St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa is suing Twitter and an unidentified Twitter user for impersonating him on the site, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on its website.

Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold writes that LaRussa filed the trademark infringement and “misappropriation of likeness and name” suit in San Francisco court last month. Twitter is based in San Francisco.

The suit alleges that the unidentified Twitter user impersonated LaRussa by creating an account in his name–@TonyLaRussa–an account which has since been removed and deleted. The user impersonating LaRussa made crude and vulgar comments on the page, including several about deceased Cardinals pitchers Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock. One now deleted tweet read “Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher,” a reference to Kile and Hancock.

The San Francisco Chronicle writer Philip Matier reports that LaRussa attempted to contact Twitter and have the account removed through his lawyer but received no response. Matier adds that the account disappeared “within a half hour of the trademark infringement complain being filed.”

Click here to access the official court documents. Enter “CGC09488101″ when prompted for a case number.

Update: June 6, 2009: Tony LaRussa and Twitter have reached a settlement on the case. The Associated Press has the details.

Until just a few days ago, San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson maintained a Twitter account, @BrianWilson38. Wilson abruptly closed his account after several of his tweets were published in the media and contributed to a small controversy. Let’s take a closer look at what happened and try to determine how this situation affects athletes on Twitter.

Brian Wilson was only one of a handful of active Major League players with Twitter accounts. Wilson used his account to post random thoughts and observations as thousands of other Twitterers do on a daily basis. But Brian Wilson is a public figure–and therefore subject to a different set of rules regarding the content he posts publicly on a public website. The story of Brian Wilson’s Twitter drama was first reported on Yahoo’s “Big League Stew” baseball blog.

Last weekend, Wilson wrote a series of tweets after a Giants game in Arizona. It seems Wilson and some teammates went to a Scottsdale bar and encountered some “over aggressive males.” The next day an ineffective Wilson blew the save in the day game against the Diamondbacks.

Wilson has a late night and then struggles during a game the next day. Could it be just a pure coincidence? It’s possible, although San Francisco Chronicle beat writer Henry Schulman openly ponders the possibilities as part of a blog post in which he notes that “fans notice this stuff.”

The next day, Schulman noted that Wilson deleted all of his tweets and replaced them with a single tweet that read “Warning- do not take my twitters seriously, they are made up stories that reflect my humor.” Schulman and Wilson had a conversation about Schulman’s post about Wilson’s use of Twitter and Wilson deleted his account at some point following that conversation.

What can we learn from this situation? We are once again reminded that professional athletes are public figures and, as such, are subject to a different set of rules than the rest of us. Twitter is a public website and, save for a small percentage of users, nearly all Twitter accounts and tweets are available to the general public, members of the media and all. Professional athletes know their fans are always watching (and reading) and sometimes this can get them in trouble. I don’t personally think this particular controversy really had any legs but obviously it affected Wilson enough to cause him to delete his account.

Twitter is all about access. We are reminded yet again that “all access” is not always a good thing. What do you think? Was Henry Schulman just doing his job? Did Brian Wilson overreact? What implications  does this situation present for athletes on Twitter? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Opening Day 2009 begins tonight in Philadelphia and continues tomorrow for the rest of the league. If you’re a baseball fan on Twitter, you have to be excited about the networking possibilities this season thanks to MLB’s use of the site.

photo credit: aqui-ali

The Players
There are already several star MLB players on Twitter, all of whom seem to have started using the service during this past off-season. New York Yankees ace and star free agent acquisition CC Sabathia is among the MLB players already using Twitter. The recently retired Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is also on Twitter and uses the site to communicate with fans and promote his new game development venture, 38 Studios. Other MLB players on Twitter include Phillies reliever Chad Durbin, Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher, Giants closer Brian Wilson, Rangers reliever C.J. Wilson and Giants starter Barry Zito.

Each player uses Twitter differently. Sabathia and Swisher don’t tweet much but Wilson is very open and answers fan questions regularly. Still, it’s great to see MLB players embrace Twitter to communicate with the fans and it’s likely that even more players will join Twitter this season.

MLB on Twitter
The players aren’t alone in embracing Twitter. MLB has taken an active role on Twitter, too. MLB’s Mark Newman runs the MLBlogs Twitter account and keeps everyone updated on the newest blogs on MLB.com (sign up for your own blog here) and on the latest MLB players to join Twitter.

If you enjoy watching MLB games on your computer through MLB.tv, you’ll be happy to know that you can follow the MLB.tv Twitter account for the latest news on the service and baseball in general.

MLB Teams on Twitter
If you’re an Athletics, Diamondbacks or Royals fan, you can follow Twitter accounts for an insider’s look on your favorite club. Catherine Herman, a Dbacks PR staffer, offers an inside look at the ballclub via her DbacksPRGirl account. Around the Horn KC offers updates from the official Royals blog on MLB.com. Finally, the Athletics maintain an official Twitter account to inform fans about the latest team news and promotions.

While there are only a handful of official club accounts on Twitter right now, I’ve heard that many teams will launch official accounts at some point this season. Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.

Team Beat Writers on Twitter
If you enjoy reading about your favorite team on MLB.com or in the local media, you’ll be happy to learn that several MLB beat writers are already covering their teams on Twitter in addition to their normal media outlets. Here is a list of team beat writers on Twitter, divided by ML division. Please note this is not an exhaustive list; I am always looking for more writers.

AL East
Blue Jays – Jordan Bastian, MLB.com
Rays – Marc Lancaster, Tampa Tribune
Yankees – Bryan Hoch, MLB.com, Pete Abraham, The Journal News

AL Central
Tigers – Jason Beck, MLB.com
White Sox – Joe Cowley, Chicago Sun-Times

AL West
- None that I know of yet -

NL East
Marlins – Joe Frisaro, MLB.com
Phillies – Todd Zolecki, MLB.com, David Murphy, Philadelphia Daily News

NL Central
Astros – Alyson Footer, MLB.com
Cardinals – Matthew Leach, MLB.com, Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Reds – John Fay, Cincinnati Enquirer

NL West
Padres – Corey Brock, MLB.com

Finally, several national baseball writers maintain Twitter accounts, including ESPN’s Jayson Stark and Keith Law and Baseball Prospectus writer and injury expert Will Carroll. Please note that while Peter Gammons has an account, it is new and now private so I am not listing it here.

If you prefer to read blogs, I recommend Tim Dierkes’ excellent MLB Trade Rumors site and Twitter account. For a full listing of MLB blogs (and other sports blogs, too), check refer to the Blogs page on the full list.

I hope that this MLB roundup helps you enjoy the 2009 season a little more in some small way. I fully expect more MLB players, teams and writers to embrace Twitter this season so it looks like a good season for baseball fans on Twitter!