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Rickey, Race, and “All Deliberate Speed”

Mitchell Nathanson

in A People's History of Baseball

This chapter discusses how the burgeoning civil rights fixated its glare upon Major League Baseball (MLB), whose owners and executives soon realized that eventually, they were going to have no choice ... More

This chapter discusses how the burgeoning civil rights fixated its glare upon Major League Baseball (MLB), whose owners and executives soon realized that eventually, they were going to have no choice but to accept integration. Although powerless to stop the onrushing tide, they were nevertheless able to control how the story of the game's integration was going to be told. The story they perpetuated is one of the most affirming morality tales in American history—the story of Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson, and the integration of MLB in 1947. Because baseball in America had reflected the nation's racial practices for decades, the event was perceived as momentous and precipitous because here, baseball foreshadowed nationwide, federally imposed and endorsed desegregation, coming as it did before the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.Less

This Is Not Just a Test

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This chapter examines Major League Baseball's (MLB) drug testing policy under Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, the man who inherited Bowie Kuhn's responsibilities and with them baseball's drug problems. ... More

This chapter examines Major League Baseball's (MLB) drug testing policy under Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, the man who inherited Bowie Kuhn's responsibilities and with them baseball's drug problems. Under Ueberroth's guidance, the league appeared to enjoy a remarkable renaissance. Nevertheless, there was something illusory about the success of Ueberroth's tenure: he struck out on the issue of drugs. This chapter considers Ueberroth's mandatory drug testing policy as part of his campaign to eliminate drugs from baseball in the wake of the Pittsburgh drug trial. It also discusses the league's joint drug policy with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), along with the dispute between the union and team owners over the issue of drug testing. The test case for the MLBPA's position would stem from the proliferation of contract clauses requiring voluntary drug testing.Less

Summers of the Long Ball Frauds

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This chapter examines the congressional hearings conducted on March 17, 2005, to probe drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB). On March 17, 2005, the Steroid Era crisis hit critical mass as a ... More

This chapter examines the congressional hearings conducted on March 17, 2005, to probe drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB). On March 17, 2005, the Steroid Era crisis hit critical mass as a handful of players sat before the House Government Reform Committee to answer questions about drug use in professional baseball, among them Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling, Jose Canseco, and Frank Thomas. Conspicuously absent was Barry Bonds, the man who had by then become the Steroid Era's public enemy number one. At the time, Bonds was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). The committee wanted to know if McGwire indeed used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, who else in the league used them, and when the use of such drugs began. This chapter considers what the hearings accomplished and the drug scandal involving BALCO.Less

The Reserve Clause

Stuart Banner

in The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption

This chapter examines the history of the reserve clause, a standard term in player contracts in Major League Baseball that effectively bound a player to his team for his entire career, and how it led ... More

This chapter examines the history of the reserve clause, a standard term in player contracts in Major League Baseball that effectively bound a player to his team for his entire career, and how it led to the sport's near-complete exemption from antitrust law. It first traces the origins and the early use of the reserve clause, along with the many court decisions between 1890 and 1914 involving the clause. The labor practices that formed the core of baseball's monopoly date to 1879, when the owners of the National League teams first agreed on what would come to be called the reserve clause. The chapter asks why no antitrust investigations were undertaken in Congress and no antitrust suits were filed before the 1910s, and why the players did not press antitrust claims against baseball. It also considers the Supreme Court's 1922 ruling stating that the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 did not apply to professional baseball.Less

Empires of Fun and Games

Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu

in Transpacific Field of Dreams: How Baseball Linked the United States and Japan in Peace and War

This chapter highlights an epoch-making postseason exhibition tour to Japan by Major League Baseball in the early 1930s. The majors' 1934 tour helped usher in the era of full-blown professional ... More

