Rodriguez Seeks Meetings With Baseball and Yankees

SAN DIEGO — Despite a combative stand Friday night that seemed to set him on a collision course with Major League Baseball over his impending suspension, Alex Rodriguez reached out to the commissioner's office Saturday, through the players union, and also contacted the Yankees directly to seek a meeting, according to two people briefed on the matter who were granted anonymity because they were not permitted to speak about it publicly.

The commissioner's office dismissed the request, both officials said, and for now is sticking to a take-it-or-leave-it proposal that Rodriguez accept a suspension through the end of the 2014 season or baseball will administer the punishment anyway.

The request to M.L.B. was made by Michael Weiner, the executive director and general counsel of the players association, on behalf of Rodriguez, the Yankees' embattled third baseman.

The Yankees, who declined to comment on the matter, ignored Rodriguez's direct request for a meeting because they are not involved in the investigation into his association with Biogenesis, a defunct anti-aging clinic in South Florida that reportedly sold performance-enhancing drugs to players, or the negotiations involving Rodriguez's suspension from baseball.

The purpose of the proposed meetings was to work out an agreement that would mitigate baseball's suspension of Rodriguez, which is expected to be handed down by Monday.

Even if Rodriguez is suspended, he may still be able to appeal and play for the Yankees when they face the White Sox on Monday night in Chicago.

"As far as any of that stuff, I'm going to let those guys take care of what they need to take care of," Rodriguez said Saturday in Trenton, where was playing for the Yankees' Class AA affiliate. "I'm not addressing anything."

A person close to Rodriguez said the requests did not constitute a new direction. Rather, they were part of a continuing dialogue between the players association and Major League Baseball about the Biogenesis investigation.

Although the idea of a meeting was rejected, baseball officials will listen if Rodriguez or one of his representatives calls on Sunday to say he is willing to accept a severe punishment, one of the people informed on the matter said.

Rodriguez, a three-time most valuable player, has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs while he played for the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003. His most recent troubles stem from an article in January in The Miami New Times that described how various players, including Rodriguez, received drugs from Biogenesis. Major League Baseball began an investigation that is now close to fruition, with Rodriguez the highest-profile target. He has not played this season as he rehabilitates from hip surgery, and now faces a possible suspension that could cover as many as 214 games. He stands to lose as much as $36 million in salary.

As a result of the Biogenesis investigation, M.L.B. is expected to suspend Rodriguez and more than a half-dozen other players, and people on both sides of the matter say they do not see how Rodriguez's situation can be resolved amicably, unless something changes in a matter of hours.

Rodriguez has become increasingly aggressive about the investigation. On Friday, after a rehabilitation game in Trenton, he made a thinly veiled accusation that the Yankees and M.L.B. were conspiring to "cancel" his contract. He is set to earn roughly $95 million through 2017, but he would not be paid during a suspension.

If Rodriguez were suspended immediately for the rest of this season and all of 2014, he would be 39 when his ban ends and trying to play after missing two full seasons.

Baseball would prefer that Rodriguez accept a punishment the way Ryan Braun, the Milwaukee Brewers slugger, recently did. Braun agreed to be suspended for 65 games this season for violating baseball's antidoping code and for violating the collective bargaining agreement. He forfeited nearly half his $8.5 million salary.

Baseball is prepared to make its case to an arbitrator if Rodriguez appeals any ban, which appears likely. The person close to Rodriguez said his legal team was preparing for a lawsuit.

Once a player is suspended, he has the right to appeal to an arbitrator, and under normal circumstances can play until a decision is rendered, a process that can take more than 30 days. Commissioner Bud Selig could invoke a special clause in the collective bargaining agreement to avoid that process, leaving Rodriguez unable to play immediately. But the union would immediately go to the arbitrator and request a stay of that penalty. If the stay is granted, Rodriguez would be allowed to play.

Amid the acrimony and legal posturing, Rodriguez is rounding into shape after hip surgery and a quadriceps injury. On Friday night, he hit a towering home run in Trenton. After the game, he indicated he would fight any suspension through the appeals process. He said the Yankees and M.L.B. would benefit from a suspension and were therefore conspiring to impose one.

"When all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that's concerning for me," he said.

People who spoke to Yankees officials after Rodriguez's comments said they were saddened and amused by them, and they pointed out that the Yankees did not initiate the investigation into his reported involvement with Biogenesis.

With the Yankees' offense looking so sluggish this year, they could actually use Rodriguez on the field.

