Alex Rodriguez Files Lawsuit Against Major League Baseball

Sep 24, 2013; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees third baseman

walks back to the dugout after flying out to end the fourth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

Alex Rodriguez has turned the tables on Major League Baseball. Late Thursday, he filed a lawsuit against the league, specifically commissioner Bud Selig. Here’s a link to the court document.

In it, Rodriguez and his legal team claim that MLB has been “engaged in tortious and egregious conduct with one, and only one, goal: to improperly marshall evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez, one of the most accomplished Major League Baseball players of all time.”

The document is full of more dramatic verbiage, like “From the start of their investigation, Defendants have engaged in vigilante justice,” and a reference to MLB’s “scorched earth justice.”

Rodriguez’s lawyers also wrote that MLB had paid Tony Bosch, the head of the now-closed Biogenesis clinic in Coral Gables, FL, a total of $5 million in monthly installments “to buy his cooperation,” citing “at least one individual who claims to have knowledge of Mr. Bosch’s deal.”

The complaint seeks to defame Bud Selig as someone who is trying to save his legacy (see: Section B: The Disastrous Tenure of Commissioner Selig) by executing a “witch hunt” on A-Rod, while portraying the Yankees third baseman as a pillar of the community (See: Section A: Alex Rodriguez and His Distinguished Career, Both On and Off the Baseball Diamond).

Those sections come under a heading interestingly titled “Statement of Facts.”

Give A-Rod and his team credit – it’s one of the most entertaining court documents you’ll read. 

Among the accusations in the complaint, Rodriguez’s lawyers claim an investigator paid $150,000 in cash for records related to Rodriguez, which were apparently stolen. A portion of the cash “was handed off in a bag at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area restaurant,” the lawsuit says.

The Yankees are not mentioned as defendants in the suit. And there is no denial of PED use.

So, it seems A-Rod is determined to go out in a blaze of glory. If he’s going down, he’s taking the entire sport with him.

MLB left itself in a somewhat vulnerable position by hitting A-Rod with an unprecedented 211-game suspension. The league’s drug policy states that a first-time offender should get a 50-game suspension, and a two-time offender should get a 100-game suspension.

In 2009, A-Rod admitted to using PEDs when he was with the Texas Rangers earlier in the decade, but hasn’t admitted any ties to the Biogenesis clinic, which has been linked to Rodriguez and other major league ballplayers.

A-Rod appealed the sentence, and probably would have had it reduced when the arbiter reached a decision in November. But that wasn’t enough for the “distinguished” Alex Rodriguez.

In a case of man-bites-dog, the admitted PED user is attempting to punish Selig and MLB for catching him in the act.