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Adam Lewis
BY Adam Lewis 12:24PM 10/04/2013

A-Rod sues MLB, claiming it led a ‘witch hunt’

New annoying tactic from former Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez: Separate from his PED appeal, he’s suing MLB for buying the evidence against him, and other unsavory deeds.

Alex Rodriguez, the former Mariners shortstop, is going after MLB, claiming it paid Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch $5 million for ratting out the former MVP. / Wiki Commons

Hand it to Alex Rodriguez: he isn’t going down quietly. Issued a 211-game suspension midseason by Major League Baseball for his involvement with Biogenesis, a Miami-based anti-aging clinic that issued performance enhancing drugs to 13 players, Rodriguez immediately appealed so he could finish the season playing for the Yankees.

Now he’s suing MLB, claiming it practiced “tortious interference” while investigating the disgraced slugger. The details of the alleged accusations are TMZ-worthy.

As first reported in The New York Times, Rodriguez is taking aim at the investigation that could ultimately end his career. In the lawsuit, he alleges that MLB paid $150,000 in cash for stolen documents at a spy-movie-style handoff in a Fort Lauderdale, FL., restaurant. It gets more scandalous: Rodriguez’s team is accusing MLB investigator Dan Mullin of partaking in a sexual relationship with one of the witnesses used to condemn Rodriguez to the longest suspension in league history.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a New York State Supreme Court, can be found here. Rodriguez’s legal team is claiming that MLB paid Bosch upwards of $5 million for cooperation in what they’re calling a “witch hunt” focused on ostracizing the third baseman. Rodriguez names Bud Selig as a defendant, claiming that the outgoing commissioner tried to use Rodriguez as a scapegoat after years of failing to enforce a policy aimed at banning players from using performance enhancing drugs.

The suit is separate from Rodriguez’s arbitration hearings that began Monday as a apart of the league’s appeal process. So Rodriguez is fighting his suspension with the league AND suing them.  A decision regarding his suspension isn’t expected for at least a month.

In a statement Friday, the MLB denied all the allegations.

Rodriguez, who remains reviled in Seattle, played for the Mariners from  1994-2000, posting a .309 batting average and a .934 OPS before spending three seasons in Texas (01-03). He signed with the Yankees in 2004, though his last 10 seasons have been filled with tumult and huge sums of money. Rodriguez still has four years remaining on his 10-year, $275 million contract. At 38, his 654 home runs and .299 career batting average would be sure-fire Hall of Fame credentials had he not been involved throughout his career with performance-enhancing substances.

According to Baseball Reference, Rodriguez has amassed $353,416,252 in salary during the course of his 20-year career, though no amount could restore his reputation.


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YourThoughts

  • Guy K. Browne

    Obviously he feels he has no chance on his appeal, becuase a lawsuit against MLB is career suicide… unluess of course, your career is already dead.

    • art thiel

      My guess is this threat has been made privately for weeks to MLB, and MLB called his bluff. So now MLB’s practices will be exposed.

      • bugzapper

        What? As if nobody knew about MLB’s practices already? Selig is a former used car hustler, fer chrissakes. And a thief from Milwaukee. Where do you think the Brewers came from?

        Jafabian makes a good point. If A-Roid had stayed here among real friends, instead of those finger-pointing PED clowns in Texas, there may have been a different outcome. But he never had any intention of staying here. In fact, when he was first drafted he threw a tantrum, and said the only team he would play for was the Dodgers. He didn’t want to be here to begin with. Eventually, he got his wish and $250 million.

        In November of 2000 I heard Scott Boras on KMOX (St. Louis) laugh out loud at the sportsjock who asked how the negotiations with Seattle were going. “We never had any intention of re-signing with Seattle,” said Boras. Those of you with a couple MB of internal RAM will recall that was the same time Linc and Chuckie were golfing in Hawaii, while Gillick was optimistically expecting a Florida meeting to finalize the deal he thought he had. Boras and Mr. Disingenuous were dicking everybody up here.

        So it’s not like Pay-Wad wasn’t stepping on his own from the very beginning. He was self-absorbed then, and he’s self-absorbed now. HOF? Buahahaha! He’s also spent a decade giving Tiger a run for his money. (Sorry there, Cameron, Kate, Madonna and Lindsay, but I’m crossing you off my list.)

        http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_2579/alex-rodriguez/datinghistory

        • art thiel

          We all know Selig’s dubious history. But from the reporting so far, MLB has gone to a new frontier in attempting to throw A-Rod out of the game that should concern every player regardless of their views about A-Rod.

          I doubt that Seattle was so warm and fuzzy that staying here would have changed his personality. Seattle had its own PED problems, as did every club.

          You’re right, A-Rod had no intention of staying, and Chuck and Howard looked foolish thinking they had a shot. But HOF may still be in play if, for example, if in 10-15 yrs PEDs are as common and legal as marijuana, voters may look upon his PED indiscretions as irrelevant.

          And as far as him being a phony, if that’s a standard, half the HOF must be drained.

          • jafabian

            The difference with the M’s is that except for Ryan Franklin none of the guilty M’s were major contributors like they were in Texas. In fact several were on the way to the HOF. The M’s were mostly at the minor league level. I don’t harbor and false illusions that the M’s were Saints but the Rangers at the time seemed to be worse than most other clubs.

          • Trygvesture

            uhhh, Big Head Boone, suddenly a hitter?? There were others, obviously.
            But Aroid is hands-down HOF in terms of the Disingenuous Sweepstakes. He and Howupchuck really DESERVED each other. Still do. And Z has climbed aboard that bus with all his luggage, too. Pathetic, the lot of ‘em.

          • jafabian

            I get what you’re saying about Boonie but innocent until proven guilty. I don’t want to point the finger at him or anyone else until otherwise.

  • jafabian

    Since he admiitted to using PED’s in the past and MLB basically covered for him he opens himself up to a full investigation now. Lying about using them again AND recruiting more clients for Biogenesis would justify MLB’s position in my eyes. He’s lucky they didn’t just ban him because of that last one.

    He’s the only player to challenge MLB. That says something there.

    • art thiel

      True, but baseball really stooped low in paying for evidence with Bosch. They allowed A-Rod to drag down MLB.

      • jafabian

        I believe Alex is running into the same thing Pete Rose is in getting into the HOF. No one doubts Alex’s playing ability and how he is as a teammate. But he’s such a polarizing figure and as Buhner and many others have said when he talks he’s usually full of it. I like to call him the Eddie Haskell of MLB. And no one likes Eddie Haskell. If he was more like, say, Alvin Davis he probably would get the Ryan Braun ban. And he never should be put in this position a second time around. He knew better.

        These lawsuits are a cover up for his transgressions. If he wins he’ll still get a suspension of some sort, probably the same s Braun’s. And he pretty much destroys his going into the HOF at this point.

        Always wondered if Alex stayed in Seattle, wanting to be like Cal and Jeter and be with the same team how would his career have gone. HIs problems began in Texas. Having players like Dan, Buhner and Edgar around him would be a much better influence than Canseco, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmerio on a young player.

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