Comment: Baseball's Agent Problem

Tampering issue could impose another wrinkle in already tense labor relations between MLB and the players

New York, June 7, 2000 -- Despite rising attendance and increased ratings, yet another labor showdown may loom for Major League Baseball..

Yes, they're at it again. Just as baseball and its fans were beginning to get over the 1994 strike that wiped out half of a thrilling season and deprived fans of a World Series, it appears as if another showdown between the players and the owners once again may have similar, and potentially even more ominous repercussions. But this facet of baseball's labor problems is not over raises, salary caps and luxury taxes, but rather over the tampering of players by agents.

Simply put, the Major League Baseball Players' Association wants agents to stop trying to steal one another's clients. While this task may seem feasible in theory, it would be difficult in practice. The regulation of open tampering with players by agents is becoming an increasingly difficult undertaking. Gammons notes that the Commissioner's office "will never regulate the open tampering." Most likely this is due to the inherently clandestine nature of tampering itself. While the Commissioner's office may be able to set up effective regulations concerning agents' ability to roam in the players' quarters themselves, it is a nearly impossible mission to monitor agent-player contact in an informal setting.

The disconcerting practice of stealing one another's clients by agents is a growing one. The Juan Gonzalez contract saga with the Detroit Tigers may be a recent example of possible agent-player tampering. Gammons reported that there is concern that at least one agent whispered in Gonzalez' ear that the $140M deal that Jim Bronner had done with Detroit wasn't enough, a deal Gonzalez may not ever again get offered.

The union's fears are justified. But it will be a difficult task for the Commissioner's office to work with the MLBPA to come up with an effective and suitable solution for both sides. As Major League Baseball and its fans witnessed first hand in 1994, the ability of the MLBPA and the Commissioner's office to reach timely solutions to such a hard to prove problem is ineffectual. Unless the parties are able to reach a timely resolution with regard to this matter, the "big showdown" on the horizon will soon become a distinct and unwelcome reality. Stay tuned.

Andrew Geiger