Yankees player Alex Rodriguez is suing the MLB and commissioner Bud Selig following an investigation and resulting 211-game suspension for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Rodriguez filed the lawsuit on Thursday night in New York State Supreme Court.
The third baseman alleged that Selig and the MLB had the goal "to improperly marshal evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez" during their investigation into his use of steroids. According to ESPN, A-Rod will seek compensatory and punitive damages during the trial.
“While we vehemently deny the allegations in the complaint, none of those allegations is relevant to the real issue: whether Mr. Rodriguez violated the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program by using and possessing numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone and human growth hormone, over the course of multiple years,” the MLB said in a statement.
The lawsuit that A-Rod filed against the MLB goes on to accuse Selig of making an example of Rodriguez. He also claims that Selig has glossed over his own inaction in regards to PEDs in the sport, “in an attempt to secure his legacy as the 'savior' of America's pastime."
The lawsuit goes as far as saying that Selig and the MLB allowed PED use in order to enhance the sport’s image in regards to their anti-PED stance.
On Friday night, Rodriguez filed a second lawsuit against New York Yankees team doctor Chris Ahmad and New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. A-Rod said that Ahmad misdiagnosed his left hip injury during the 2012 playoffs and failed to show him an MRI of the injury.
In this lawsuit, Rodriguez claims that Ahmad “knowingly cleared the Plaintiff to resume playing as a third baseman for the New York Yankees during the [2012] season playoffs, thus allowing the Plaintiff to further injure himself and the necessity for additional surgeries."
The New York Yankees were not named in either lawsuit. A-Rod and his attorney, Joseph Tacopina, have not publicly commented on the lawsuits yet.
[Source: ESPN]
