Already engaged in legal battle on multiple fronts, Alex Rodriguez turned on his own union Monday.
In an effort to vacate the 162-game suspension he received on Saturday for his alleged involvement with Biogenesis, the Yankees’ beleaguered superstar filed a new lawsuit in Manhattan federal court Monday that names both Major League Baseball (and commissioner Bud Selig) and the MLB Players Association as defendants.
Team A-Rod didn’t file for an injunction as threatened, attorney Joseph Tacopina said Monday, because such action wouldn’t be necessary until the start of the regular season — the Yankees start their schedule on April 1 — and there is hope this case can be resolved by then. Judge Edgardo Ramos has been assigned the case, Tacopina said.
In the suit, Rodriguez alleged the Players Association “completely abdicated its responsibility to Mr. Rodriguez to protect his rights under the agreements between MLB and MLBPA.” He also contended independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, who reduced A-Rod’s suspension from 211 games, “exhibited a manifest disregard for the law” and “acted with evident partiality.”
Most shockingly, Team A-Rod alleged former players association executive director Michael Weiner, who died of brain cancer on Nov. 21, didn’t properly represent Rodriguez when, during an Aug. 6 radio interview with Chris Russo on SiriusXM Radio, he recommended Rodriguez accept a suspension if MLB offered a reasonable enough penalty.
“It is unfortunate that Alex Rodriguez has chosen to sue the Players Association,” Tony Clark, the union’s executive director (and Rodriguez’s teammate on the 2004 Yankees), said in a statement. “His claim is completely without merit, and we will aggressively defend ourselves and our members from these baseless charges.
“The Players Association has vigorously defended Mr. Rodriguez’s rights throughout the Biogenesis investigation, and indeed throughout his career. Mr. Rodriguez’s allegation that the Association has failed to fairly represent him is outrageous, and his gratuitous attacks on our former Executive Director, Michael Weiner, are inexcusable. When all is said and done, I am confident the Players Association will prevail.”
Responded Tacopina: “Michael Weiner is a beloved and great guy and certainly has a respected legacy, but the one thing he did here, it was a mistake. … I don’t think this destroys his legacy by any stretch. But Alex has a legacy, too.”
Team A-Rod asked for a finding the Players Association “has breached its duty of fair representation” to Rodriguez, and MLB “has breached the collectively bargained agreement,” by virtue of which his discipline should be vacated. It also asks for “such other and further relief as the Court deems just, proper and equitable.”
The lawsuit details several complaints in which Team A-Rod alleges the Players Association, long viewed as one of the most effective and powerful unions in the United States, declined to intervene on Rodriguez’s behalf. Among them (in addition to Weiner’s interview) are the failure to stop MLB’s civil lawsuit against Anthony Bosch, which led to Bosch cooperating with MLB; a refusal to let A-Rod select his own representative (instead of the PA’s general counsel David Prouty) to the three-person arbitration panel; and a lack of effort to halt media leaks about Rodriguez’s case.
“MLBPA determined early on that it did not want to ‘take on’ MLB over the alleged use of (illegal PEDs) by Mr. Rodriguez,” the lawsuit reads, “and, instead, would ‘save its fire’ for other issues where it would be across the table from MLB.”
Rodriguez made an appearance at a Houston car dealer he is a partial owner of Monday, but KHOU-TV reported Rodriguez made no public comments, the media was barred from the event and employees covered the windows as soon as Rodriguez was inside.
As for Horowitz, Team A-Rod alleged the arbitrator, a baseball fan, issued a ruling favorable to MLB because he didn’t want to get fired like his predecessor, Shyam Das, did after acquitting Ryan Braun. The Players Association also can fire an arbitrator, although it has never done so. The suit purported MLB had offered Rodriguez a 162-game suspension last August if he had agreed not to appeal, and Horowitz arrived at that same number in an effort to appease MLB.
Horowitz, the suit alleged, imposed “his own brand of industrial justice” with his record-setting penalty of Rodriguez, even though baseball regarded Rodriguez as a zero-time offender; Horowitz explained his decision by noting the extensive evidence that linked A-Rod to three different drugs as well as two counts of obstruction.
Team A-Rod also contended Horowitz made a series of rulings against Rodriguez in the hearing, ruling that made it extremely difficult for A-Rod to defend his case. Among them:
1) Horowitz didn’t force Selig to take the witness stand when Team A-Rod wanted to cross-examine the commissioner.
2) He ruled Team A-Rod couldn’t offer evidence “concerning Bosch’s treatment of other MLB players with non-banned nutritional supplements.” Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez fell into this category.
3) He allowed Bosch to plead the Fifth Amendment on many of Tacopina’s questions.
4) He refused to permit Rodriguez’s own technical experts to inspect Bosch’s Blackberry Messenger, which contained the approximately 500 text message communications between A-Rod and Bosch about Rodriguez’s illegal PED usage.
It’s a legal Hail Mary to ask courts to overrule binding arbitration cases, Tacopina acknowledged. However, he added, “If you read the cases that the judges have intervened to overturn labor arbitrations, it’s cases like this where the process wasn’t fair. The rules of baseball’s own CBA (collectively bargained agreement) and JDA (Joint Drug Agreement) weren’t adhered to.”
MLB declined comment.
(Horowitz decision starts on page 44)