diversion is a distraction: what Sherman could learn from A-Rod about ambition

weirder & weirder
You could look at the post-season campaign of Alex Rodriguez as a single-handed attempt to revive  law firm profits. Or you could look at the lawsuit against Major League Baseball and Bud Lite (did I leave anyone out?) and the campaign against his union and the lawsuit against the doctor and hospital that treated him last year as an attempt to teach William Tecumseh Sherman about planning a scorched earth campaign. I can’t see how any of this is going to work, if success is based on winning the arbitration hearing that is still going on (not being suspended) and/or money damages and/or public acclaim … er … PR damage control. To mix metaphors here, it’s a circus, so pass the popcorn. (I like this account from Business Week about the main lawsuit.)

Can any of the Esqs out there explain how that main lawsuit (the baseball-witchhunt thingy) is even ripe before there’s been an arbitration decision? If no court would entertain a claim that they-are-persecuting-me without a request (for example) for an injunction to stop the persecution … er … arbitration (as seems to me likely), why bring the suit now? Not for legal reasons, I’d guess, but PR. And if suing everybody is your PR campaign, then it seems as though your PR campaign has the wrong professionals (lawyers!) in the driver’s seat. (If you wanted to convey to the public that you thought you were losing a confidential arbitration, is there a better way to do that than to sue the key players a few days into the proceeding?)

I can’t find a link, but I am certain that I read a quote from A-Rod in the last week or so about how sorry he is not to be able to tell all his “fans and supporters” about what the facts are because, you know, the arbitration  process is so darn confidential. Then I see TeamRod a few days later lay out all sorts of ‘facts’ about the merits and claims in the arbitration in the main lawsuit.  It is difficult to maintain a consistent posture when one is constantly … posturing.

If I were A-Rod, the last thing I’d want is for a public lawsuit (more likely to proceed in federal court than state court, if it proceeds at all) in which your adversaries can subpoena non-parties, rather than just ask their cooperation. There is likely to be a Greg Anderson for A-Rod out there somewhere, but it is hard to imagine that A-Rod’s loyal employee would be as loyal as Barry Bonds’ (fall) guy. That guy is in the No Snitches Hall of Fame.

rolling the dice for big stakes
If I were A-Rod and I had a choice between accepting a 211 game suspension and forfeiting (a reported) $32 million, or appeal as hard as possible to hope to reduce the suspension to only a full season (‘saving’ about $8 million) or to reduce it to a Braun-like 65 games (saving more than $20 million!!) I’d probably be fighting like hell. Not sure I would be scorching so much earth on so many planets, or using a team of 4 high-priced lawyers, but it’s not my money. (Pay a million to try to save $8 million or more? Maybe.) But just think of the inevitable accounting from an hour spent by his full team of lawyers talking about … about anything billable to A-Rod: $5,000/hr for the full team sounds cheap. And those people both need to talk, and love to talk. It’s a free country. And his money. And (as he says often) his “legacy”. Good luck, buddy. (Where’s my popcorn?)

Atlanta is what??
Sherman marched to the sea not to engage Confederate troops but to demonstrate to the Southern populace that he could do pretty much whatever he wanted, without fear of battle losses. A-Rod has become The Great Plaintiff because ….??

meanwhile in real baseball news…
Pirates, Dodgers and A’s are each tied 1-1 in their series, while Rays trail 0-2. National League Game 3s today, American League tomorrow.

Finally, there’s this 12-year old with a love of baseball and a family nutty enough to spend a summer going to major league parks because “it would be a better activity than sticking us in camp all summer”. Spoiler alert: she interviews players, from the dugout. Go Dodgers!