A-Rod's Legal Team Now Wants Federal Government to Investigate Baseball

The game of brinksmanship between Alex Rodriguez and Major League Baseball over his pending Biogenesis-related suspension took another turn on Tuesday, of course. One of A-Rod’s advisers, Lanny Davis, issued a statement requesting the U.S. Government to investigate MLB.

Here’s the statement via the New York Post:

"“Commissioner [Bud] Selig is the trustee of our national pastime,” Davis’ statement read. “… I repeat my request that U.S. authorities should initiate an investigation as to whether any federal crimes have been committed by MLB investigators as well as those in the Commissioner’s office who may have been complicit in this misconduct — for example, in the purchase of stolen documents; or whether MLB filed information with the IRS that federal law requires for this type of a commercial transaction involving $125,000 in cash.”"

I, for one, truly hope our tax dollars are spent investigating this matter. It’s hard to think of a more pressing issue for our government than finding hard evidence that would overturn Rodriguez’s 211-game suspension for possibly using PEDs.

The grievance hearing doesn’t resume until Nov. 14, so this sort of back and forth to continue. MLB issued a statement of its own, so at least it’s a good time for folks who special in writing legal boilerplate.

"“Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have collectively bargained agreements that govern drug suspensions and the drug suspension of Alex Rodriguez. The Arbitration Panel will determine the relevance, if any, and validity of Mr. Davis’s baseless claims if and when Mr. Rodriguez lawyers attempt to present actual evidence as opposed to unfounded speculation. “Mr. Davis has no standing on this matter or any issue in Baseball. To the extent he has any information regarding this grievance, he has obtained it improperly because he is not the counsel of record in this matter. We do note that Mr. Davis has nothing to say about the central issue: that Alex Rodriguez violated the joint drug agreement by his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances over the course of multiple years and violated the Basic Agreement for attempting to cover-up his violations of the Program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commissioner’s investigation.”"

At this point neither side looks particularly good with all the threats back-and-forth about releasing information (and paying to obtain said information). The Rodriguez camp’s strategy to paint MLB as having an agenda to target him seems somewhat effective in the court of public opinion. You also have to wonder if either side has “nuclear” evidence that would scorch the earth of both parties were it released. The way this is going somebody’s going to eventually press that button.

Until then, the brinksmanship continues.