The Baseball Anomaly : a Regulatory Paradox in American Political Development
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1997 The baseball anomaly : a regulatory paradox in American political development. Jerold J. Duquette University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Duquette, Jerold J., "The baseball anomaly : a regulatory paradox in American political development." (1997). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1966. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1966 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE BASEBALL ANOMALY A REGULATORY PARADOX IN AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT A Dissertation Presented by JEROLD J. DUQUETTE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial rulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 1997 Department of Political Science Copyright © by Jerold J. Duquette 1 997 All Rights Reserved THE BASEBALL ANOMALY A REGULATORY PARADOX IN AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT A Dissertation Presented by JEROLD J. DUQUETTE Approved as to style and content by: Eric Einhorn, Chair Department of Political Science DEDICATION To my mother and to my wife, whose love and support sustain me. ABSTRACT THE BASEBALL ANOMALY A REGULATORY PARADOX IN AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER 1997 JEROLD J. DUQUETTE, B.A., THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA M.P.A., THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jerome M. Mileur Major League baseball, alone among industries of its size in the United States, operates as an unregulated monopoly. This twentieth century regulatory anomaly has become known simply as the "baseball anomaly." Major League Baseball developed into a major commercial enterprise without being subject to antitrust liability. Long after the recognized by interstate commercial character of baseball had been established, and even the Supreme Court, baseball's monopoly remained free from federal regulation. regulatory status This study explains the baseball anomaly by connecting baseball's through four different to the larger political environment, tracing the game's fate of institutional, ideological and regulatory regimes in the United States. The constellation provides the context for the persistence of political factors within each regulatory regime monopoly persists because of the confluence the baseball anomaly. Baseball's unregulated of factors which have prevented the repeal of institutional, ideological and political However, both the institutional and ideological baseball's antitrust exemption to date. factors, which have in the past protected baseball's unregulated monopoly, are fading. Baseball's owners can no longer claim special cultural significance in defense of the exemption, nor can they claim that the commissioner system approximates government regulation sufficiently. Both of these strategies have been discredited by the labor unrest in baseball over the last decade. While baseball is one labor strike away from losing part of its exemption, it will likely retain the aspects of the exemption which cover the contractual relationship between the major and minor leagues, as well as the part of the exemption which allows Major League Baseball to regulate the migration of individual franchises. These aspects of baseball's exemption with likely be codified and expanded to all professional sports leagues. The eventual partial repeal of baseball's exemption and the likely expansion of part of baseball's exemption to other sports makes it both an outdated anomaly and a harbinger of sports antitrust policy in the twenty first century. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT v Chapter INTRODUCTION \ I PROGRESSIV1SM AND THE BASEBALL ANOMALY 12 The Early History of Baseball 13 Antitrust Policy and the Political Philosophy of the Progressives 29 The Compatibility of the Baseball Anomaly with Progressivism 37 II THE NEW DEAL ERA AND THE BASEBALL ANOMALY 52 The Golden Age of Stability: The Landis Years 54 The Politics of the Depression and the New Deal 68 Stability in Baseball Begins to Unravel 81 III THE NEW POLITICS OF THE OLD BALL GAME 104 The Regulatory Regime of the 1960s and 1970s 105 Marvin Miller and the MLBPA 112 Other Sports. Is Baseball Unique or One Among Many? 132 The Regulatory Regime of the 1980s 145 IV. THE BASEBALL ANOMALY IN THE 1990s 157 Baseball and Antitrust Policy Re-Emerge in Congress 159 The 1994 Player Strike 175 Where Does the Exemption Stand Now? 1 97 V THE FUTURE OF BASEBALL'S ANTITRUST EXEMPTION 201 The Impact of Recent Court Decisions on the Baseball Anomaly ... 202 th th The Baseball Anomaly in the 105 and 106 Congresses 213 The Baseball Anomaly in the Twenty First Century 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 vii INTRODUCTION It is said that few things in life are certain. Until the summer of 1994 most Americans would probably have said that, in addition to death and taxes, one thing that could be counted on was the World Series. Every fall since 1904 Americans had enjoyed the world championship of baseball. In 1994, this was not to be. This grand tradition was not interrupted by economic depression, world war, or even natural disaster Nor was the Fall Classic canceled by an arrogant pennant winning manager unwilling to play against inferior talent. The 1994 World Series fell victim to a labor/management dispute. The player strike, baseball's ninth work stoppage since 1970, was the culmination of three decades of unrest in the business of baseball. The 1 994 baseball strike exposed the less wholesome side of our national pastime more vividly than anything before. The business of baseball took a bit of the shine off what most considered a national treasure. Indeed, baseball seemed to be losing its special place in the American psyche. Long separated from discussions of politics and industrial relations, baseball was suddenly at the center of serious public policy debates at the highest levels of government. In this more somber atmosphere, the long dormant issue of baseball's exemption from federal antitrust laws acquired a new life. Disgusted with the failure of the players and owners to come to an agreement, many, inside government and owners into out, began pushing for repeal of the antitrust exemption as a way to pressure in both an agreement with the players. The popular concern with baseball was reflected 1 the appointment of a mediator by the President of the United States to bring baseball's "labor" and management together and by a renewed interest in the exemption by Members of Congress. This dissertation will examine what has come to be known as the "baseball anomaly." Major League Baseball's exemption from federal antitrust laws represents a regulatory paradox in American political development, which the most recent unrest in the game has brought once more to the fore. Baseball is set apart from most other industries, including all other professional sports, by its exemption from federal antitrust law. The decisive question animating this dissertation is, "why?" Why has baseball been granted this immunity from the laws of the land? And, why has this regulatory anomaly been maintained for three-quarters of a century? Analyses of this phenomenon have heretofore lacked comprehensiveness. They have been too narrow in their methodology and focus. Scholarly inquiries into the baseball anomaly have generally fallen into one of three categories. They are either legal histories, unsystematic cultural studies, or interest group studies. Not present in the literature is a systematic attempt to integrate these approaches and theories into a comprehensive examination of baseball's unregulated monopoly. Legal analyses chronicle the history of antitrust litigation in baseball, beginning with the 1922 Supreme Court decision that granted baseball its sweeping antitrust exemption. Subsequent challenges to this decision are examined and the exemption's survival is attributed to historical accident, originating with a Supreme Court whose Progressive politics and sentimentality for America's national pastime led it to look away from the true commercial nature of the game. Legal analyses of the exemption focus on 2 the power of precedent, or Stare Decisis, and the Court's insistence that the Congress is the appropriate venue for removing the exemption. Such analyses are uncritical in attributing the origin of the exemption to sentimentality and then focus too narrowly on the "rules" of the judicial branch to explain its long life. This approach fails to address systematically the impact of ideas on the exemption's survival and treats institutional inertia too narrowly, focusing on the judicial branch to the exclusion of the legislature and the executive. 1 Several studies have traced the cultural significance of baseball, connecting it to larger social and economic trends. None, however, attempts to distinguish the role of baseball's cultural significance in its retention of the antitrust exemption. These studies are useful in explaining baseball's continued unregulated monopoly insofar as they connect 2 baseball's cultural significance to the attitudes of legislators and fans.