Ex-Angels staffer tied to Cole loses in court
A federal judge in Orange County, Calif., dismissed Brian Harkins’ defamation case against the Los Angeles Angels and Major League Baseball on Monday. Harkins claimed he provided a sticky substance to Astros pitchers Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander during the 2018-19 seasons.
Harkins was fired last March after the Angels became aware of his illicit sticky substance scheme. A longtime attendant in the visiting clubhouse at Angel Stadium, Harkins made the substance and distributed it to pitchers who requested it.
Harkins filed suit last August claiming he was made “a public scapegoat.” It claimed the Angels had evidence that implicated Cole,
Verlander, Edwin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez, Corey Kluber, Joba Chamberlain, Adam Wainwright and Tyler Chatwood — as well as various Angels pitchers.
“The basic facts of making the concoction, providing it to Angels pitchers, providing it to visiting pitchers, MLB’s interpretations of the rules, and so on are not contested,” Judge Geoffrey Glass wrote in his ruling Monday. “Further, they are not defamatory on their face. Essentially what is claimed to be unfair is that Mr. Harkins was punished for it when others were not and that he should not have been fired for it. That may be a basis for an employment action, but not for defamation.”
Harkins’ lawyer, Daniel L. Rasmussen, told the Los Angeles Times he plans to appeal the ruling.
Harkins established connections to Cole and Verlander within a 373page bundle of evidence that opposed the dismissal. According to the records, Cole texted Harkins on Jan. 17, 2019, asking for help with a “sticky situation.”
“We don’t see you until May,” Cole wrote, “but we have some road games in April that are in cold weather places. The stuff I had last year seizes up when it gets cold.”
Verlander texted Harkins last March to offer his condolences for Harkins’ termination. According to Harkins’ notes of their subsequent phone call on March 7, Verlander allegedly said he wanted to back Harkins publicly, but “with the scrutiny that their team is under it will be very difficult.”
“Justin knows on the MLB side that they have been finding out that teams have been hiring chemists and doing studies to come up with stuff that is more advanced to increase spin rate,” Harkins wrote in notes summarizing the call.
“There are also organizations that are hiring free agents and telling them that they can increase their spin rate for guys that don’t use stuff and telling them they can increase their spin rate and help them as a pitcher to entice them to sign with them.”
MLB rules prohibit pitchers from doctoring the baseball or using a foreign substance on their hands. Often, though, teams turn a blind eye toward the crime. Hitters want pitchers to have better control of their repertoires, and the use is so widespread that cracking down on it would be almost impossible. Harkins’ lawyers termed it a “gentleman’s agreement” in their suit.
Last February, though, former MLB senior vice president Chris Young issued a memo to owners, general managers and managers that warned “club personnel are strictly prohibited from providing, applying, creating, concealing, or otherwise facilitating the use of foreign substances by players on the field.”
Harkins was fired three days after the memo was disseminated. Reasons for his firing were confirmed in various news stories using anonymous sources. That Harkins could not identify those sources was part of Monday’s dismissal.