Baseball and Globalization: the Game Played and Heard and Watched 'Round the World (With Apologies to Soccer and Bobby Thomson)
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Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Volume 8 Issue 1 Article 7 Fall 2000 Baseball and Globalization: The Game Played and Heard and Watched 'Round the World (with Apologies to Soccer and Bobby Thomson) William B. Gould IV Stanford Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Gould, William B. IV (2000) "Baseball and Globalization: The Game Played and Heard and Watched 'Round the World (with Apologies to Soccer and Bobby Thomson)," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies: Vol. 8 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol8/iss1/7 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Baseball and Globalization: The Game Played and Heard and Watched 'Round the World (With Apologies to Soccer and Bobby Thomson*) WILLIAM B. GOULD IV** INTRODUCTION: BASEBALL AS A GLOBAL GAME The twenty-first century will witness an acceleration in the globalization of America's pastime and an extended reach of baseball beyond North American shores to foreign fans and players. Not only has the game long been played and appreciated in the Caribbean, particularly in Cuba' (which defeated the United States in the 1996 Olympics, split a two-game set with the Baltimore Orioles in 1999, and lost to the United States in 2000),2 but it has also been played in Venezuela, Mexico, and Japan. Now baseball has taken root in Korea and Australia and even in such unlikely places as Italy.3 It no longer is fanciful to speak of the possibility of a true World Series--one not simply between teams in the United States and Canada, or even between North * The reference is to Bobby Thomson's pennant winning home run or "shot heard round the world" in the third and deciding playoff game between the victorious New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951. ** Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; former Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, 1994-1998; baseball salary arbitrator, 1992-93;occasional Stanford baseball broadcaster since 1988 and freelance baseball newspaper journalist since 1986. As Board Chairman, the author cast the deciding vote in the '94-'95 baseball strike in favor of authorizing an injunction in Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Comm., Inc., 880 F. Supp. 246 (S.D.N.Y. 1995), aff'd, 67 F.3d 1054 (2nd Cir. 1995). See generally WILLIAM B. GOULD IV, LABORED RELATIONS: LAW, POLITICS, AND THE NLRB-A MEMOIR 113-20 (2000). The author wishes to thank Paul Edenfield, Stanford Law School 2002, for valuable research assistance rendered. 1. See generally ROBERTO GONZALEZ ECHEVARRiA, THE PRIDE OF HAVANA: A HISTORY OF CUBAN BASEBALL (1999); Jason S. Weiss, The Changing Face of Baseball: In an Age of Globalization, Is Baseball Still as American as Apple Pie and Chevrolet?, 8 U. MIAMI INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 123 (1999-2000); Scott M. Cwiertny, The Needfor a Worldwide Draft: Major League Baseball and Its Relationship with the Cuban Embargo and United States ForeignPolicy, 20 Loy. LA. ENT. L. REv. 391 (2000). 2. See William C. Rhoden, Nonstars All, Americans Dethrone Cuba, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 28, 2000, at Si. 3. See Frederick C. Klein, On the Game: The Italians 'Spicy Brand ofBaseball, WAL. ST. J., Sept. 21, 2000, at A8. Less improbable countries are involved. See Henri E. Cauvin, Baseball Gets Serious in a New South Africa, N.Y. TIMES, June 27,2000 at A25, A28, where it may be assumed that baseball was passed on through the U.S. military in World War II. INDIANA JOURNAL OF GLOBAL LEGAL STUDIES [Vol. 8:85 America and Japan-but a true global tournament, like the World Cup, played every four years. The globalization of baseball is now evident on the playing fields in the United States. Players continue to hail from the traditional areas of recruitment, such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Cuba; but many players from Mexico, Australia, Japan, and Korea also play Major League Baseball (MLB). Even such countries as Spain, Belgium, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Great Britain, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the Virgin Islands have placed players in MLB. The Boston Red Sox have been recruiting enough Korean pitchers to prompt a journalist to speak of a Korean Pipeline." A perceived dearth of qualified players in North America,5 an 4. See Steven Krasner, Red Sox Go East For Help: Asian Pitchers Form Big Part of Future, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEws, June 5, 1999, at I D; Tony Massarotti, Korean Pipeline, BASEBALL AMERICA, Mar. 15-28, 1999, at 25. See also, Red Sox dive into Taiwan market, BASEBALL AMERICA, Nov. 13-26, 2000, at 4. With regard to other teams, such as the Chicago Cubs, see Bruce Rives, South Korean Connection, BASEBALL AMERICA, January 10-23, 2000, at 33. 