Baseball Commissioner Research Articles

Let the Kids Play: Latino Players, Differing Play Styles and Racial Stigma in Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball's (MLB) unwritten rules and unspoken norms communicate the continuing role that white American cultural values have within the sport. Coded into the past and present, foreign-born players, especially those from Latin America, confront these norms as they arrive to MLB with a distinctly Caribbean tíguere style of play. MLB seeks to overcome these differences by promoting its young Latino superstars through the marketing campaign Let the Kids Play. However, all actors, from The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball to current players, must increase their cultural competency and uproot their essentialist viewpoints to understand that these players are not trying to show up their opponent, but are instead adhering to the style of play they themselves learned and know best.

Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers’ Rights and American Empire by Robert Elias and Peter Dreier

Reviewed by: Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers’ Rights and American Empire by Robert Elias and Peter Dreier Mark McGee Robert Elias and Peter Dreier. Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers’ Rights and American Empire. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022. 336 pp. Cloth, $38.00. Any book with the word “rebel” in its title is going to attract my attention, as people who have not been happy with the way things are and fight for change are fascinating to me. With a foreword written by former Major League pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee I was further convinced I was going to like this book before I ever started a chapter. Authors Robert Elias and Peter Dreier didn’t disappointment me with their book Major League Rebels: Baseball Battles over Workers’ Rights and American Empire. This is an extensive examination of the often-dark side of baseball from a business standpoint with players in battles over low pay, overall treatment, and racism. The authors skillfully show how baseball owners in the late 1800s mimicked the businessmen of the day, who took advantage of their workers in every way possible in order to fill their pockets. The revolt of players during [End Page 120] the era known as the “Gilded Age” sets the stage for future dissent among baseball players. Labor issues, the way pro baseball deals with events such as wars, patriotism, and segregation are all examined under a harsh light. But into the light they thrust many players a reader may not have heard about before. Every baseball fan knows, or should know, Curt Flood unsuccessfully fought the reserve clause through legal channels. But as the authors point out, players across all pro leagues received an education in how the reserve clause worked with players being treated as property rather than human beings. Flood saw his baseball career end as a result of his beliefs, but he laid the foundation for the multimillionaire players of today. Marvin Miller, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players’ Association, is legendary for making the union successful after years of false starts. But Elias and Dreier also give readers in- depth looks at players like Jim O’Rourke, Tim Keefe, Danny Gardella, and Tony Lupien, to name a few rebellious players profiled in the book whose names aren’t in the mainstream. One of the more interesting parts of the book is how the Mexican League, which provided a safe haven for Black players, attracted several major league players through higher salaries. Jorge Pasquel owned the league and was a thorn in the side of major league owners for many years with some big- name players making the move south of the border. His challenge to Major League Baseball would end as his money eventually ran out. Any book about baseball rebels has to include pitcher Jim Bouton, author of the infamous book Ball Four. Bouton, already known as a player who didn’t mind challenging the New York Yankees, his first major league team, was banned from old-timers’ day at Yankee Stadium. Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner of baseball at the time the book was published, tried to influence Bouton to say publicly his stories in the book were more imaginative than accurate. A threat throughout the book is how baseball purists— including owners, executives, sports writers, and even some players—tried to protest the sport as being untarnished in any way. Elias and Dreier dedicate their book to Terry Cannon, Bouton, Flood, and Miller. All were true rebels in the eyes of the baseball establishment, so it was fitting they were chosen. The only complaint about the book is the authors often let their political views and beliefs show through instead of merely letting the facts tell the story. They destroy the myth that baseball is as American as apple pie. Some baseball purists may not enjoy what Elias and Dreier have to say, but I found the book to be well researched and interesting on many levels. [End Page 121] Copyright © 2023 University of Nebraska Press

Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend by Judith R. Hiltner and James R. Walker

