As a baseball fan I always pay attention to the various sports websites, and a couple of weeks ago I saw an article that I read with amazement and some concern. A failed baseball player sued the New York Yankees, claiming that they ruined his career to protect Derek Jeter – specifically, “in order to protect the legendary shortstop from the ignominy of losing his spot to a promising youngster.” https://nesn.com/2020/01/failed-yankees-prospect-lost-crazy-lawsuit-blaming-derek-jeter-for-ruining-career/. The plaintiff alleged that it was “blatantly obvious” that Jeter controlled the Yankees organization, and he insisted that the Yankees libeled and slandered him to other teams, which prevented him from reaching the major leagues. (Or, as the NESN article notes, “Perhaps the letters he wrote to other teams, often entirely in capital letters, concerned them enough not to take a chance on him.”) Needless to say, a judge dismissed the lawsuit in short order.
I thought about this for a while and considered what kinds of experts the parties would have needed if the case had been permitted to move ahead. It would have been our first opportunity to search for baseball experts – perhaps a former general manager, a retired major league shortstop, perhaps a sports agent, maybe even a former team owner. Lots of expert witnesses from an arena unaccustomed to this type of litigation. Well, it would have been fun, but the case was too ludicrous to proceed, so I’ll just have to be satisfied with dreams of what might have been.