5. See Murray Chass, Scouts Search Globe for Talent, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 8, 1998, at C3. Professor Andrew Zimbalist has noted the talent compression fueled by Jackie Robinson in 1947, the black and Latin players who came in his wake, and the reversal of that phenomenon through "decompression" of talent that has facilitated an environment in which today McGwires, Sosas, Rodriguezs, Martinezs and Wells can more easily excel. Equally important, when the better players can more reliably out perform the others, it becomes easier to buy a winning team. It is one thing for the Yankees to generate $176 million in local revenue while the Expos generate $12 million. If Steinbrenner/Cashman spend their budget on under-performing, over-priced players, then the Yankees will squander their revenue advantage. Yet, the more individual players consistently stand out, the more difficult it is for inept management to squander a revenue advantage. State of Competition in Major League Baseball, Hearingbefore the Subcmte. On Antitrust, Business Rights. and Competition, of the Sen. Comm. on the Judiciary. 106th Cong., at 7 (2000) (testimony of Andrew Zimbalist) [hereinafter ZIMBALIST TESTIMONY] [on file with author]. The recruitment of foreign players may compress talent and, thus, facilitate a more competitive balance. Contra, Jonathan Mahler, Why A- Rod's Contract is Goodfor Baseball, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 17, 2000, at 6; Bob Ryan, Economic Inequity A Reality of Baseball, SAN. FRAN. CHRON., Dec. 16,2000, at EIO (emphasizing the historic baseball inequities involving the Washington Senators, Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, and the preeminence of the New York Yankees). Cf Murray Chass, One Man 's Journey From Earning Thousands to Spending Millions, N.Y. TIMES (Sports), Dec. 17,2000, at 48; John Feinstein, Can Baseball Survive the $250 Million Man?, WALL ST. J., Dec. 15, 2000, at A16; Jack Curry, By Adding Ramirez, Red Sox Spice Up Baseball's Best Rivalry, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 13, 2000, at C21; Murray Chass, Rodriguez Strikes ItRich In Texas, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 12, 2000, at C27; Murray Chass & Tyler Kepner, Rockies to Show Hampton How High Is Up, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 9,2000, at B 19; Baseball's Unfair Economics, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 5, 2000, at C30; Buster Olney & Jack Curry, The Yankees Draw Their Fourth Ace, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 1, 2000, at C17. It is interesting to note that the celebrated Rodriguez contract will be paid by the Rangers' new television contract. See Richard Sandomir, How Can Rangers Afford So Much? T. V., N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 12, 2000, at C29. "We do know that Fox Sports Net supplied the cash with which the Rangers could make the Rodriguez deal; last year, FSN bought the rights to the Rangers and Dallas Stars hockey broadcasts for $250 2000] THE GAME HEARD AROUND THE WORLD attempt to diminish escalating draft and free agency salary expenses through Latin American player recruitment, Japanese free-agency,6 the demise of the Cold War with its impact upon both Cuba's defectors7 and the relaxation of conscription in Korea," and the scramble abroad for new consumer markets9 and recruits have accelerated the globalization of baseball. In 2000, the number of foreign-born players on MLB rosters was 312 (forty-four of whom were counted by MLB as foreign-born, even though they were born in Puerto Rico), constituting 26 percent of all players. 0 This process began in 1953 with the first east-to-west franchise relocations and the arrival of Henry Aaron in Milwaukee with the Braves, a club that had moved from Boston the previous winter." The more celebrated and excoriated movements of the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to San Francisco and Los Angeles, 2 respectively, set the stage for the expansion of baseball franchises that occurred in the 1960s. This expansion, along with the simultaneous growth in the popularity of other sports, has made competent million over 10 years--do these numbers sound familiar?-and there may be clauses for re-negotiations in case of higher ratings." Allen Barra, An Overpaid. A-Rod?, WALL ST. J., Dec. 15, 2000, at W4. 6. See Masaru Ikei, Baseball, Besuboru, Yakyu: Comparing the American and Japanese Games, 8 IND. J. GLOBAL LEGAL STUD. 73, 79 (2000). 7. James C. McKinley, Jr., Cuban Players Defect, but Often With a Cost, N.Y. TIMES, April 25, 1999, § I, at 3; Cf Murray Chass, Cubans Freed From Pact After Dodgers Break Rule, N.Y.