Posts Tagged ‘Baseball Collusion’

   

Collusion is nothing new in baseball history; owners have doing it at least since the advent of the reserve clause.  Near the end of 1892, National League team owners, en masse, released all their players.  They had just merged with the American Association and wanted to cut payroll costs at the onset of the depression of the 1890s. Plus, the cost to buyout several AA owners would take several years to payoff.

Over the winter, officials set salary limits and cut player income across the board.  The talent was forced to accept the new terms. Even after the AA owners were paid off, National League owners refused to budge on the salary limit issue. This infuriated several inclusing Clark Griffith who was the most vocal. Griffith began pushing for a unionizing movement  as early as 1897.

After the NL refused to deal with the players in early 1901, Griffith swayed union members to begin signing with the American League.

Again, all players were released after the 1918 season with a gentleman’s agreement not to touch each other’s property.

After taking office, new commissioner Peter Ueberroth watched in amazement during his first post-season, 1984-85, as the owners upped each other’s cost for free agents.  The signings would later be used against the owners in arbitration cases, causing an upward spiral of player costs.  (This process has proved extremely beneficial to the talent.)

Ueberroth, a businessman, felt his main purpose as commissioner was to increase Major League Baseball’s revenue while cutting its costs.  He suggested that the owners refrain from entering into bidding wars for free agents the next time around.  They did.

In fact, following the 1985 season, free agents averaged a scant 5% pay increase with two thirds of them getting only one-year deals.  Previously, many men received multi-year contracts with substantial raises.  The same happened in 1986-87 and to a lesser extent in 1987-88.

Players found that other teams were not interested in their services.  The owners operated on the principle ‘you don’t sign my players and I won’t sign yours.’  Even the renegade Yankees owner backed off Carlton Fisk when called by White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.

Andre Dawson handed the Cubs a blank contract and sat in their camp until an embarrassed Dallas Green finally inked the superstar.  Dawson went on to win the MVP award. 

The ultimate symbol of collusion was Jack Morris’ case.  The righthander was the victory leader of the 1980s, but found no takers when he gained free agency.  In order to play at all, he was forced to re-sign with Detroit.

The players union filed a grievance that was to be heard by arbitrator Thomas Roberts.  In turn, the owners fired Roberts – but it was determined that they could not do so and he was reinstated.  Roberts ruled in the players’ favor in September 1987 and was promptly fired again by the owners.

The players actually charged three counts of collusion, that is, after the 1985, ‘86 and ‘87 seasons, separately.  Their case was based on Article XVIII(h) of the Basic Agreement.  It read, “Players shall not act in concert with other players and clubs shall not act in concert with other clubs.”  Oddly, the clause was inserted at the owners’ request after Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale teamed together to obtain more money from the Dodgers in 1966.

Arbitrator George Nicolau later found the executives guilty on counts two and three in July 1988 and July 1990, respectively. 

A settlement was reached on December 21, 1990 requiring the owners to pay $280 million, the largest fine in sports history, and granting “new look free agency” to fifteen players. 

An immediate payment of $120 million was given with installments to pay off the balance by April ‘92.  Each club was responsible for just under $11 million.  Some owners joked that in the end they still made out financially. 

Seven players were awarded over $1 million, including more than $2 million to Jack Clark.

The jokes subsided when the average salary jumped from $598,000 in 1990 to $851,000 the following year, a 42% increase.  By 2001, the average salary hit $2 million and was still climbing. It’s over $3 million now.