John McMickey is a
long time Red Sox fan. I’m sure
that’s hard to imagine given his name.
He’s also a huge Dustin Pedroia fan. During an early September game in 2012, McMickey decided to
send Pedroia a quick tweet during the 3rd inning of a match-up with
the New York Yankees. The color
commentator for the Red Sox broadcast had just mentioned that Yankees’ starter
Ivan Nova was tipping his pitches by changing arm slot whenver he threw his
curveball. McMickey then sent
Pedroia a tweet giving him the heads up.
While against club
policy to check or send social media during a game, Pedroia by chance had his
phone with him on this night.
While waiting to bat in the bottom of the third, he glanced down at his
phone after it buzzed in its pocket and saw: “@BostonMick: Nova tipping pitches. Arm high on curve. #homerunacoming!” Pedroia responded with a quick reply of
“thanks brah,” and then promptly went out, waited for Nova’s arm slot to rise,
and then deposited a ball over the green monster on a hanging curve. McMickey was elated, at least until he
checked his mail on October 4….
As McMickey sorted
through the various mail inserts, credit card applications, and past due bills,
one letter got his attention. It
had the name of a law firm in the top left corner, and it seemed to be a fancy
law firm (there were at least 5 last names making up the incoherent partnership
title!). As McMickey read
the first paragraph, he was stunned.
Major League Baseball was suing him for tortious contract
interference. They claimed he was
well aware that there were team policies in place banning social media
communications during games, and that information regarding tipping pitches
could not be relayed in the real-time format. They said he was well aware of it citing a 2011
ESPN story. By sending that
tweet to Pedroia, he had enabled Pedroia to break these rules and compromised
the integrity of that September game.
McMickey’s jaw dropped…..
If all of this seems outlandish to you, it should. After all, the entire account is
fictional. However, after this
week’s announcement that Major
League Baseball has filed suit against Biogenesis for tortious contract
interference for the alleged distribution of PED’s to several major league
players, maybe the story isn’t that
outlandish afterall. To be clear,
I’m not trying to draw a direct parallel between the use of PED’s and pitch
stealing (though the causal connection to unfair competitive advantage is
similarly nebulous). Nor am I
suggesting that John McMickey’s tweet amounts to the same degree of conduct
that Biogenesis is alleged to be involved with. However, the validity of Major League Baseball’s ficitional
law suit against McMickey and its all too real suit against Biogenesis is quite
similar: It’s not. The major difference between the two is
that Biogenesis has information Major League Baseball wants. McMickey didn’t.
It doesn’t take a law degree or knowledge of esoteric latin
phrases to know that what Major League Baseball is really after is Biogenesis’
transaction ledgers. Information
they’ve, to this point, been frustrated at trying to obtain. At its core, Major League Baseball
isn’t expecting to get any monetary judgment out of a now defunct pain
clinic. Even if they could prove
damages, highly suspect in its own rights, a monetary judgment would be less
than a drop in the bucket for an organization as large and wealthy as MLB.
They don’t need to get to that stage. All MLB’s lawyers need to do is
convince a Florida judge that the claims aren’t baseless on their face, avoid
the inevitable Motion to Dismiss that the defense will file, and get to the
discovery stage of the law suit.
Don’t expect this process to be smooth or quick.
WHAT ARE THEY
FIGHTING FOR?
Realistically, this could take at least six months to a year just for MLB to obtain any of their
much sought information. Even if
they do receive it, a proper follow-up investigation and any related grievance
proceedings will take even longer.
As has been widely
reported, the main targets of all this are Alex Rodriguez and Ryan
Braun. By the time Major League
Baseball has enough information to take action against these guys, Alex
Rodriguez could be retired. The
seasons implicating Braun could be in the distant past, and the torch of
“stardom” may have already been passed to the new generation of guys like Mike
Trout and Bryce Harper. Which
leaves the question, what exactly is Major League Baseball fighting for?
In the coming weeks and months there will be a lot of
theories about MLB’s end game. I’m
sure Bud Selig and baseball’s higher ups will cite their commitment to the
integrity and good will of baseball being their paramount concerns, but the
reactionary nature of this process is an exercise in futility. Failure to contemporaneously punish
player PED use leaves baseball looking like nothing more than a scorned
lover. While trying to exact its
revenge, baseball will continuously remind everyone that PED’s still make their
way into the game. They’ll tear
down the stars and performances that make the game palatable. What exactly did International Cycling
gain by pursuing Lance Armstrong so far after the fact? Nothing except relegation to a status
as an entirely compromised sport.
I suppose that counts as an end game, just not a good one.
The only thing we know for certain is that this is not a
good business move in the foreseeable short-term. Major League Baseball will likely end up spending hundreds
of thousands if not millions of dollars on this process to harm itself. It would be economically prudent to
just let one of these PED fueled players punch Bud Selig in the face. The result would be the same as the law
suit: Black eye for baseball,
diminished reputation for the player.
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT
‘EM, SUE ‘EM:
There is another perspective to all this legal boxing that
needs mention. Major League
Baseball may feel obligated to pursue
this lawsuit. They may feel that
in order to honor the terms of the Joint Drug Agreement that they are required
to pursue all reasonable measures to
uncover violations of the Agreement, and this law suit fits the bill. Even if nothing comes of it, Major
League Baseball can then say “Hey, we did everything we could to stop the
abuse. We tried, so blame the players, not us.” It’s not a stretch to think that one of Bud Selig’s trusted
advisors made this exact point.
“We can win the battle of public opinion about who’s to blame.”
The problem is
baseball is simply trying to save face because they know they’re fighting a
losing battle. Cheaters (if that’s
how you perceive them) will always remain a step ahead. As long as the economic stakes are high
enough and a competitive advantage is perceived, some player, somewhere, is
still going to try to beat the system.
Baseball can “win” the battle of public opinion and still come out the
loser. When third parties start
getting blamed, it’s out of frustration, not commitment to a solution. This is not just true for professional
sports but all walks of life.
Obesity is an issue? Blame
big gulps. Violence in schools is
on the rise. Blame video
games. The flaw in logic is human
nature. Searching for solutions
often leads to ill-advised and resource consuming crusades against speculative
“causes” of the problem. Major
League Baseball is just following suit (pun intended).
By the time this gets settled, which it almost certainly
will, baseball will have likely moved onto a more recent crisis of
integrity. Maybe they’ll get what
they want, maybe they won’t. The
logic and reason behind all of this may not just be flawed, it may be
non-existent. For now, the only
congratulations that go out are to the law firms involved in baseball’s latest
crusade, as they’re the only ones who we know for certain will benefit.
