Loyalty Is Probably What It Used to Be

Abstract

labored under the stigma of being viewed as disloyal to their teams. Players, so goes the argument, have callously abandoned their ties to the teams and cities that gave them their start and their fame. They’ve done so because they’re preoccupied with chasing the big money, which might lure them elsewhere. In other words, today’s player places greed over loyalty. This perception illustrates, in the minds of the critics, another way that free agency has ruined the game for the fans, whom players routinely abandon no matter how strong the hometown support. Although popular among fans, owners, and sportswriters, this view amounts to a rather odd argument. Even if players did totally control the hiring process, how would their behavior differ from any other professional? Indeed, we would think it strange for a corporate executive, for example, to turn down a better job at another firm, in another city, merely because it would show disloyalty to the executive’s current company. Perhaps loyalty should be more important, but why impose the standard merely on ballplayers? Prior to free agency, players did not have the power to decide whether or not to remain with their current team. If a player stayed with a team for his entire career, it had nothing to do with loyalty; it was entirely the owner’s decision under the reserve clause. The only question of loyalty back then was whether the owner would be loyal to a player or, rather, trade him away to another club. Of course, the owner’s disloyalty in trading or selling a player was never discussed at the time. Players still do not control the hiring process; owners do. While owners complain about disloyalty and high player salaries, they are the first ones to try to lure players from other teams with blockbuster offers. It is hypocritical for them to complain. Baseball is a big business, from which owners are making billions of dollars. Why shouldn’t ballplayers reap millions from the busiLoyalty Is Probably What It Used to Be