Note the key word in the headline. Supposedly, Alex Rodriguez is planning to sue Major League Baseball if his 211-game suspension isn't lifted in full after his appeal is heard after the season.
Yahoo! is reporting based on what had been reported by TMZ, the online gossip site founded by Harvey Levin, who also is behind the TMZ daily magazine show. TMZ, citing sources who supposedly are close to A-Roid, reports that Rodriguez feels persecuted by MLB Commissioner Allan "Potato Bud" Selig, who, in the last stage of his administration, wants to go all Kenesaw Mountain Landis on Rodriguez, using him as an example to deter others from making the same mistakes Rodriguez made.
Reportedly, Rodriguez was tested for performance enhancing drugs 11 times in the last two years, but all of his tests have come back clean.
Sad to say, but if Rodriguez and lawyer David Cornwell do follow through with a suit, it will definitely spell the end of Rodriguez in baseball. The last guy to challenge MLB, former Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood, lost a case more than 40 years ago, but it ultimately opened the door to the free agency system now in place. Flood's career, however, ended after the litigation closed. By challenging MLB, Rodriguez is putting himself in position to be, in essence, blackballed, because even if the Yankees can release him from his contract, no one else is going to want him.
TMZ's sources, according to Yahoo!, claim MLB has no proof that Rodriguez impeded their investigation, and that Selig and his staff are "harassing & intimidating witnesses". In contrast, Cornwell acknowledged that while he intends to fight claims that A-Roid is guilty of multiple violations of MLB's policies against PED's and other drugs, he wasn't sure he'd completely clear his client.
Remember when TMZ was planning to spin off a site dedicated to sports? If this is the kind of reporting we'll get, they're better off leaving it to the professionals.
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