A-Rod's Lawyers Harrassed Caddy About Overheard Course Chatter

For baseball fans, the NY Times front page story by Steve Eder, Serge Kovaleski and Michael Schmidt on the hardball tactics of Major League Baseball and Alex Rodriguez's legal team included a golf element.

It seems a tip was received suggesting that baseball's #2 man, Rob Manfred, was talking about Rodriguez's case during a round at Manhattan Woods Golf Club. The caddie that day was tracked down by A-Rod's team.

About five months later, around the time Mr. Rodriguez was beginning his appeal at arbitration, Mr. Manfred played a round of golf in Rockland County, shooting an 82 and beating his son and another M.L.B. executive.

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A former employee of Manhattan Woods Golf Club who was not at the course that day emailed a tip to a lawyer for Mr. Rodriguez, saying Mr. Manfred had been talking openly about Mr. Rodriguez’s case.

The investigators quickly caught up with Jason Firestone, the caddie who had been with Mr. Manfred. Mr. Firestone said they told him that if he did not cooperate, “the golf course was going to go under.”

“They kept calling me, telling me they were going to ruin my life,” Mr. Firestone said about his conversations with the investigators.

The former employee who submitted the original tip then reached out to Mr. Rodriguez’s representatives again. He explained that he was a fan of the Yankees and Mr. Rodriguez, and had fabricated the story.

Eric Gallowitz, the private investigator who questioned Mr. Firestone, denied that he bullied Mr. Firestone. “Never happened,” he said.