Ex-groundskeeper lodges complaint

McArthur Church alleges the Rays fired him out of retaliation. He wants his job back.

The dancing groundskeeper fired by the Devil Rays has some dirt to dish on his former employer.

McArthur Church, who says he lost his job after team officials accused him of stealing baseballs, on Tuesday sent a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Tampa. In the complaint, he alleges his firing was retaliatory and he was not promoted to head groundskeeper because he is African-American, said Jim Eckert, Church's St. Petersburg lawyer.

The complaint adds an interesting twist to the story: Church accuses the Rays of violating a Major League Baseball rule on the height of the pitcher's mound.

Church, whose complaint says he was assistant head groundskeeper for seven years, maintains the game mound at Tropicana Field was 14 inches. Rules say the mound shall be 10 inches, said Matt Gould, a MLB spokesman.

The day after Church was fired, he alleges the team reshaped the mound to make it shorter, though the reconfiguration put it at 12 inches. Team officials, his complaint says, were worried he would reveal the team was intentionally breaking the mound height rule.

Rick Vaughn, Rays vice president of public relations, declined to comment on the complaint, referring the matter to John Higgins, the team's senior vice president of administration/general counsel. Higgins also declined to comment, saying he had not seen the complaint.

Eckert, who provided a copy of the complaint to the St. Petersburg Times, said he sent it to the EEOC via certified mail on Tuesday.

However, the EEOC cannot acknowledge a complaint has been filed, said Manuel Zurita, director of the Tampa area office. A complaint becomes public only if the agency decides to file a lawsuit and pursue the matter, he said.

Church says he was denied promotion to head groundskeeper in favor of a white man who is a friend of a team executive, according to the complaint. Eckert said the real reason his client was fired was because he stopped dancing to Jimmy Buffett tunes as he turned a rake around the infield during game breaks.

"They were mad at him," Eckert said. "They used the pretext of the baseballs."

Church routinely would collect used balls and distribute them to children and fans who were using wheelchairs or were otherwise disabled, Eckert said.

Church was fired in April after he admitted taking three baseballs from a basket on the field and putting them in his locker, according to a previous interview with the Times. He had planned to give the balls to fans. Church, Eckert said, is seeking reinstatement, damages, attorneys fees, court costs and compensation for the humiliation the incident has caused him.

- Alicia Caldwell can be reached at Alicia@sptimes.com or 727 893-8145.