Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law - Review

Monthly Labor Review, Dec, 1998 by Karen S. Koziara

Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law. By Roger I. Abrams. Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press, 1998,226 pp. $29.95.

Major league baseball has both a rich history and an ever-appealing freshness to millions of people from every conceivable background. In the spring, all things seem possible, and as the season unfolds, some dreams become reality--new stars, new records, new champions. But baseball is also a complicated business, with economic realities that affect, and sometimes disrupt, the game. Many fans find the business of baseball confusing when concepts such as salary caps, unfair labor practices, impasses, replacement players, and mediation swirl through the sports page. Legal Bases puts this confusion to rest by explaining the legal processes surrounding the employment relationship between baseball owners and players.

The author creatively uses an "All-Star Baseball Law Team" to show how law helped early major league baseball evolve into today's game. Stories about the nine All Stars describe how legal decisions molded relationships between owners and owners, owners and commissioners, and owners and players. The book's focus is the owner and player relationship.

The carefully chosen All Stars provide a unique look at baseball labor relations. For example, John Montgomery Ward, a Hall-of-Famer who earned a law degree while playing for the New York Giants in the 1880s, is the book's leadoff hitter. He formed the first players' union in response to owners reserving players, or tying players to one team. This practice prevented players from selling their skills to the highest bidder.

Ward's efforts to mobilize players against the reserve system serve as the book's backdrop. The ongoing tension between owner attempts to minimize salary competition and player efforts to use competition to increase salaries remains a controversial labor relations issue.

Each All Star story is skillfully interwoven with a concise and sophisticated explanation of related legal concepts. For example, the chapter on Marvin Miller, who transformed the Major League Baseball Players Association into an effective labor union, discusses the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Similarly, players Andy Messersmith and Carlton Fisk are All Stars because of cases they took to arbitration. Their chapters include explanations of arbitration procedures, standards, and legal standing.

The chapters build step-by-step to the 1994 strike. The final All Star is Sonia Sotomayor, a Federal district court judge. Judge Sotomayor found that the owners violated the NLRA with unilateral changes in mandatory bargaining issues when no bargaining impasse existed. She issued an injunction ordering the parties back to the bargaining table. Bargaining resumed. An agreement was reached in late 1996.

The book's many anecdotes make it a treat. Some tales are employment related. For example, Branch Rickey is known for signing Jackie Robinson and integrating major league ball. The book mentions this, but details his creation of the comprehensive minor league system. Today, this system is the primary way baseball clubs develop player talent, and it is an important part of the employment relationship between players and owners.

Even less directly related anecdotes add to the book's fascination. Did you know, for example, that President Taft is credited with originating the seventh-inning stretch? He stood, and everyone else followed suit out of respect. Or that Charles O. Finley dubbed James Hunter as "Catfish" because he thought the name would have market appeal?

Legal Bases presents readers with a vibrant example of why and how collective bargaining occurs, and the involved legal processes. But there is more. The book also gives baseball enthusiasts a coherent understanding of the history and role of major league collective bargaining in an appealing format. It may even provide readers who are not baseball fans with a reason to take an interest in the game.

Although other books look at the business of baseball, Legal Bases is a unique blend of history, anecdote, and labor relations analysis. Business is a minor story in most baseball books. Some have detailed discussions of business-related topics, but pay little attention to legal processes or collective bargaining. A few others have very sophisticated theoretical and empirical discussions about business and collective bargaining topics, but include few baseball vignettes. None integrate the colorful history of baseball with a comprehensive understanding of labor relations and other business topics as effectively as Legal Bases.

--Karen S. Koziara

Professor, Human Resource Administration Temple University