Sports Law Outline

Sports Law, Scott Powe, Spring ‘05:­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________________ to hurt a stranger than a wife…———————————-
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION:
 
A. Baseball:
1. The National Agreement: 1903, created the structure of MLB.
Set up 2 leagues with territorial exclusivity. 
Cities with competing teams could keep them both. 
2. The Reserve Clause: team had a right to reserve the players on their team (no other team could touch them).
1914 Federal League basically purchased by MLB w/ the exception of the Baltimore Orioles. Sued on antitrust. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled baseball not subject to fed antitrust laws (b/c no link to commerce).
No competition for MLB.
Black Sox Scandal 1919. MLB appointed a commissioner (Kennisaw Mountain Landis was the federal judge that first gave them the power over antitrust). Landis was given unlimited authority: used it to ban all of the Black Sox that knew about throwing the game for life. 
Lanidis banned gambling, but kept MLB white.
Strong Commissioner in MLB still today.
1953 structure of MLB changed: 3 teams moved (KC, Milwauk., Baltimore (Braves)) No real moving since the 1960’s, only expansion (last in ’71 ‘til Washington DC Nationals in ‘05).
 
3. Franchise locations:
·         MLB has franchise stability b/c the Commissioner can say yes or no to moving the franchise. Last baseball team moved in 1971.
 
4. Commissioners:
a.       Collective bargaining agreemts give them their pwr;
b.      most leagues can do business wi X% of owners agreeing.
c.       Idea of a Commissioner is to have that one person who cares about the “best interest of the sport.”
                          i.      Owners and players have other interests at stake (financial and fraternal cache);
1.      owners can lose money yearly and still come out bc of appreciation at transfer (due to cache of owning a franchise)
                        ii.      Idea dates back 80 yrs to Black Sox World Series scandal of 1919.
1.      White Sox threw the series to the Reds
a.       Sox owner Charlie Comisky knew very soon after that his players had cheated, but he did nothing bc it was not in his interest to blow the whistle on his own players and sabotage his own team.
                      iii.      Kennisaw Mountain Landis, former Federal Judge (38 yrs old)
1.      Baseball already wanted him as its first commissioner bc he had been perceptive enuf in 1st antitrust case against pro sports to have held baseball exempt from antitrust (Reserve clause? and exclusive leagues? contexts).
a.       Lured him away from bench at big sum of $50k/yr.
b.      After being hired, he set up a zero tolerance on gambling/cheating policy; suspending 8 players for life (“Eight Men Out”)
                                                                                                  i.      This did clean up the game,
                                                                                                ii.      and he is the image that everyone has of a commissioner bc he was seen as someone who would always put the image and best interest of the sport first and do the right thing.
1.      but he was against negros in the majors.
2.      Landis had a huge amt of pwr and never lost a battle as commissioner; kept farm systems out bc didn’t want to upset the balance of pwr in the majors.
                      iv.      Happy Chandler, former US Senator from Kentucky, was next commissioner bc baseball needed the political clout to keep its antitrust exemption.
                        v.      Ford Rick replaced him and was famous for the “asterisk,” created bc Maris wasn’t seen as worthy of breaking Ruth’s record;
1.      Babe had only 154 games while Maris had 160.
                      vi.      William Eckhart, soon dubbed the “unknown soldier,” bc he was a mistake as commish.
                    vii.      Bowie Kuhn was next; famous for moving World Series games to night.
1.      also famous for being made a fool of by MLPA’s Marvin Miller in col