Twitter sued by Cardinals manager for abusing his name

A popular social networking site Twitter is sued by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa according to the report from the Associated Press. La Russa filed a lawsuit against the company claiming an unauthorized page that used his name to make light of drunken driving and two Cardinals pitchers who died damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.

The damages were not specified in the filing that was submitted last month in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco. According to the filing somebody opened a fake account under the name of La Russa and posted updates, known as "tweets," which could make an impression that comments were coming from him. The suit said the comments were "derogatory and demeaning" and damaged La Russa's trademark rights. At the moment the account uder his name is no longer active.

The lawsuit includes a screen shot of three tweets. One posted on April 19 said: "Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher."

In 2002 Darryl Kile, Cardinals pitcher, died of a heart condition. Then in April 2007 Cardinals reliever Josh Hancock died in an auto accident. He was found to have blood-alcohol level at of 0.157 - nearly twice the legal limit.

This year Russa was found sleeping behind the wheel of a running sport utility vehicle in spring training with a blood-alcohol level of 0.093%. 

He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence.

La Russa's lawsuit said the page bearing his name was hurtful to the 64-year-old manager, who has led the Cardinals since 1996 and also managed the Chicago White Sox and Oakland A's during a 30-year managerial career.

Source: The Associated Press