GAMBLERS CAN SUE IN CHEAT SCANDAL
DARN SOX, ASTROS AND MLB COST US A BUNDLE, THEY CLAIM
Swing and a miss by the Sox!
A federal judge scoffed Friday at a claim by an attorney for the Boston Red Sox that the team had not violated rules against sign-stealing — and appeared open to letting a suit over the scandal proceed.
Draft-Kings players sued Major League Baseball, the Red Sox and Houston Astros in January, claiming the sign stealing scheme had cost them money. The suit seeks class action status.
The teams and MLB argued during a telephone hearing that the dispute should not be resolved in Manhattan Federal Court. But Judge Jed Rakoff appeared intrigued by explicit denials of cheating by Astros officials and the Red Sox.
“Do you admit that the
Red Sox violated the rules?” Rakoff asked team attorney Lauren Moskowitz.
“We do not,” she replied, adding there was a disagreement between the MLB and Red Sox about “what happened at the club level.”
“That’s interesting. The commissioner of baseball was just off base in your view?” replied Rakoff, who is a Yankees fan.
A months-long MLB investigation determined that the Astros used a centerfield camera to steal opposing catchers’ signals. Astros players monitored a video feed and alerted their teammate in the batter’s box by banging a trash can from the dugout during the team’s championship 2017 season.
Former Red Sox manager Alex Cora was the Astros bench coach in 2017 and an architect of Houston’s banging scheme. An investigation is ongoing of sign-stealing by the 2018 Red Sox, who won the World Series in Cora’s first year as manager.
The Sox were fined in 2017 for using Apple Watches to steal signs and gain an edge at the plate.
Rakoff presented a hypothetical involving a person who invests money based on the claim of “We absolutely assure you that we are not engaged in sign stealing, when in fact they are.”
“It seems to be that’s plain old common law fraud,” Rakoff said.
An attorney for the DraftKings players, David Golub, emphasized that fantasy sports are marketed as a game of skill, not chance. He said his clients were victims of “deceptive, unfair conduct” that violated consumer protection laws.
“This is not betting. This is promoted and marketed as a game of skill by Major League Baseball and DraftKings, as well,” Golub said.
Rakoff ’s openness to some of the fantasy players’ claims came as somewhat of a surprise. Previous suits brought by disgruntled gamblers over the NFL’s New England Patriots’ “Spygate” scandal and a controversial boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015 were dismissed.
The judge said he would rule by April 15.