"We're seeing three lefties," Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said, referring to the White Sox pitchers the Yankees expect to face in Chicago. "I'm looking forward to him coming back."

Rodriguez remained defiant and optimistic Saturday. He said he planned to work out on Sunday and then travel to Chicago, even with a suspension looming that could banish from baseball.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm flying to Chicago."

Tim Rohan contributed reporting from Trenton.

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Newsweek, Sold in 2010, Is Changing Hands Again

Newsweek, the once venerable 80-year-old weekly magazine that suffered a precipitous decline in recent years, has been bought by the digital news company International Business Times for an undisclosed amount.

The announcement, which was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, was made on Saturday evening. Etienne Uzac, co-founder and chief executive officer of IBT Media, said in a statement: "We are thrilled to welcome this iconic brand and global news property into our portfolio. We believe in the Newsweek brand and look forward to growing it, fully transformed to the digital age."

Justine Sacco, a spokeswoman for IAC/InterActiveCorp, which currently owns Newsweek, confirmed the sale, but declined to comment further.

At Newsweek's peak in 1991, when The Washington Post Company owned it, its circulation was 3.3 million, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. But the magazine suffered many of the troubles facing the print media industry as more readers migrated to the Web for news.

Sidney Harman, a billionaire investor, bought Newsweek from The Washington Post in 2010 for $1 and assumed $40 million in liabilities. He then merged it with The Daily Beast, the Web site owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp. Both entities were run by Tina Brown.

But in 2011, Mr. Harman died, leaving IAC and Ms. Brown to handle the burden of keeping the magazine afloat. Last fall, Newsweek announced that it would stop publishing a print edition at the end of the year. In May, Ms. Brown told her staff that the company planned to sell now to concentrate on building up The Daily Beast.

A statement released by IBT stressed that the sale did not involve the purchase of The Daily Beast. It also noted that the company planned to return Newsweek to its original Web site, www.newsweek.com, in the coming weeks and build Newsweek's global online franchise.

"We are 100 percent digital with a track record of successfully growing online media properties," said Johnathan Davis, co-founder and chief content officer of IBT Media, in a statement. "The Newsweek brand is strong around the world, and we believe there is significant potential to leverage that."

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Bits Blog: Obama Administration Overturns Ban on Apple Products

The Obama administration has vetoed a federal commission's ban that would have forced Apple to stop selling some iPhones and iPads in the United States next week, a rare intervention by the White House and a victory for Apple in its heated patent war with Samsung Electronics.

The United States International Trade Commission in June ordered a ban of older-model Apple products that worked with AT&T's network, including the iPhone 4 and 3GS, after determining that Apple had violated a patent that Samsung owned related to transmission of data over cellular networks. The administration had until Monday to weigh in.

It was the first time that an administration has vetoed an International Trade Commission ban since 1987, according to Susan Kohn Ross, an international trade lawyer for Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp.

Michael Froman, the United States trade representative and the president's adviser on international trade issues, wrote in his decision issued on Saturday that it was based in part on the "effect on competitive conditions in the U.S. economy and the effect on U.S. consumers."

Apple argued that Samsung had committed to licensing its patents related to wireless technology standards, but was refusing to keep that promise. Samsung said Apple refused to pay licensing fees for its patents.

Samsung said Saturday that it was disappointed, adding, "The I.T.C.'s decision correctly recognized that Samsung has been negotiating in good faith and that Apple remains unwilling to take a license."

Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said, "We applaud the administration for standing up for innovation in this landmark case." She added, "Samsung was wrong to abuse the patent system in this way."

Mr. Froman said his decision did not mean that Samsung was "not entitled to a remedy. On the contrary, the patent owner may continue to pursue its rights through the courts."

Samsung and Apple were once tight partners — the South Korean company makes some key parts needed to produce iPhones and iPads. But over time, as they made products that competed in different markets, their friendship turned into rivalry.

The companies, which together rake in all of the profits in the handset industry, have been using patents as weapons to fight each other in the United States and other countries. Last year, a California jury awarded Apple $1 billion in damages after deciding that Samsung had violated the American company's mobile patents, though the amount was reduced to $599 million.

The clash between the global electronics giants resumes at the trade commission next week in another patent dispute. In that case, Apple claimed Samsung had violated one design patent and three technical patents. The commission expects to issue a decision by Friday.

Ms. Ross, the trade lawyer, said the administration's veto announced on Saturday will effectively remove a major bargaining chip for Samsung that could have disrupted Apple's manufacturing facilities for making iPhones and iPads.

