Alex Rodriguez's Suit Against MLB Is The Year's Best Baseball Reading

Late last night, Alex Rodriguez filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court, accusing MLB and Bud Selig (specifically named as a defendant) of, and I'm quoting, "improperly marshal[ing] evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez, one of the most accomplished Major League Baseball players of all time."

The full suit can be found below, and is entertaining and required reading.

The suit specifically accuses baseball of tortious interference in its investigation and prosecution of the Biogenesis case, and more broadly contains quite a few noteworthy allegations, the most lurid being that an MLB investigator paid for stolen Biogenesis documents with a bag containing $150,000 in cash and had sex with a witness he interviewed.

The filing alleges that MLB filed a "sham lawsuit" against Biogenesis to obtain evidence while skirting the rules of the CBA and the joint drug agreement.

It claims MLB attempted to breach Rodriguez's attorney-client privilege by subpoening documents from his former lawyers.

It accuses MLB of using evidence gathered after announcing Rodriguez's 211-game suspension—"retroactively justifying the discipline it previously imposed."

It claims MLB investigators harassed and intimidated three Biogenesis defendants in an attempt to get them to spill what they knew on Rodriguez.

It cites former Biogenesis employee Porter Fischer, who claims MLB offered him money and a job in exchange for his cooperation.

It accuses MLB investigator Dan Mullin of purchasing Biogenesis documents for $150,000, handed off in a bag at a Fort Lauderdale restaurant. It further claims MLB did not file the transaction with the IRS, a federal offense.

The suit claims Mullin had "an inappropriate sexual relationship with a witness whom he himself interviewed about the Biogenesis matter."

There is much on Porter Fischer, the former head of Biogenesis who, probably not coincidentally, just finished giving testimony at Rodriguez's arbitration hearing. The suit claims MLB offered to drop its lawsuit against Bosch in exchange for his testimony, as well as paying his legal bills, providing him with security, protecting him from future lawsuits. The bombshell? Rodriguez claims MLB's deal with Bosch pays him $5 million for his cooperation.

The suit claims MLB violated the CBA with constant and damaging media leaks to ESPN, the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, and Yahoo, among others.

The suit gets personal, with a section on "The Disastrous Tenure of Commissioner Selig." Starting with 1980s-era owner collusion and touching on the 1994 work stoppage, it cites Selig's "dubious record concerning the use of [PEDs] by Major League ballplayers" and implies that "the 'Steroid Commissioner'...deliberately turned a blind eye to prolific steroid use because of the overwhelmingly positive publicity generated by the record-breaking competitions of McGwire, Sosa and Bonds."

"Taking down Mr. Rodriguez," the suit opines, "would vividly demonstrate that Commissioner Selig had learned from the errors of his previous explicit or tacit tolerance of steroid use."

The suit claims MLB's actions were "done solely with the intent of harming Mr. Rodriguez and interfering with his business relationships." MLB has as of yet offered no comment.