Notre Dame Law School NDLScholarship Journal Articles Publications 2009 A Most Interesting Part of Baseball's Monetary Structure - Salary Arbitration in Its Thirty-Fifth eY ar Ed Edmonds Notre Dame Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons Recommended Citation Ed Edmonds, A Most Interesting Part of Baseball's Monetary Structure - Salary Arbitration in Its Thirty-Fifth Year, 20 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 1 (2009-2010). Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/523 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A MOST INTERESTING PART OF BASEBALL'S MONETARY STRUCTURE - SALARY ARBITRATION IN ITS THIRTY- FIFTH YEAR ED EDMONDS* I. INTRODUCTION On Monday, February 11, 1974, Minnesota Twins (Twins) pitcher Dick Woodson, Major League Baseball Players Association (the "Players Association") attorney Richard Moss, Twins owner Clark Griffith, and American League attorney James P. Garner all met in a room before arbitrator Henry Platt for more than four hours in Major League Baseball's (MLB) first salary arbitration hearing. 1 The historic hearing and Platt's decision in favor of Woodson marked the first of the 487 hearings conducted during the thirty- five years since the beginning of baseball's single or final offer arbitration system. 2 Although Woodson won his hearing and an award of his figure of $30,000 instead of Griffith's offer of $23,000, the pitcher remained bitter about his treatment by Griffith.