Analysts previously said this ban would be trivial to Apple's bottom line, because Apple is about to refresh its iPhones and iPads for the holiday season, and the older models, like the iPhone 4, were going to be less popular.

Apple had support in opposing the commission's ban. Randal Milch, the general counsel of Verizon Communications, which was not involved in the exclusion order, wrote an editorial in The Wall Street Journal urging the administration to veto the ban. Microsoft, Oracle and Intel also publicly supported Apple.

Administration officials said Mr. Froman's decision was made without involvement by Mr. Obama or his senior aides in the White House. A 2005 executive order signed by President George W. Bush delegates the authority to act in cases like this to the United States trade representative, officials said.

The president's administration is aggressively pursuing trade deals with Europe and with Pacific Rim nations. But Mr. Obama has also pushed to be more aggressive in protecting the rights of American companies.

In its statement of trade policy last February, the administration said the president had "elevated trade enforcement on par with market-opening efforts" as a way of helping to level the playing field for American companies.

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12 Hurt as Car Drives Into Crowd at Venice Beach Boardwalk

LOS ANGELES — A car drove into a crowd of people walking along the famed Venice Beach boardwalk early Saturday, injuring a dozen people before the driver fled the busy Los Angeles tourist site.

The driver and sedan had yet to be located more than two hours after the 6 p.m. crash, police Officer Jorge Torres. Police were looking for a dark-colored Dodge Charger or Avenger. The driver was a man described as having sandy blond hair and estimated to be in his mid-20s, authorities said.

Multiple witnesses reported that the driver appeared to be "moving purposefully" and in control of the car as it plowed through the crowd, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

Firefighters were surveying the sprawling crowd looking for injured, Humphrey said.

Twelve injured had been counted, with 10 of them hospitalized. Two were hurt seriously and two critically, Humphrey said. He had no details on the identities of the victims or their injuries.

The car was still moving as it drove out of sight of firefighters and the people who were hit.

The Venice boardwalk is a cultural hub in a part of Los Angeles known for its eccentricities. It is home to galleries, restaurants, tattoo shops, skateboard parks and the famous outdoor weight room known as Muscle Beach.

Jogger Daniel Regidor was a short distance from the crash when it happened and as he approached he saw "people screaming, running."

"When I came upon the scene, there were a bunch of people on the ground, bloodied," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Some looked pretty mangled, head injuries, just a lot of blood."

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Car Drives Onto California Boardwalk, Injuring 12

A hit-and-run driver sped onto the crowded boardwalk at Los Angeles's Venice Beach on Saturday evening, striking at least a dozen people and injuring two critically, before fleeing, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.

Maarten Smitskamp/Associated Press

Pedestrians gathered after a vehicle drove into a crowd at the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles.

Witnesses said the car, a dark-colored sedan, had "moved purposefully along the boardwalk," striking pedestrians, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the fire department.

In addition to the two people who were critically injured, two sustained serious injuries and eight suffered minor injuries, he said. Ten victims were taken to a hospital.

Thousands of tourists had descended on the beachside strip, where they could watch the sunset and buy hemp bracelets and henna tattoos, before the car appeared just after 6 p.m., Mr. Humphrey said.

Photographs posted on Twitter soon afterward by @snapchat, a photo-sharing smartphone app, showed surveillance footage of a dark-blue sedan heading toward pedestrians on the boardwalk, who appeared to be trying to run away.

Other photos on Twitter showed the ensuing chaos on the Ocean Front Walk. Dozens of firefighters tended to victims. Merchants' tables and chairs were left overturned. And a crowd of hundreds gathered around.

By the time paramedics arrived, the driver was no longer at the scene. The Los Angeles police were searching for the car.

In 2003, a car plowed into a Santa Monica farmers' market, just a few miles from the Venice boardwalk, killing nine people.

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Qaeda Messages Prompt U.S. Terror Warning

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

The United States Embassy in Baghdad, among nearly two dozen that will be closed because of new security concerns.

WASHINGTON — The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives of Al Qaeda, in which the terrorists discussed attacks against American interests in the Middle East and North Africa, American officials said Friday.

The intercepts and a subsequent analysis of them by American intelligence agencies prompted the United States to issue an unusual global travel alert to American citizens on Friday, warning of the potential for terrorist attacks by operatives of Al Qaeda and their associates beginning Sunday through the end of August.

