The Miami New Times ultimately did the right thing, if not for some of the wrong reasons.

In a column written by Chuck Strouse, the paper said it wouldn’t hand over the evidence that could incriminate players like Alex Rodriguez.

He writes:

Sorry, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. We won’t hand over records that detail the inner workings of Biogenesis, the controversial Coral Gables anti-aging clinic that allegedly supplied prohibited drugs to six professional baseball players, including Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.

The reasons are manifold. History plays a role in our decision. So do journalistic ethics and the fact that we have already posted dozens of records on our website. Finally, there is a hitherto-unreported Florida Department of Health criminal probe into clinic director Anthony Bosch.

However, Strouse writes part of the reason for not delivering the requested information is that the paper doesn’t want to aid Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. He views MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and baseball are an extension of Loria.

One of our most significant motivations for denying baseball is right here in the tropics. His name is Jeffrey Loria, and he owns the Miami Marlins, who start regular-season play in just a few weeks. A March 1 story in the Atlantic called the pudgy art collector’s stewardship of our baseball team, which has twice won the World Series, “the biggest ongoing scam in professional sports.” The magazine’s article describes, as New Times has in the past, how Loria hornswoggled $515 million in public backing for the stadium and parking facilities, then delivered a losing season and sold off all his best players.

The magazine blamed Selig: “If Marlins fans want results, they should send a few representatives to Commissioner Bud Selig’s office in New York. There’s a clause in Selig’s contract mandating that he act in ‘the best interests of baseball.’ Right now that would mean stepping in to prevent owners like Loria from using a big-league team as a front for squeezing money from taxpayers.”

So this is the guy who wants our records?

That’s fine if you detest Loria. Who doesn’t in Miami? But this is a journalistic issue. As the paper points out, handing over the records would set a bad precedent.

Then there is the question of ethics. A month ago, I opposed both the newspaper’s lawyer and the article’s author, Tim Elfrink, and wanted to give the records to baseball. I hoped to see A-Roid and the others punished and believed walking the ethical line was the only way to make that action happen. But then I began pondering the precedents that would set. First, we would be handing over the product of our reporting to a for-profit group with a seamy past. What if baseball improperly used our work? What if it decided to punish some players and not others?

Second, we would be sending the wrong message to future anonymous sources who might want to give us records. Our source for this article fears for his safety. How could we subject him to greater risk by losing control of the information he had provided?

“Handing over the records makes you a tool of Major League Baseball,” comments Charles Davis, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. “And you are scaring people in the future who might be thinking of calling you.”

That should be the first and only reason why the Miami New Times doesn’t hand over the records.