I hadn't seen this when it was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, but apparently Tony La Russa is not a fan of the guy who made a fake Twitter page about him and has filed a lawsuit. The filing prompted Twitter to immediately remove the fake page, but the suit remains pending.
I have no idea what the law is here, though I presume that it falls closer to the land of cybersquatting than it does identity theft or anything like that. Whoever put up the fake page, however, probably didn't realize that (a) Tony La Russa is a lawyer; and (b) Tony La Russa doesn't appear to have any sense of humor whatsoever.
In other words, the lawsuit probably shouldn't have come as much of a surprise.
(thanks to Levi Stahl for the heads up)
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Maybe it is something more like defamation or invasion of privacy? Tony LaRussa has always been one of my least favorite people in baseball. He knows his stuff and seems to be a good manager, but often his players are mired in controversy. He seems to have presided over two steroid-using clubhouses. He also seems to champion the whole "what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room" mindset, which I think makes athletes act even more entitled than they would normally.
Faking stories, lying about people, claiming identity, creating false impressions, ISN'T funny! La Russa shouldn't have a sense of humor about it, and it's time EVERYONE stood up to be counted and put a stop to this kind of sick nonsense. CONGRATULATIONS TONY! Not necessarily a fan, but you went up in my estimation on this one!
I'm more or less in agreement with you on La Russa. I respect his skills as a manager, but don't much like him. For one thing I think he's most responsible for all of the stupid bullpen useage over the past 20 years (13 man staffs; using six or seven pitchers to get through a 5-3 game). For another, he seems like an overly-serious and somewhat self-important guy.
And finally, I know he's way too frickin' smart to be as ignorant as he says he was about steroids on his teams. It would be one thing if he said "yeah, I knew it, but there wasn't much I could do about it." But this playing dumb thing he has done really insults my intelligence, and I don't like my intelligence to be insulted.
klbader and Calcaterra: What does any of your comments have to do with the story? This is about a THIEF of information and identity stealing and passing it off as La Russa. Perhaps staying on track and not letting personal likes an dislikes would actually help. Someone stole an identity, perhaps not to gain monetary value, but passed him or herself off as La Russa. Time to stand up for what's right, not just out own biased personal feelings!
The article to which Craig has linked makes it known that the fake Twitter profile comes across more as parody than "identity stealing" (viz. the twitter author at one point makes it clear that he is not actually Tony la Russa). Celebrity parody and impersonation at Twitter has become a rather common occurrence in the last year or so. Some are wittier and in better taste than others (this one perhaps not so much), but these people are almost always looking to poke a little satirical fun at their subjects, rather than legitimately attempt to impersonate them. It's easy to see why la Russa would want the twitter page taken down, but I think most people would have a thicker skin about it.
Raas -- whether your characterization of this is accurate depends on the content of the Twitter posts. If it was satirical it could still be legally actionable on a cybersquatting theory, but it's certainly not "identity theft," which the law generally defines as an intent to use another's identity to commit, aid, or abet any unlawful activity such as theft of fraud.
If he's on there sayng "I'm Tony La Russa, and I think you should send money to my PayPal account to help my animal charities," sure, that's a crime. If he's on there saying "I'm Tony La Russa, and I don't know how to run a bullpen and I like to wear sunglasses at night games," it's not.
Ultimately what I'm saying is that his lawsuit may have real legal value here, but absent any allegation that someone was committing fraud or theft here, I think you're overstating the seriousness of this.