The bulletin to travelers and expatriates, issued by the State Department, came less than a day after the department announced that it was closing nearly two dozen American diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa, including facilities in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Britain said Friday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Monday and Tuesday because of "increased security concerns."

It is unusual for the United States to come across discussions among senior Qaeda operatives about operational planning — through informants, intercepted e-mails or eavesdropping on cellphone calls. So when the high-level intercepts were collected and analyzed this week, senior officials at the C.I.A., State Department and White House immediately seized on their significance. Members of Congress have been provided classified briefings on the matter, officials said Friday.

"This was a lot more than the usual chatter," said one senior American official who had been briefed on the information but would not provide details. Spokesmen for the State Department and the C.I.A. also declined to comment on the intercepts.

The importance of the intercepts was underscored by a speech that the Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, posted on jihadist forums on Tuesday. In his address, Mr. Zawahri called for attacks on American interests in response to its military actions in the Muslim world and American drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists.

Security analysts said Friday that in the aftermath of the furor over the Obama administration's handling of the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department is now more likely to publicize threat warnings when deemed credible, both to alert the public and to help deter any imminent attacks.

"A decision to close this many embassies and issue a global travel warning for a month suggests the threat is real, advanced and imminent but the intelligence is incomplete on where," said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. case officer and a Brookings Institution scholar.

The embassy closings come toward the end of the Ramadan holidays and the approaching first anniversary of the terror attack Sept. 11 on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

"We are particularly concerned about the security situation in the final days of Ramadan and into Eid," the British Foreign Office said in a statement, referring to the Muslim holy month that ends Wednesday evening.

Obama administration officials publicly declined to discuss what specific information had prompted the increased alarm and alerts, citing a desire to protect classified sources and methods.

But intercepting electronic communications is one the National Security Agency's main jobs, as the documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, a former N.S.A. contractor, have only underscored. At the request of intelligence officials, The New York Times withheld some details about the intercepted communications.

Some analysts and Congressional officials suggested Friday that emphasizing a terrorist threat now was a good way to divert attention from the uproar over the N.S.A.'s data-collection programs, and that if it showed the intercepts had uncovered a possible plot, even better.

The bulletin by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs did not advise against travel to any particular country, but it warned Americans to be particularly mindful of their surroundings, especially in tourist areas, and recommended that they register their travel plans with the State Department.

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Clouds Spread to Democratic Side of Virginia Governor’s Race

For months, the governor's race in Virginia has unfolded beneath a cloud of scandal over the Republican incumbent that spread to his would-be Republican successor, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II.

But now a potential scandal also threatens to distract the campaign of the Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe.

An electric car company Mr. McAuliffe founded is a target of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, government documents show.

The venture, GreenTech Automotive, was already a flash point because of the failure of enthusiastic promises of jobs made by Mr. McAuliffe, the former Democratic fund-raiser known for his showmanship and close friendship with Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The S.E.C. investigation has the potential to elevate GreenTech in the campaign by focusing on Mr. McAuliffe's history of mingling politics and business, as investigators target the company's fund-raising arm run by Anthony Rodham, a brother of Mrs. Clinton's. The commission is focused on possible fraud involving foreign investors in GreenTech, according to government documents.

The documents were made public on Friday by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who is investigating whether Mr. McAuliffe received special treatment from a top immigration official.

The official, Alejandro Mayorkas, is President Obama's pick for the No. 2 job at the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Mayorkas said at a Senate hearing last week that he had met with Mr. McAuliffe once to listen to his complaints, but that he gave him no special treatment.

Mr. McAuliffe and Mr. Rodham sought dozens of green-card visas for foreign investors, primarily Chinese, under a program known as EB-5, which gives permanent resident visas in exchange for a $500,000 investment in an American company that creates jobs. GreenTech's financing depended on the EB-5 program, which was administered by a sister company that Mr. Rodham ran, Gulf Coast Funds Management. Both used the same office near Mr. McAuliffe's Northern Virginia home.

According to e-mails Mr. Grassley received from what he calls disgruntled Homeland Security employees, Mr. McAuliffe and his lawyers applied a drumbeat of pressure to speed up visa approval.

In a letter this week to Mr. Mayorkas, who oversees the visas as director of the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services, Mr. Grassley wrote, "At a minimum, you clearly created the impression among senior career staff that you were giving special treatment."

Mr. Mayorkas strenuously denied in Senate testimony last week that he had shown preferential treatment.

"I have never in my career used undue influence to influence the outcome of a case," he said.

A spokesman for Mr. Mayorkas said Friday that he had no further reply to Mr. Grassley.

