A-Rod sues MLB for 'witch hunt'

by Justin Klugh

Published Oct. 4, 2013, 11:13 a.m. ET

Alex Rodriguez has filed a lawsuit against MLB, and Commissioner Bud Selig, claiming to be the victim of all manner of strongly-worded transgressions; namely, an unfair targeting of him, personally.

The document opens:

"From the start of their investigation, Defendants have engaged in vigilante justice. They have ignored the procedures set forth in baseball's collectively-bargained labor agreements... paid individuals millions of dollars and made promises of future employment to individuals in order to get them to produce documents and to testify on MLB' s behalf; bullied and intimidated those individuals who refused to cooperate with their witch hunt..."

It really only gets better. A-Rod says he has been "singled out" for his suspension, calls out MLB going after the Biogenesis clinic as a "sham" and an abuse of the court system, accuses the league of "trampling" his rights, and includes a section called "The Disastrous Tenure of Commissioner Selig," featuring this frenzy of insults:

"Mr. Selig's tenure as Commissioner is as scandal-ridden as his term as owner, plagued by some of the most contentious and damaging failures in baseball history."

Particularly damning is the assertion that MLB compensated Tony Bosch, their chief witness for the Biogenesis scandal, for his testimony yesterday by "putting in a good word" for him in regards to other cases in Florida in which he is accused of supplying steroids to teenagers.

There's also the section detailing MLB investigator Dan Mullin's cinematic handing-off of the $150,000 he used to purchase Biogenesis documents in a restaurant in Florida, and his sexual relationship with a witness.

There's really no argument that Selig has bumbled baseball's toughest issues during his time as comissioner; and by saying he feels like there's a crosshair on his forehead from Selig's office, A-Rod is echoing the suspicions of many others in the industry.