This chapter highlights an epoch-making postseason exhibition tour to Japan by Major League Baseball in the early 1930s. The majors' 1934 tour helped usher in the era of full-blown professional baseball in Japan. Only three weeks after the major leaguers left Japan, the 1934 all-Japan team was incorporated into a permanent commercial entity, forming the Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyū Kurabu (Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club). The chapter also discusses the second generation of Japanese professional clubs, offering an illuminating view into the patterns of industrial development in Japan in the interwar period.Less

Introduction

Nathaniel Grow

in Baseball on Trial: The Origin of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption

This book examines the history of the Federal Baseball litigation and explains how Major League Baseball first came to be exempt from antitrust law. In a unanimous ruling, penned by Justice Oliver ... More

This book examines the history of the Federal Baseball litigation and explains how Major League Baseball first came to be exempt from antitrust law. In a unanimous ruling, penned by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in the 1922 case of Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, the United States Supreme Court held that the “business of base ball” was not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act because it did not constitute interstate commerce. The Court has affirmed Federal Baseball on two separate occasions, first in 1953 and then again in 1972, giving Major League Baseball antitrust immunity. This book examines how baseball came to enjoy its unique antitrust status, and more specifically why Justice Holmes concluded that the sport was not interstate commerce and thus not subject to federal antitrust law. It argues that the decision was consistent with the prevailing judicial precedents of the day and highlights several critical tactical mistakes committed by the Baltimore Federals's counsel throughout the litigation.Less

Introduction: The Last Pure Place

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This book charts the history of drug and alcohol use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It aims to recover the story of baseball and drugs from the tyranny of baseball mythology by analyzing the ... More

This book charts the history of drug and alcohol use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It aims to recover the story of baseball and drugs from the tyranny of baseball mythology by analyzing the perceived problem of drug use, with particular emphasis on illegal recreational and performance-enhancing drugs, in MLB. It examines how the drug testing movement, for two decades the persona non grata of professional baseball, surged to the forefront of Major League thought following the congressional hearings of 2005, culminating in the 2006 establishment of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program between the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). The new testing protocols were buoyed by the findings of the Mitchell Report, which explicitly warned against retroactive punishment—the league could not slash and burn its way to integrity by torching past transgressions—and instead focused on the need for diligence in the future.Less

Pitching around the Problem

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This chapter examines how the perceived problem of drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB) was addressed by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Ball Four, an account of Jim Bouton's 1969 campaign with the ... More

This chapter examines how the perceived problem of drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB) was addressed by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Ball Four, an account of Jim Bouton's 1969 campaign with the expansion Seattle Pilots, featured what was then startling insight into baseball's sophomoric, often crude, seemingly contradictory culture of boyish immaturity masked by excessive masculine posturing. Drugs featured prominently in Bouton's story. Kuhn was the antithesis of Bouton: he was staid and conservative, in contrast to Bouton who was liberal and irreverent. Bouton challenged the myths of MLB. Kuhn believed that the game, much less its sacrosanct myths, was and should remain changeless. This chapter first considers the congressional hearings that were conducted in the early 1970s to investigate the improper use and abuse of drugs by athletes before discussing how Kuhn confronted the drug abuse crisis within the league, including the cocaine crisis.Less

We Want More Baseball and Football 1959 and 1960

David George Surdam

in The Big Leagues Go to Washington: Congress and Sports Antitrust, 1951-1989

This chapter focuses on the Congressional hearings conducted in 1959 and 1960 to address the issue of expansion and prospective new leagues. All of the league constitutions contained clauses ... More

This chapter focuses on the Congressional hearings conducted in 1959 and 1960 to address the issue of expansion and prospective new leagues. All of the league constitutions contained clauses pertaining to relocating or selling existing franchises and creating new franchises. These clauses typically required a supermajority, in some cases unanimity, of owners to approve franchise relocation or sales and expansion. However, incumbent owners were lukewarm about franchise expansion and hostile towards new leagues. This chapter begins with a discussion of tactics employed by team owners to prevent the entry of a new league, including territorial rights. It then considers the demise of the Continental League due to a number of hurdles, such as getting television contracts, providing pension benefits equivalent to Major League Baseball's (MLB) scheme, and and getting stadiums. It also examines the expansion policies of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL), along with the legal wrangling between the NFL and the American Football League (AFL) over expansion.Less