The S.E.C. subpoenaed documents last month from GreenTech and Gulf Coast apparently aimed at determining whether the electric car maker had promised foreign investors risk-free returns, which would violate securities rules.

In a statement, GreenTech acknowledged the subpoena and said it was "cooperating fully" with the commission.

Mr. McAuliffe, through a campaign spokesman, said he had no knowledge of the investigation. He stepped down as chairman of GreenTech in early December last year to focus on his campaign for governor.

His spokesman, Josh Schwerin, said Mr. McAuliffe never sought special treatment from the immigration service through his and his lawyers' frequent e-mails and requests for meetings.

"Terry, like many business and political officials from both parties, was frustrated with the bureaucratic pace of the investment program," Mr. Schwerin said.

GreenTech's failure to live up to Mr. McAuliffe's original predictions — that it would create 900 jobs, versus the fewer than 100 currently, and produce more than 100,000 cars annually, compared with 7,000 this year — became a campaign issue from the beginning.

At the first debate of the race last month, Mr. Cuccinelli also attacked Mr. McAuliffe for skipping Virginia to set up the GreenTech factory in Mississippi.

"So run for governor of Mississippi," Mr. Cuccinelli jabbed.

Mr. Cuccinelli, the Virginia attorney general, is trying to deflect attention from the scandal tracking Gov. Bob McDonnell, who this week said he would return lavish gifts from a political donor, including a $6,500 Rolex watch, and repay nearly $125,000 in loans, which are the subject of state and federal investigations.

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DealBook: In Complex Trading Case, Jurors Focused on Greed

When nine New York residents shuffled into a cramped jury room in the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, they were divided over Fabrice Tourre's culpability in a toxic mortgage deal sold to investors.

Then, over more than 13 hours, the five women and four men pored over reams of disclosure documents that Mr. Tourre and his employer Goldman Sachs had provided for investors in 2007, grappling with the nuances of the Securities and Exchange Commission's case. One juror, 32-year-old Tina Oommen, scribbled the various charges facing the former trader on a white board. Others scoured the voluminous transcript from the three-week trial.

Tension mounted among the nine — which included educators, a stockbroker, an Episcopal priest and a digital advertising employee who reads Esquire magazine — as the deliberations dragged on.

"It got really intense; it reminded me of religion," said the Rev. Beth F. Glover, the 47-year-old priest who initially struck a skeptical tone about aspects of the government's case. She questioned whether Mr. Tourre's supposed violation was "material," a finding that was needed to rule against the former trader.

At 3:12 p.m. on Thursday, the jury reached a verdict. Mr. Tourre, they decided, was liable for six of the seven counts.

Interviews with five of the nine jurors, an eclectic group spread across Westchester County, Manhattan and the Bronx, pulled back a curtain on the private deliberations in the S.E.C.'s most prominent trial stemming from the financial crisis. The jurors, speaking from their homes and offices a day after the trial, described the genesis of their decision.

They expressed sympathy for Mr. Tourre, alternately calling him a "scapegoat" and a "willing participant" in Goldman's vast mortgage machine.

But ultimately, the jurors said, their decision came down to what they saw as the letter of the law and, for some, a broader concern that Mr. Tourre's actions underscored a fundamental problem with society: Wall Street greed.

"He is what Wall Street is all about and it scared me," Evelyn Linares, a school principal from the Bronx, said on Friday in an interview from her porch. "You go in thinking you can make a difference and you get sucked in."

The S.E.C.'s case hinged on its grim portrayal of Wall Street.

In his opening argument to the jury, Matthew T. Martens, the leading lawyer for the agency, depicted the case against Mr. Tourre as an assault on "Wall Street greed," arguing that the former trader had created a deal "to maximize the potential it would fail."

Mr. Tourre, Mr. Martens later declared in his closing remarks, was living in a "Goldman Sachs land of make-believe" where deceiving investors is not fraudulent.

That argument resonated with the jurors.

"Mr. Martens told us at the beginning that we would see this was all about Wall Street greed, and we did get to see that," Ms. Linares said.

And jurors said that they trusted Mr. Martens, with one describing the clean-cut lawyer as "Marine-like."

For Mr. Martens, the case was his final act at the S.E.C. He has already notified the agency's enforcement chiefs that he will soon depart for a white-shoe law firm, a person briefed on the matter said. Mr. Martens, the person said, is currently choosing between Latham & Watkins and WilmerHale.

