Tri-city seeks to reverse the call
Team sues, calls MLB status decision contractual breach
The Tri-city Valleycats have sued Major League Baseball and the Houston Astros for ending their affiliation with the minor league organization. The suit seeks in excess of $15 million, Valleycats chairman Doug Gladstone said Friday morning.
The team took the action after MLB decided to sever ties with the minor league team and a number of other affiliates around the U.S.
The Valleycats spent the past 18 seasons as a minor league affiliate of the Astros. The Valleycats found out last month they were not one of the 120 teams invited to be affiliates under MLB’S plan for contraction and restructuring of the
minor leagues.
The Valleycats filed suit Thursday night in the state Supreme Court’s commercial division for breach of fiduciary duty and tortious interference. Gladstone said the value of the franchise has been greatly reduced by losing affiliation.
The sharply worded 33-page complaint accuses Major League Baseball of using “bullying” tactics to pit minor league operations against one another for survival. It notes that the Houston team announced it was continuing its affiliations with “three teams owned by the Astros and one owned by a former U.S. Senator and current Governor, likely in efforts to quell the political discord that has occurred regarding MLB’S contraction efforts” — an apparent reference to the Asheville, N.C., Tourists, a team owned by the family of Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine.
The Valleycats are represented in the legal action by the same two law firms — Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Berg & Androphy — that are handling a similar suit brought by another recently disaffiliated minor league team, the Staten Island Yankees, against MLB and the New York Yankees.
Astros spokesman Steve Grande said the team’s legal department is looking into the suit and had no further comment. An MLB spokesman declined to comment on the Valleycats lawsuit.
The Valleycats were not on a list of teams that were to be cut that was leaked to The New York Times in November of 2019, the complaint notes.
“To make matters worse, in 2019, Defendants had publicly released a list of the teams that would remain affiliated with MLB, which included the Valleycats, and made other public statements that the Valleycats would be included,” the lawsuit states. “The Valleycats materially relied on these public disclosures, which Defendants reneged on at the eleventh hour, by making substantial improvements to the Stadium, making ongoing lease payments it otherwise may not have, and continuing to fund a business which was unknowingly on the brink of decimation.”
Valleycats President Rick Murphy said last week it will cost the team an additional $220,000 to $250,000 per season to operate as an independent because they must now pay additional onfield costs, including the players’ and manager’s salaries.
Those were paid by Houston when the Valleycats were an affiliate.
The suit says the Valleycats’ long history with MLB makes the “betrayal even more egregious.”
The team was purchased by Bill Gladstone, Doug Gladstone’s father, in 1992 when they were the Pittsfield (Mass.) Mets.
Bill Gladstone moved the franchise to Troy in 2002 and the Valleycats won three New Yorkpenn League championships.
Bill Gladstone died last April 30 at age 88 — a loss that is mentioned in the Valleycats’ complaint.
“MLB’S intimidation tactics, which it used to pit MILB teams against each other for the ‘privilege’ of having their businesses destroyed, has gone on for years but was most vividly demonstrated by a May 2020 email in which Commissioner Rob Manfred emailed the Valleycats’ owner condolences on the passing of his father, and then in the very same email, issued a veiled threat that any public statement about MLB’S contraction efforts would be ‘unwise,’ ” the lawsuit states.
“Our objective is to play baseball and we’re in the baseball business — that’s what we do,” Doug Gladstone said Friday. “But we also are in the business of doing the right thing for our franchise and our fans when something we think is unfair happens.”
The Valleycats announced last week they’re joining the independent Frontier League and expect to begin play in midmay at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
“We’re pretty focused on moving forward, and that’s why we joined the Frontier (League). And we’re excited about that relationship and we think that’s going to bring a level of baseball to our fans that they will appreciate and have a great experience at The Joe,” Gladstone said.