Alex Rodriguez struck out in court on Tuesday when a Manhattan federal judge ordered the scandal-scarred star’s former public relations honcho to testify in arbitration to decide A-Rod’s 211-game doping suspension.
Judge Edgardo Ramos shot down PR maven Michael Sitrick’s argument he shouldn’t have to honor an Major League Baseball subpoena to appear before the independent arbitrator who will determine the ban and also turn over documents MLB believes Rodriguez took from Anthony Bosch, owner of the now-shuttered Florida anti-aging clinic Biogenesis and baseball’s star witness in the appeal hearing.
“The court doesn’t view the subpoena as unreasonable or the burden on Mr. Sitrick as unreasonable,” Ramos said. “New York clearly has an interest in the outcome of the subpoena.”
Sitrick had claimed that since he lives in Los Angeles and primarily works out of another section of California in Irvine he shouldn’t have to comply with a subpoena served thousands of miles away at his satellite office in Times Square — and on a day he wasn’t around to take it.
But Ramos said by law Sitrick “was served” because he can’t argue the Times Square location isn’t his place of business, adding “it doesn’t matter that [Sitrick] wasn’t in the state.”
MLB lawyers told Ramos the league would have been satisfied if Sitrick complied with its initial request to sign an affidavit swearing neither he nor any of his staffers leaked selected portions of Biogenesis documents to the media outing other players such as Brewers star Ryan Braun and the Yankees’ Francisco Cervelli for using performance-enhancing drugs.
That offer is no longer on the table, they added.
Yahoo! Sports broke the story of Braun’s and Cervelli’s connection to Biogenesis.
“Your Honor, something smells here,” said MLB lawyer Howard Gantz, suggesting the information about the other players might have been leaked to reporters to blow attention away from Rodriguez’s laundry list of problems with the league.
Sitrick on Monday filed paperwork with the court claiming he never personally leaked the documents, but Gantz pointed out to the judge Sitrick — whose nickname is “The Wizard of Spin” — conveniently never addressed in the filing whether any of his employees were the leaks.
His lawyer, John Briody, argued the subpoena should be quashed because individuals by law shouldn’t be required to travel more than 100 miles from where they live or work to testify.
Rodriguez has also denied leaking Biogenesis documents and said he reached out to his teammate Cervelli to personally discuss the allegations.
Briody declined comment when asked whether Sitrick would appeal.