Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig filed a petition against Alex Rodriguez’s former public relations honcho Tuesday, seeking enforcement of a subpoena about the suspended All-Star’s alleged doping records.
The petition alleges Michael Sitrick, known as the Wizard of Spin for his defense of tarnished athletes such as Michael Vick, has stonewalled demands issued during the arbitration hearing between the league and Rodriguez, who is fighting his 211-game suspension for allegedly using multiple illegal performance-enhancing drugs on multiple occasions and obstructing MLB’s investigation into Biogenesis, the shuttered South Florida anti-aging clinic.
The Manhattan Supreme Court petition claims Sitrick has refused to turn over documents MLB believes Rodriguez took from Anthony Bosch, owner of Biogenesis who has become baseball’s star witness in the appeal hearing. The initial subpoena was issued to Sitrick last month by the three-person panel overseeing Rodriguez’s arbitration.
MLB has evidence “Rodriguez, or others acting on his behalf” took the Biogenesis paperwork “for the apparent purpose of preventing MLB from obtaining those records and from uncovering evidence of Rodriguez’s use and possession of prohibited substances,” the petition says.
It also accuses Rodriguez’s inner circle of leaking selected portions of those documents outing other players such as the Brewers’ Ryan Braun and the Yankees’ Francisco Cervelli for using performance-enhancing drugs to the media. Yahoo! Sports broke the story of Braun’s and Cervelli’s connection to Biogenesis. Rodriguez denied leaking such documents and said he reached out to his teammate Cervelli to personally discuss the allegations.
The arbitration subpoena was issued to determine whether Sitrick was involved in the leak or is holding on to the evidence.
MLB wants Sitrick to appear at its Manhattan headquarters on Nov. 18, the day the hearing is scheduled to resume, to produce the documents. Independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz leads the panel that also features MLB COO Rob Manfred and Players Association general counsel David Prouty.
Sitrick’s attorney, J. Michael Hennigan, said, “We were expecting to work it out.
“It is Mr. Sitrick’s intention to cooperate to the extent that he can.”