Tobacco Road

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This chapter focuses on the history of tobacco use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It begins with the story of Bill Tuttle, who chewed tobacco anywhere from ten to twelve hours a day for more than ... More

This chapter focuses on the history of tobacco use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It begins with the story of Bill Tuttle, who chewed tobacco anywhere from ten to twelve hours a day for more than forty years and eventually developed oral cancer. A seemingly endless series of operations left Tuttle badly disfigured. In the spring of 1996, Tuttle, now head of the National Spit Tobacco Education Program (NSTEP), spearheaded a crusade to warn Major Leaguers about the dangers of smokeless tobacco. This chapter examines baseball's historical connection to the tobacco industry, first by tracing the beginnings of marketing tobacco through baseball. It then discusses the debate that arose in the late 1950s and early 1960s over athletic endorsements of tobacco products due to evidence linking smoking with carcinogenic effects. It also considers how the tobacco industry latched onto the notion, supported by dubious medical evidence, that smokeless tobacco was a safe alternative to cigarettes. Finally, it reflects on how the fight over tobacco products in baseball played out at the end of the twentieth century.Less

Where’s the Dexamyl, Doc?

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This chapter discusses the history of drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It begins with Twentieth-Century Fox's baseball fantasy It Happens Every Spring, the story of a nerdy chemistry ... More

This chapter discusses the history of drug use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It begins with Twentieth-Century Fox's baseball fantasy It Happens Every Spring, the story of a nerdy chemistry professor, and diehard baseball fanatic, who relies on a secret chemical formula in order to moonlight as a phenom pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. The problem with the film was that it was “the story of a cheat, winning a pennant and a World's Championship series.” In real-life baseball, cheating has quite a long history. This chapter examines the emergence of a generation of pioneering trainers and team doctors who introduced new methods to ease pain, spur healing, and enhance the performance of baseball players, including the injection of tranquilizers and the use of amphetamines. It also considers the case of Sandy Koufax and the league's refusal to admit that there was a doping problem in the sport; in short, baseball players did not use drugs.Less

Competitive Balance

in Fans of the World, Unite!: A (Capitalist) Manifesto for Sports Consumers

This chapter takes a look at the country's seeming obsession with competitive balance. The discussion situates the preoccupation with competitive balance within the sociopolitical value of equal ... More

This chapter takes a look at the country's seeming obsession with competitive balance. The discussion situates the preoccupation with competitive balance within the sociopolitical value of equal opportunity and further examines data that is inconsistent with the usual wisdom that states that competitive balance is the important and main factor in the success of sports leagues. This thinking can be seen in official documents (e.g. the Major League Baseball Constitution). This chapter also discusses how the twin reforms mentioned in the previous chapter can help increase the probability that participating clubs would achieve an “appeal-maximizing” level of outcome uncertainty.Less

A Brief History of Professional Team Sports

David George Surdam

in The Big Leagues Go to Washington: Congress and Sports Antitrust, 1951-1989

This chapter traces the history of professional team sports in order to place the issues covered in the Congressional hearings in the proper context. It first considers the rise of baseball as ... More

This chapter traces the history of professional team sports in order to place the issues covered in the Congressional hearings in the proper context. It first considers the rise of baseball as America's national pastime and Major League Baseball (MLB)'s decision to maintain two separate leagues, the American League and the National League. It then discusses the dispute between MLB and the rival Federal League, along with the emergence of other sports that achieved Big League status, namely, football and basketball. It also examines the prosperity of the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as the appearance of new challengers to their dominance after World War II. Finally, it looks at the Flood v. Kuhn, a Supreme Court case that challenged baseball's reserve clause, along with the rise of free agency.Less

