Baseball: A-Rod files lawsuit to halt ban: report

NEW YORK – Embattled New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and its players union Monday in a bid to overturn a 162-game doping ban, the New York Daily News reported.

The filing in US District Court in Manhattan claims arbitrator Fredric Horowitz showed partiality in only trimming what had been a 211-game ban to 162 games plus playoffs, suspending the sport’s highest-paid player for the entire 2014 season, the newspaper reported.

The ban is still the longest doping-related suspension in major league history, longer than the 12 players who admitted wrongdoing in the Biogenesis doping scandal because Major League Baseball said Rodriguez took steps to impede the investigation into his use of banned substances.

Rodriguez also says the Major League Baseball Players Association did not fairly represent him in the arbitration process, which both the union and the league say is the final word on the matter based on the union agreement with club owners.

In November, Rodriguez stormed out of an arbitration session, unhappy that Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig did not have to appear to support the league’s investigation findings and procedures, including evidence and testimony from Biogenesis director Anthony Bosch, whose credibility Rodriguez has challenged.

Earlier Monday, a federal judge ruled that Rodriguez could not file the lawsuit challenging the ruling by Horowitz and keep portions of the ruling private.

Rodriguez’ attorneys wanted to do that to avoid running foul of confidentiality clauses in the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

Horowitz’s ruling is believed to touch upon evidence that could detail years of doping by Rodriguez.

The filing comes less than 24 hours after the chief witness against Rodriguez, Bosch, was interviewed by CBS News for the program “60 Minutes.”

Bosch said Rodriguez used multiple banned performance-enhancing drugs that Bosch provided him. – Rappler.com