For the S.E.C., whose credibility as a regulator came into question after failing to thwart the crisis, the jury delivered a long-sought courtroom victory. The triumph over Mr. Tourre follows one disappointment after another for the S.E.C., including two similar mortgage-related cases that crumbled last year.

In an e-mail to the trial team after the verdict, an S.E.C. official thanked the lawyers for securing a victory. "We needed this," the official said.

Still, some critics have questioned why the agency chose to make Mr. Tourre — a midlevel employee who was 28 at the time of the mortgage deal — the face of the crisis. Not one executive at Lehman Brothers, which filed Wall Street's biggest bankruptcy ever at the height of the crisis, was charged with wrongdoing.

Mr. Tourre's lawyers seized on that sentiment, painting the trader as a scapegoat who abandoned his Wall Street career to pursue a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. The lawyers also noted that senior Goldman executives had approved the deal.

The jurors were sympathetic to that argument. After reflecting on Mr. Tourre's case, Beverly Rhett, a former special education teacher known as juror No. 2, commented: "I could characterize him as somewhat of a scapegoat."

Ms. Glover, the priest, echoed those remarks. "It is a shame lower-level employees get pulled in," she said. "There's a part of me that felt it was very unfair."

Yet his lower-level status, jurors say, did not erase what he did.

"We were asked to look at his actions," Ms. Glover said, as she sipped coffee, with a button pinned to her shirt saying "We Care About Your Spiritual Needs."

"They portrayed him as a cog, but in the end a machine is made up of cogs and he was a willing part of that," she said.

Ms. Linares, the school principal, said, "We don't think he deserved to take the blame for everything but he did play along."

The scheme, according to the S.E.C., involved the marketing of a mortgage deal in 2007. At the heart of the agency's case was the claim that Mr. Tourre and Goldman sold investors the deal without disclosing a crucial conflict of interest: a hedge fund that helped construct the deal also bet that it would fail.

Mr. Martens also cited an e-mail in which Mr. Tourre stated that the riskiest slice of the mortgage trade — a piece typically bought by someone betting that the deal would succeed — was "precommitted," when in fact it was not even going to be offered.

Mr. Tourre, his lawyers argued, corrected that misstatement in offering documents that followed, calling that slice N/A or not applicable. But some jurors said they didn't feel that convincing, because the tranche the hedge fund bought was also listed as N/A when it wasn't.

His lucrative paycheck — $1.7 million in 2007, the year he assembled the mortgage deal in question — also swayed some jurors.

Still, Ms. Glover was not initially convinced. She debated whether it was "material" for investors to know the hedge fund's role in the transaction.

"Industry practice was also not to disclose," she said, reciting a line from the defense's playbook.

And when the S.E.C. quoted embarrassing love notes Mr. Tourre sent to his girlfriend, some jurors felt sympathy rather than condemnation. Ms. Linares also prayed for Mr. Tourre — and the other witnesses — every day during the trial.

Other jurors were more adamant that Mr. Tourre was liable. When they couldn't agree on a particular charge, they would shift to another issue.

"At times things got heated. We were trying to play both sides of the fence and there were times when we didn't agree on things," Leonel Lopez, the Esquire-reading advertising employee, added.

Mr. Tourre lost, the jurors said, despite performing well on the witness stand over three days.

In fact, some jurors questioned why Mr. Tourre's lawyers didn't keep him there longer.

"It was a big shock to us that they didn't ask more questions," Ms. Glover said. "He was likable and engaging," she said, adding it would have been easier for jurors if he was more villainlike.

While the loss also raised questions about the defense team declining to call a single witness, most jurors said that decision did not sway their vote. Mr. Lopez, 27, said the decision "didn't strike me as odd because they did get a chance to question the prosecution's witnesses."

According to legal experts, defense lawyers commonly present no defense when the government has already called their client as a witness.

"It's both a show of confidence and a tactic to get the jury to focus on the fact that the burden of proof rests with the government," said Evan T. Barr, a former federal prosecutor who now defends white-collar cases as a partner at Steptoe & Johnson. "I would not be second-guessing the decision."

A lawyer for Mr. Tourre declined to comment. Goldman Sachs, which settled its part in the case by paying a $550 million fine in 2010, also declined to comment. The bank has paid for Mr. Tourre's defense, and is likely to continue doing so.

While Mr. Tourre was the one on trial, the case weighed on jurors as well. Some traveled from more than an hour away each day, and then were forced to cram in work every evening.

