Saturday, January 31, 2015

Paying for dirt on players: Steinbrenner, Selig, Manfred. Steinbrenner Kids?

A previous incident of a star Yankee player being investigated and ridiculed by Yankee ownership involved George Steinbrenner and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.
Howie Spira
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Steinbrenner

On July 30, 1990, Steinbrenner was banned permanently from day-to-day management (but not ownership) of the Yankees by MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent for paying a gambler named Howie Spira $40,000 to dig up "dirt" on Winfield. Winfield had sued the Yankees for failing to contribute $300,000 to his foundation, a guaranteed stipulation in his contract.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Vincent

His relationship with baseball's owners was always tenuous at best; he resigned in 1992 after the owners gave him an 18–9 no confidence vote...

The leaders in the movement to oust Vincent were members of what The Sporting News later dubbed The Great Lakes Gang:[4]
Bud Selig, president of the Milwaukee Brewers;
Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the Chicago White Sox;
Stanton Cook, head of the Tribune Co., which owned the Chicago Cubs;
Carl Pohlad, owner of the Minnesota Twins;
Peter O'Malley, the longtime majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers ...

He was replaced by Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig, whose family continued to maintain ownership over the Brewers.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Selig

Allan Huber "Bud" Selig ... born July 30, 1934 is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth Commissioner of Baseball. He initially served as the acting commissioner beginning in 1992 before being named the official commissioner in 1998...

The same year (1993), New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was reinstated from a lifelong suspension that was instituted by Selig's predecessor Fay Vincent.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Manfred

Robert D. Manfred Jr. (born 1958 or 1959) is an American lawyer, business executive, and the tenth Commissioner of Baseball. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball and succeeded Bud Selig as Commissioner on January 25, 2015...

In 2013, Manfred led MLB's investigation of the Biogenesis scandal.[8]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Rodriguez

Rodriguez admitted to using banned substances from 2001 to 2003...

Friend and former teammate Doug Glanville, while noting the outrage over Rodriguez's years of steroid use, berated Rodriguez's critics for their "lack of outrage about how a confidential and anonymous test could be made public."  ...

August 5, 2013, MLB suspended Rodriguez ... a total of 211 regular-season games plus any postseason games...  Rodriguez's "use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and human Growth Hormone, over the course of multiple years" and "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." ...

The proposed suspension would effectively ban him from playing in Japan or South Korea, as the leagues in those nations honor any suspensions imposed by MLB...

In November 2014, it was revealed that Rodriguez had admitted to the Drug Enforcement Administration in January that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.[148] This was contrary to his sentiments 18 days earlier, vehemently denying any allegations and HGH use.
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Biogenesis baseball scandal

The Biogenesis baseball scandal broke in 2013 when several Major League Baseball (MLB) players were accused of obtaining performance-enhancing drugs ("PEDs"), specifically human growth hormone, from the now-defunct rejuvenation clinic Biogenesis of America...  MLB sued six people connected to Biogenesis, accusing them of damaging the sport by providing banned substances to its players...

Biogenesis of America was a health clinic briefly operating in Coral Gables, Florida, specializing in weight loss and hormone replacement therapy.[4] It was first registered in state corporation records in March 2012,[5] and was founded by Anthony Bosch ...

On January 22, 2013, the Miami New Times obtained documents from former Biogenesis employee Porter Fisher ...  The paper, however, refused to hand the documents over to Major League Baseball (MLB) authorities.

The Florida Department of Health, and MLB, both targeted the clinic's owner, Anthony Bosch, each separately taking action against him.

In March, MLB sued Bosch, and his business partners ... Subsequently, the MLB claimed to have found evidence that a representative of Rodriguez had purchased his medical records. It then paid a former Biogenesis employee for documents.[8]

In May (2013), Bosch agreed to work with MLB investigators (Manfred) in exchange for his name being removed from the lawsuit ...

In August (2013), Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, announced that Bosch intended to plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to distribute testosterone.[9] ...

MLB commissioner Bud Selig remarked "We conducted a thorough, aggressive investigation guided by facts so that we could justly enforce our rules ... we pursued this matter because it was not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do."
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Steinbrenner Kids: add tacky to dumb and lazy: trying to void A-Rod's bonus.  Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Why?  And why now?  Is this driven by family hanger on Randy Levine, club president of the New York Yankees?  Is out of control general manager Brian Cashman behind it?  Or are the four adult children of late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner simply exhibiting a family trait that goes back to their father trying to discredit his star player, Dave Winfield, and receiving a lifetime ban by commissioner Fay Vincent, which was overturned by Vincent's successor, Allan Huber "Bud" Selig, who led the cabal that removed Vincent? ...

Motive: petty vindictiveness and self loathing that they gave A-Rod a new contract that they now regret.
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So have we come full circle?  Are the Steinbrenner Kids digging up dirt as we speak to discredit Alex Rodriguez to accomplish some of the following:
- get Rodriguez to retire
- get Rodriguez to accept a trade
- not pay Rodriguez the bonus money he may earn from a marketing agreement between him and the Yankees for tieing the career home run totals of those with more: Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds.  Rodriguez would receive $6 million for each player tied in exchange for his participating in promotional activities.

Ironically, if the Yankees win a civil suit and have the agreement negated, and A-Rod did these things, the Yankees would be begging him to go back to the original deal:
- hit 61 home runs in 2015 and pass Ruth
- hit 109 home runs in the remaining three years of his Yankees contract and pass Bonds.

This would be in addition to A-Rod more likely reaching these milestones, about which the dumb and lazy Steinbrenner Kids seem to be oblivious, during the 2015 season:
- 2,000 Runs
- 2,000 RBI
- 3,000 Hits.

The Yankees have been orgasmic for every milestone, both substantive and trumped up, by retired Yankee captain and former best buddy of A-Rod, Derek Jeter, in recent seasons.  The Steinbrenner Kids made a series of bad decisions that let the team slide into a very uncompetitive position  and much of that was to promote Jeter over what was good for the team and its fans.  They may be compounding those mistakes with their counterproductive treatment of Alex Rodriguez.  Even their father knew there is no such thing as bad publicity.

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