Have owners leaked dirt on players for years?

The common thread: Allan Huber "Bud" Selig and his hand picked successor, Rob Manfred, aka, Manfred, the A-Rod Slayer.

The Angels Don't Want Josh Hamilton Back
by Barry Petchesky 4/03/15 3:19pm    deadspin.com

No one—not even MLB, which argued for a lengthy suspension—is unhappier about Josh Hamilton unexpectedly getting off without discipline for his cocaine-and-alcohol relapse than the Angels themselves...

he’s still got three very expensive years left on his contract. That’s a terrible deal for the Angels ... there would be no better outcome than Hamilton retiring from or being forced out of the game ...

especially combustible Ken Rosenthal column ... heavily implicating the Angels as the source of the leaks on Hamilton’s relapse and the adjudication thereof ...

a team suffering buyer’s remorse ... we saw more or less the same thing when the Yankees did everything in their power to support MLB throwing the book at Alex Rodriguez—collectively bargained due process be damned
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Paying for dirt on players: Steinbrenner, Selig, Manfred. Steinbrenner Kids?  Saturday, January 31, 2015

A previous incident of a star Yankee player being investigated and ridiculed by Yankee ownership involved George Steinbrenner and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield...

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.
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Dave Winfield in New York Yankees Spring Training, 1983 by Phil5329 via Wikimedia Commons

Mitchell Report:

The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball ...

The report was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle shortly prior to the deciding game seven of the 2007 American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox, although it was not officially released until December, months after the series was over.
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