Jurors were provided muffins or doughnuts by the court on some mornings. Nonetheless, Ms. Linares, on a special diet she started just before trial, says she lost 20 pounds — taking her muffin home for her 87-year-old mother.

"It's been a long three weeks," Reece Pate, 37, a graphic designer known as juror No. 7, said. "I'm trying to get back into my normal routine."

For Ms. Rhett, the retired teacher, the trial ended just in time for her to make a cruise. Reached late Thursday night, Ms. Rhett said she returned home after the verdict and began to read media articles.

"I had no idea how big the case was. I had not read anything or heard anything."

After the verdict on Thursday, Steven Zucker, the jury foreman, suggested a reunion, and Ms. Rhett collected everyone's e-mails. One person recalled Mr. Zucker, the former stockbroker, saying, "We should all go out for a drink."

William Alden contributed reporting.

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Rodriguez Plays, but Return May Be Brief

TRENTON — At a news conference after a minor league rehabilitation game Friday night, Alex Rodriguez was peppered with questions about allegations that he was involved with Biogenesis, a now-defunct South Florida clinic accused of issuing performance-enhancing drugs.

Rodriguez had hit a home run for the Yankees' Class AA affiliate, the Trenton Thunder. But with a possible suspension from Major League Baseball looming, the questions were focused on other matters.

"There are a lot of people that are confused, a lot of people that don't understand the process," Rodriguez said. "There is a lot of layers. I will say this: there's more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field. That's not my teammates, and it's not the Yankee fans."

Asked whom he meant, he replied: "I can't tell you that right now. And I hope I never have to."

There has been plenty of speculation that the Yankees front office would not mind if Rodriguez were suspended rather than return to the team. Rodriguez's contract is considered an albatross, among the worst in baseball.

Rodriguez had come to Trenton to play in two rehabilitation games, on Friday and Saturday, before possibly rejoining the Yankees on Monday for a series against the White Sox in Chicago. That, Rodriguez said Friday night, was the plan he had discussed with the Yankees.

A suspension for Rodriguez could come Sunday, or Monday at the latest, according to a baseball official with direct knowledge of the situation who was not allowed to speak publicly on the matter.

Baseball officials have threatened to issue Rodriguez a lifetime ban, but they are hoping that before Monday he will agree to accept a lesser suspension that would last through the 2014 season. Negotiations between baseball officials and Rodriguez's representatives in the players union seemed to slow Friday.

That was the backdrop as fans lined up outside Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton. Rodriguez took batting practice, ran the bases, long-tossed and fielded grounders. His injured hip and quadriceps did not seem bothersome.

Len Grzywacz, an usher, watched Rodriguez from a walkway in the stands. He thought Rodriguez looked fine, like his old self.

"This could be it," Grzywacz said. "You'll want to save these ticket stubs."

Once inside, fans snapped photos of the whiteboard showing the lineup. There he was, Rodriguez, Alex, wearing No. 13, playing third base, batting second. A crowd huddled around the Thunder dugout, in some places four people deep, and waited.

Rodriguez finally emerged, about a half-hour before the first pitch. One woman shrieked as if he were a Beatle. Others clambered over seats to get a better look or take a picture. Near the back, two men held high a makeshift sign that read, "Cheater."

As he signed autographs, Rodriguez disappeared in a swarm of cameras that moved as he moved.

About 150 media members had credentials for the game, and the concourse was already crowded. The park was sold out, and the Thunder sold standing-room-only tickets. There was an even smattering of cheers and boos when Rodriguez was introduced, but there were clearly more boos when he came to bat for the first time. He chatted with the fans in the front rows and then drew a five-pitch walk.

He came up again in the third inning, swung effortlessly and crushed a 2-0 pitch into the night. Rodriguez watched as the ball sailed over the 32-foot-high wall in left field, trotted around the bases, pointed to the crowd and managed to smile.

In his third plate appearance, in the fifth inning, he struck out. The plan was for him to play five innings and get three at-bats, so after that, he left the game. Then about 20 television cameras and 70 reporters squeezed into a room for his news conference.

Rodriguez was asked what he would say to young boys who idolize him.

"That I love the game," Rodriguez said. "And this game has been very good to me, for a long time. That's all I've ever done: I love the game, appreciate the game."

He said that he felt good and that he wished he were in San Diego, playing with his Yankees teammates. He said he wanted to play another five years. He said it was his understanding that the plan was for him to play seven innings with the Thunder on Saturday, to complete a short workout Sunday and then to play Monday in Chicago.

