got into the Target system, but they don’t know for sure. Target announced Friday that the hackers got information on far more customers that originally thought, 70 million, up from the initial 40 million. The information incudes names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. The incidents illustrate how the ability of retailers to collect information is far ahead of their ability to protect it.

Have a Blast: A permit to shoot an endangered black rhinoceros in Namibia has sold at auction in Texas for $350,000. The Dallas Safari Club defends the hunt, saying the target is an older aggressive rhino and the fee will contribute to conservation.

NuYawk Nooz: New York’s new mayor Bill de Blasio, who weathered his first winter storm in office, is suffering his first media meltdown. De Blasio recently visited a Staten Island pizzeria where he used a knife and fork to eat his pizza, and “Oh my God!! No he didn’t!!” He would have been better off shutting down the GW Bridge.

 De Blasio’s tortured explanation: “In my ancestral homeland it is more typical to eat with a fork and knife. And I have been in Italy a lot and I’ve picked up the habit for certain types of pizza. So when you have pizza like this–I had a lot on it–I often start with a knife and fork. But then I cross over to the American approach and pick it up when I go farther into the pizza.” He’s guilty.

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