Congress in Relief: The Economic Importance of Revoking Baseball's Antitrust Exemption

On November 26, 1996, the owners of the thirty major league baseball teams voted twenty-six to four to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement ("Agreement") with the Major League Baseball Players Association ("MLBPA") effective until the year 2000, with an MLBPA option to extend the Agreement until 2001.1 The MLBPA approved the Agreement on December 5, 1996,2 and it was officially approved on March 13, 1997.'While those involved with baseball generally viewed the agreement as a significant breakthrough, as it assured at least five seasons without labor strife, 4 the Agreement is only a temporary respite from future labor animosity.Since 1972, there have been eight work-stoppages in baseball, 5 the most recent was a 232 day strike that began August 12, 1994 and eliminated the last seven and a half weeks of the 1994 regular season, the 1994 playoffs, the World Series, and the first three and a half weeks of the 1995 schedule.6 Based on the pattern of coercive tactics, such as strikes by the players and lock-outs by the owners, aimed at forcing one side to concede to the other's demands, it is apparent that more stability is required to quell the reoccurring labor animosity in baseball.One major impediment to efficient negotiations is Major League Baseball's exemption to federal antitrust laws.The exemption, in effect, acts to remove the possibility that, in the event of a bargaining impasse, the MLBPA can dissolve and sue the owners for collusive bar-1.