The Chickens Are Rounding Third

San Diego Padres owner John Moores endeared himself to baseball fans in the days prior to the strike deadline with a statement saying he was prepared to shut the game down for a season in order to get a favorable labor deal. Okay, “endeared” isn’t actually the proper verb; “made his idiocy known” is a more suitable one. Moores’ ultra-hardline stance–one which had no parallel voice even in that season of heated rhetoric–was manipulative and appalling.

It was also a fairly transparent bluff. Moores had already successfully milked the taxpayers of San Diego for roughly $300 million towards a new baseball stadium, set to open in 2004 to replace The Murph. For the Padres, who are covering $153 million of the stadium’s cost, leading in with a full year’s labor stoppage would have been financial suicide.

Now it looks like Moores could be shut down himself. He’s the chairman of a software company, Peregrine Systems, which filed for bankruptcy this past weekend. The company had recently been de-listed by NASDAQ after admitting that it had overstated its revenues by abot $250 million. Since then, it’s been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Department of Justice for fraudulent accounting practices. With over 30 class-action lawsuits pending against Peregrine, Moores’ share of the Padres could be liquidated if he’s found liable.

But hey, what’s a little liability when you’re Fortune Magazine’s 5th Greediest Executive? And what’s a few more feds when you’ve already been the subject of a federal investigation regarding the bribery of a city councilwoman for the ballpark deal–an investigation which brought construction of the park to a halt for over a year? Moores was eventually cleared of wrongdoing: “”It is not a crime to give a gift to a public official.”

In a group for whom convicted felon George Steinbrenner (conspiracy to make illegal campaign contributions to the Nixon campaign ’72) is the model for success, Moores stands out among baseball owners for his greed, his audacity, and his ability to draw federal heat. It was bound to happen sooner or later: the third base coaches are waving his chickens home to roost.