He said he was confident he would do so.

"Unless I get hit by lightning," he said, smiling, "and these days, you never know."

David Waldstein contributed reporting from San Diego.

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Mets 4, Royals 2 (11 innings): 11th-Inning Homer Ends Mets’ Day of Losses With a Bittersweet Win

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

Eric Young Jr.'s two-run homer off Luis Mendoza ended the game after David Wright left an inning earlier with a hamstring injury.

From start to end, it was an unsettling Friday for the Mets.

It started in the morning, when two relief pitchers received bad medical news. It continued into their game against the Kansas City Royals, one of baseball's hottest teams, when the Mets' revamped lineup went silent and the bullpen faltered, wasting a good start from Dillon Gee.

Things reached a nadir, finally, in the 10th inning, when third baseman David Wright, the team's captain and best player, limped extremely carefully into the Mets' dugout while grabbing at his right hamstring.

At that point, the game's result ceased to matter — for the record, the Mets won, 4-2, when Eric Young Jr. hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning at Citi Field.

Wright will have a magnetic resonance imaging exam Saturday morning, but Collins acknowledged that things did not look promising. If Wright's injury is fairly serious, it will represent a gigantic problem for the Mets, who have had trouble scoring runs anyway.

Before the game, Manager Terry Collins shuffled his lineup, moving Daniel Murphy to fifth, Ike Davis to seventh and Juan Lagares to second, specifically to try to address the problem.

Wright started the game batting .302 with 15 home runs and 52 runs batted in and promptly reiterated his worth. In the first inning, he drilled a two-run homer to left field to give the Mets an early lead against the Royals, who came to Citi Field carrying a nine-game winning streak. It was Wright's 220th homer, which tied him with Mike Piazza for second on the club's career list.

Hours later, when the game was tied, 2-2, Wright led off the 10th inning and drilled a grounder into the shortstop hole. He sprinted down the line, swerving to avoid an errant throw, but as the ball rattled around he hobbled to a stop, holding the back of his right leg, before coming to a rest with his hands on his knees.

Wright, who has battled a right hamstring problem for a week or so — something he has been reluctant to talk about — promptly left the game, walking gingerly into the Mets' clubhouse. The night took an even weirder turn when Zack Wheeler, the prized pitching prospect, pinch-ran for Wright.

The Mets celebrated on the field an inning later when Young ripped a two-run homer off Luis Mendoza to end the game. But the jubilation at home seemed justifiably more subdued than the average game-winning celebration.

Earlier, Gee brought some steadiness to the up-and-down day, giving up one run over seven-plus innings, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out four batters.

But as the Mets carried a 2-1 lead into the ninth, their bullpen could not finish the job. It was a meltdown that could have been predicted hours earlier, when two key relief pitchers were sidelined.

Josh Edgin, a 26-year-old left-hander, was placed on the 15-day disabled list after an M.R.I. revealed a hairline fracture in the eighth rib on his left side. Edgin was told he could miss four to six weeks, though he will be re-evaluated next week.

It was a blow to the player and the club, as Edgin appeared be finding the form that made him so effective late last season. After being recalled a month and a half ago from Class AAA, he made 23 appearances, producing a 0.93 earned run average in 191/3 innings.

Edgin was not sure how the injury occurred. He began to feel pain around his rib cage last month, but pitched through it. When the pain intensified this week, he thought it might be an intercostal muscle strain. But the M.R.I. showed otherwise.

Before the game, the Mets called up Pedro Feliciano, the 36-year-old left-hander whose last major league appearance came 34 months ago, during his last stint with the team.

Bobby Parnell, who has 22 saves, has been feeling stiffness around his neck muscles since Thursday morning. He visited team doctors on Friday and was given medication to battle the soreness. He will be re-examined on Monday.

Parnell's absence became glaring when David Aardsma, handed the closer's job for the night, botched the save chance. He gave up a leadoff double to Miguel Tejada and walked Alcides Escobar. The two advanced to second and third on Elliot Johnson's sacrifice bunt. The Mets intentionally walked Billy Butler, loading the bases. Lorenzo Cain lined a sacrifice fly to center field to tie the score. Feliciano entered to try to preserve the tie and, after showing an 85 mile-per-hour fastball, coaxed Alex Gordon into hitting a groundout on a 73 m.p.h. changeup.

Carlos Torres, listed as Saturday's starter for the Mets, came on to pitch the next two innings, yet another strange development that spoke to the suddenly dire circumstances the Mets faced.

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