Baseball and Broadcasting 1953

David George Surdam

in The Big Leagues Go to Washington: Congress and Sports Antitrust, 1951-1989

This chapter focuses on Congressional hearings conducted in 1953 to address Major League Baseball's (MLB) television policies. In addition to their fears about the adverse effects of broadcasting and ... More

This chapter focuses on Congressional hearings conducted in 1953 to address Major League Baseball's (MLB) television policies. In addition to their fears about the adverse effects of broadcasting and televising MLB games upon their gate receipts, baseball owners were concerned over their supply of minor league players. National Football League (NFL) owners were not too concerned about the effects of their telecasts upon college football; they relied on collegiate football to generate well-known, gifted players. Their baseball counterparts did not depend on this source. The issue was complicated by the variety of broadcasts into minor league territories: telecasts, live radio broadcasts, and radio broadcasts of re-created games. This chapter first considers the notion that telecasts of MLB games were responsible for minor league baseball's woes before discussing the issue over MLB owners' right to broadcast or telecast their games. It concludes with an assessment of the reasons behind the demise of minor league baseball teams.Less

Epilogue: Brave New Game

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This epilogue reflects on the history of drug and alcohol abuse in baseball, first by recounting the story of Seattle Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez. Known as A-Rod, Rodriguez has become the most ... More

This epilogue reflects on the history of drug and alcohol abuse in baseball, first by recounting the story of Seattle Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez. Known as A-Rod, Rodriguez has become the most recognizable face in baseball with regards to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)—possibly in all of sports. In the wake of the Mitchell Report findings, Rodriguez adamantly proclaimed his innocence when he was connected with PED use, later admitted that he lied about his past drug abuses, and then doubled down on the denials when indicted yet again, this time for transgressions related to the 2013 doping scandal involving Biogenesis of America. On January 11, 2014, Rodriguez, after a lengthy period of arbitration, was formally suspended for 162 games—at that point the longest non-lifetime suspension in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. This epilogue considers some of the reasons why people are so bothered by the use of PEDs in baseball and suggests that drug use in baseball could be ascribed as a direct corollary to the American obsession with winning.Less

Time in a Bottle

Nathan Michael Corzine

in Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

This chapter traces the history of alcohol use in Major League Baseball (MLB) and considers the sudden urge, amid an atmosphere of partisan culture war that clouded the 1990s, to celebrate the era ... More

This chapter traces the history of alcohol use in Major League Baseball (MLB) and considers the sudden urge, amid an atmosphere of partisan culture war that clouded the 1990s, to celebrate the era that Mickey Mantle so vividly symbolized—the golden days of his sport and the men who played it. It shows how Mantle,who was ravaged by liver cancer due to a lifelong battle with alcoholism, was used by some as a diversion from baseball's mounting troubles. It also discusses the “Drink Hard, Play Hard” ethic in MLB and how alcoholism relates to masculinity in the league. Finally, it examines alcohol problems among teams such as the New York Yankees and players like Ryne Duren, Sam McDowell, and Don Newcombe.Less

The Curt Flood Case

Stuart Banner

in The Baseball Trust: A History of Baseball's Antitrust Exemption

This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Flood v. Kuhn, a case that presented a futile challenge to baseball's antitrust exemption. The antitrust suit was filed by Curt Flood, a ... More

This chapter focuses on the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Flood v. Kuhn, a case that presented a futile challenge to baseball's antitrust exemption. The antitrust suit was filed by Curt Flood, a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, against Major League Baseball and its commissioner Bowie Kuhn after he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies. The chapter analyzes the Supreme Court's decision, which reaffirmed baseball's immunity from federal antitrust law, along with some of its indirect longer-term effects on the legal climate surrounding professional sports. It also considers issues of race, labor relations, and the generation gap of the 1960s that were brought to the fore by Flood v. Kuhn.Less