Inside baseball

Yesterday was fat cat day at Fenway.

Opening Day always is. It is the day that all the bosses cut out at noon and companies stuff the most expensive seats in all of baseball with their A-list customers. How many people do you think paid for their own tickets in the fancy new EMC Club -- with its $275 heated seats, private dining rooms, and concierge?

Think of EMC as the Ace Ticket of storage companies, and the EMC Club as another marketing opportunity. Lots of big companies use the lure of big-time sports as a chance to schmooze with customers. Now a lawsuit involving Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley and one of its former top technology executives offers a window into how the game is played in the luxury boxes. EMC is just one of those getting nicked by the shrapnel.

In a wrongful termination suit, Arthur Riel, once in charge of overseeing Morgan Stanley's e-mail archives, said he was made a scapegoat in a $1.6 billion judgment the firm lost last year to billionaire financier Ronald Perelman. Morgan Stanley said Riel's dismissal had nothing to do with the huge judgment and everything to do with Riel's disseminating other employee's e-mails. What we care about, of course, are the e-mails -- in particular the EMC e-mails.

We should all have a friend like Lennox Stuart. Stuart is an EMC salesman, but reading the e-mails that Riel filed in court, he seems more like the personal ticket agent for Morgan Stanley's influential chief technology officer, Guy Chiarello.

''I have another ticket offer for you!" Stuart wrote Chiarello. ''. . . I have 2 tickets to the Jets-Miami game this Sunday. These are [EMC boss] Joe Tucci's seats and they are OUTSTANDING, first row between the 40s! In addition, we would likely be able to get on the field during warm-ups."

In a matter of a few months in 2003, Lennox couldn't have been a better buddy, offering a steady stream of tickets to the Red Sox-Yankees playoffs, the Celtics, a Yankees dinner for Chiarello and his son, and the US Open for Chiarello and his daughter. That was just EMC. Among others, IBM wanted to take the Morgan Stanley tech chief to Wimbledon in London; he declined, but suggested a deputy. In another e-mail, Chiarello, a Yankees fan, lobbied a client to get on the field at Yankee Stadium. ''Whether it is as [an] honorary bat [boy], sitting down at the foul line for an inning to catch balls, or even [working with] the grounds crew during the 5th inning of a game to the tune of YMCA!" Chiarello e-mailed Robert Nederlander Jr., whose father is a part-owner of the team. The answer: No.

In the middle of the classic Sox-Yankee playoffs, Stuart was the man with the tickets, but Chiarello couldn't make it. ''Just get us squared away for the World Series," Chiarello wrote back. Replied Stuart: ''We have you covered for the World Series!"

A Morgan Stanley spokesman said the firm looked into the e-mails and found nothing that warranted disciplinary action. The leaking of the e-mails, on the other hand, illustrates why Riel was fired, he said. An EMC spokesman said the entertainment was in line with its policies. Riel's attorney, Jeffrey Pagano, responded that Morgan Stanley is engaging in ''revisionist history" to disguise its dismissal of Riel.

As it turns out, the techies working for Chiarello were less than impressed by EMC. One deputy talked about the ''real issues around these [EMC] boxes." Another executive offered a laundry list of why EMC's products were inferior to the competition.

EMC ''doesn't make sense," wrote Lori Dietzler, ''and I'd like to know the reason for the next installation as to the benefit we are seeing here (it's not time, money, or storage). If I can't get a reason, tickets to a Yankees' game would be great!"

Lennox Stuart could no doubt help out.

Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.