A-Rod: Move case back to state

Alex Rodriguez wants his lawsuit against Major League Baseball and commissioner Bud Selig sent back to state court, and the sport said it will move to dismiss the case.

The feuding sides have filed paperwork explaining their intended motions.

MLB said the case should be heard in federal court because of provisions of the Labor Management Relations Act, known as Taft-Hartley. Rodriguez’s lawyers said that “contradicts the positions MLB repeatedly took before the Florida state court in the lawsuit it filed against Biogenesis of America” and accuses the sport of “a 180-degree turn.”

Rodriguez was suspended for 211 games by MLB in August for alleged violations of the sport’s drug agreement and labor contract. The New York Yankees third baseman was allowed to keep playing until arbitrator Fredric Horowitz decides a grievance filed by the players’ union to overturn the penalty.

Horowitz has presided over the hearings, which are scheduled to resume next Monday.

“Defendants have engaged in a systematic effort to destroy Mr. Rodriguez’s reputation, including by continually leaking false stories to the media about Mr. Rodriguez,” Rodriguez’s lawyers said, repeating allegations they have made several times.

MLB’s papers said Rodriguez’s “outrageous and illfounded allegations are utterly without merit [and] neither this court nor the state court can or should adjudicate those claims on the merits.”

MLB said the matter should be litigated under the arbitration procedure outlined in baseball’s labor contract.

A hearing before U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield is scheduled for Jan. 23.