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by ANDREW deGRANDPRÉ In a bittersweet act of vengeance, 14 former minority shareholders in the Montreal Expos have kicked up a shit storm — the stench of which has settled in Major League Baseball’s front office. Commissioner Bud Selig is among the small band of parasites named in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed in Miami last summer. The limited partners, citing the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, claim Major League Baseball and former Expos owner Jeffery Loria fraudulently conspired to ransack, dismantle and ultimately eliminate the long-floundering Canadian franchise. Drafted more than 30 years ago, the RICO Act was designed as an instrument with which the U.S. government could combat organized crime. Fittingly, one Montreal columnist has declared the ordeal “Baseball meets the Sopranos.” The severity of the partners’ claim, which includes accusations of mail and wire tapping, undoubtedly had a hand in crippling Selig’s plan to contract the Expos at the end of the 2002 season.
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