Antitrust Legisation for BB introduced

Legislation Limiting Baseball's Antitrust Exemption Introduced

Contraction decision prompts Wellstone, Conyers overrule 1922 Supreme Court ruling

Washington, November 16, 2001 -- As a result of its decision to eliminate two teams, Senator Paul D. Wellstone (D-MN) and Representative John Conyers Jr., (D-MI) have introduced legislation that would strip Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption on decisions pertaining to the elimination or relocation of its teams.

Says Wellstone, "I have said on other occasions that I think the decision by major league baseball owners to eliminate two teams, with the prospect of at least two more eliminations to come, is a betrayal by owners who have put their own profits before loyalty to fans and their communities," according to a report by the New York Times.

Chief legal officer for Major League Baseball, Robert A. DuPuy, maintains that the legislation would risk the stability of franchises, as well as the minor league system. "By pursuing contraction, baseball is attempting to protect the economic viability of its remaining franchises," he said.

Since 1922, baseball has been exempt from antitrust laws when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it did not engage in interstate commerce. In 1998, the Curt Flood Act was passed, which eliminated the exemption in labor matters, but kept it in place otherwise.

Meanwhile, after speaking with baseball's arbitrator, Shyam Das, management and union lawyers learned that the hearing on the players' challenge to contraction would not begin prior to early December at the earliest, according to the Times report. Das offered the lawyers several
dates for holding the hearing, with a specific date yet to be determined.

Source : New York Times, Nov. 15, 2001.

David Burkey
E-mail : daveywriter@hotmail.com