This story was first reported by The Cheater's Guide to Baseball Blog which found out that Torii Hunter violated an obscure MLB rule. And now MLB authorities are getting invloved. It seems that Hunter recently sent the KC Royals four bottles of Dom Perignon to fulfill a promise he made after the Royals swept the Tigers late last season that helped give the Twins the division title. This is illegal under MLB rules and carries a hefty penalty.The rule (21-b.) states, "Any player or person connected with a Club who shall offer or give any gift or reward to a player or person connected with another Club for services rendered ... in defeating or attempting to defeat a competing Club ... shall be declared ineligible for not less than three years."
What's even more hilarious is that the rule is apparently posted just a few feet from manager Ron Gardenhire's door.
The Royals, who haven't tasted champagne in a long time, unfortunately hadn't opened the bottles yet and have agreed to return them.
On PTI, meanwhile, Michael Wilbon (feel free to email him) went on a rant about The Cheater's Guide to Baseball Blog for discovering Hunter's miscue, saying "Whoever this person or people are, they're worse than the PETA people. They should be banned from America right now." I'm sure PETA feels a lot better now, seeing as they're no longer #1 on Wilbon's enemies list. Wilbon also told the sports blogging community to "bring it on."
Wilbon's ranting aside, it's good to see MLB flexing it's muscles and preventing horrible things like this from happening, you know, because there's absolutely nothing else wrong with baseball right now.
