For more than a decade, Frank Morsani has battled Major League Baseball over what he has said amounted to an illegal conspiracy to prevent him and the Tampa Bay Baseball Group from getting a team. Recently Morsani and MLB reached a settlement on his lawsuit, the results of which are strictly confidential. Morsani, however, seems satisfied.
Good for him, because he got a raw deal and spent a lot of his own money in the ill-fated process. It’s only fitting that Morsani be fairly compensated, if that is, indeed, still possible. There was nothing fair about MLB’s bad faith, strong-arm treatment of Morsani and the TBBG. Not only were they induced to make concessions — especially regarding the Minnesota Twins — but they were led to believe such concessions would be rewarded via expansion.
He was, however, stiffed by MLB and eliminated early from expansion-franchise consideration. Eventually, of course, a Vince Naimoli-led group was awarded the franchise that became the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and began playing in 1998.
We can all empathize with what Morsani has gone through. He deserved better — and so did we. A bad team, in a bad facility, in a bad location with bad ownership. This market has been stiffed too. Thanks, MLB; thanks, Vince.
Hopefully there will be another satisfactory settlement — and not contraction down the road.