INSIDE THIS ISSUE the More We Learn, the Less We Know
A publication of the Society for American Baseball Research Business of Baseball Committee July 20, 2008 Summer 2008 The Commissioners and “Smart Power” The Return of Syndicate Baseball By Robert F. Lewis, II By Jeff Katz Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has developed a A scourge of the National League during the 1890’s, geopolitical “smart power” model, used in this essay syndicate baseball, which allowed intertwined owner- to characterize the nine Major League Baseball (MLB) ship of franchises, was a serious detriment to true commissioners. Particular focus is on Judge Kenesaw competition. At the turn of the century, New York Gi- Mountain Landis, the first, and Allan H. “Bud” Selig, ants’ owner Andrew Freedman, along with John the current one. While intended to assess America’s Brush, owner of the Reds and shareholder in the Gi- use of power in global politics, Nye’s model is gener- ants, and two other National League owners attempted ally applicable in any leadership evaluation. Nye first to form the National League Base Ball Trust. With the describes “power” as “the ability to influence the be- support of Frank Robison of the Cardinals and Arthur havior of others to get the outcomes one wants.”1 In Soden of the Braves, the trust would foster common his model, Nye simply divides power into two con- ownership of all league clubs and assign players from trasting subcategories: hard and soft. For Nye, “hard one club to another, thereby influencing competition. power” is typically military or economic in the form Needing merely one more vote for passage, a vote to of threats (“sticks”) or inducements (“carrots”).
[Show full text]