Baseball Antitrust Law Essay

Baseball is the most distinguished and culturally accepted sport dating back all the way to the 1800’s. It is also widely known as America’s pastime due to it being the most played sport in the country during the 20th century. It is a sport that has set many records and rules for the baseball players of the game today. The game of baseball has an incentive to its players which is exceptional due to the law with which it is exempt from known as antitrust law. They are the only sport to be exempt from the anti-trust law in the United States. The rules of the antitrust law that baseball does not abide by allows baseball to manipulate the economic competition between players and owners. This creates an incentive for markets to be somewhat fixed

In the early 1900s, there was a law stating that players could be sold or traded to any team at any time but would not be allowed to sign with a different team as soon as their contract was expired. The players had to sign a contract with their current team no matter if other teams wanted these players to play on their certain teams. Public costs of these contracts require both the owners and the players to observe certain formalities before beginning the interpretive and gap filling process.This means that the market is fixed due to the player gets only one offer from one team and no one else. The price for the baseball player to play would be significantly higher if other teams were to be involved in negotiations. The player has two choices: either to continue to play baseball for the team that gave him an offer, most likely unfair, or to retire from playing professional baseball. The player is supplied with one offer even though the economic demand could be higher if the player was fairly good at playing

Baseball enjoys having full immunity because the court system and congress chooses to not to get involved in any and all baseball activity. One hundred years later, this “reserve clause” was removed by the baseball community allowing the players the right to either sign with the current team or with a different team. The choice was all up to the players and not with the owners. This subject is important because baseball shouldn’t be treated as a business deal, it is a great American sport that people love to watch and play. It is a game which is all about having fun and amusement for fans to come out and watch during their spare time. Abolishing the antitrust exemption wouldn’t fix the game of baseball. There is conflict in the relationship between the players and owners, as it is in any arrangement between the labor and the management where gross inequities persist between the rich and the poor. Although it is an ancient rule, abolishing the antitrust exemption wouldn’t bring peace to