Reviewed by: Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend by Judith R. Hiltner and James R. Walker Alan L. Griggs Judith R. Hiltner and James R. Walker. Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. 496 pp. Cloth, $36.95. One can wonder, dear reader, why the world needs a 440- page tome about an obscure sports announcer; obscure to many, perhaps, but to those of us who know Walter Lanier Barber as “Red,” the need for such a thorough examination of his life should come as no surprise. Barber’s professional career, indeed his life, reads like something from the march of history. Born in the segregated south, he fell in line with the societal norms of Mississippi and Florida before gradually, thankfully, changing his outlook toward those with a different color of skin. Perhaps it is fitting that Red Barber is the man who handled the play- by- play radio call of the most momentous game in Major League Baseball history— the day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier for the Brooklyn Dodgers, April 15, 1947. [End Page 132] It is here that Judith Hiltner and James Walker shine, not only as exceptional writers and researchers but as explorers of Barber’s inner personality, one that always held true to the guidance given him by baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis: to report, not to editorialize, not to manage, “just report.” It is simple but profound advice for anyone whose voice holds sway over thousands, perhaps millions, of people at any given time, a situation Barber found himself in as his career blossomed. What a career it was, a life of describing on- the-field action from Cincinnati to Brooklyn to New York interspersed with college football games, newspaper columns, four books, and a notable finale as colorful commentator for National Public Radio. Along the way, Barber was an eyewitness to not only the integration of baseball but the first game under the lights, May 24, 1935, when the Reds played the Phillies. He called the first no-hitter of Johnny Vander Meer’s two consecutive no- hitters, interviewed players from the dugout using a crude portable shortwave radio transmitter, broadcast road games for the first time, was an early proponent of educating women about baseball and bringing them to the games, called the first major league televised game, and was at the microphone when the Yankees’ Roger Maris hit number sixty- one. Red Barber’s trademark smooth Southern dialect was a source of comfort for fans even when their favorite team was on the losing end. Even more distinctive were the “barbarisms” he sprinkled throughout the game, particularly colorful, if unique, descriptions of the action. A lopsided run margin might mean the good guys had the game “tied up in a croaker sack.” A pitcher with a particularly sharp breaking ball threw “a jug- handle curve.” If a ball was tough to hold it might be “slick as okra,” and a team or individual with a decided advantage would be in “the catbird seat.” Modern-day announcers have their distinctive styles and verbiage, but it is safe to say none approached the colorful colloquialisms of Barber, especially since they were from the heart and not simply manufactured for effect. Perhaps the high point of Red Barber’s career was the time he spent in Brooklyn broadcasting Dodger games. From 1939 to 1953 the “Barber of Flat-bush” painted an electronic picture of the diamond action, in the process creating an art form that had no peer during his time or perhaps at any other time, for that matter. As the authors note, Barber could “transform Brooklyn into everyone’s hometown and Ebbets Field into everyone’s backyard” (168). He was the most admired sportscaster in the business, using his talents to become a household name through game action, commercials, active participation in civic affairs, and the transition from radio to television. Yes, it must [End Page 133] be noted that after Brooklyn Barber announced Yankees games for several years, but let’s leave it at that. There wasn’t a happy ending. Hiltner and Walker...

Brief of Amicus Curiae Antitrust, Business, and Sports Law Professors in Support for the Petition of Certiorari in Tri-City Valley Cats v. The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (Sup. Ct. 2023)

Brief of Amicus Curiae Antitrust, Business, and Sports Law Professors in Support for the Petition of Certiorari in Tri-City Valley Cats v. The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball (Sup. Ct. 2023)

Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame: The Case for Inducting 24 Overlooked Ballplayers by Steven Greenes

Reviewed by: Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame: The Case for Inducting 24 Overlooked Ballplayers by Steven Greenes Chad S. Wise Steven Greenes. Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame: The Case for Inducting 24 Overlooked Ballplayers. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020. 270 pp. Paperback, $39.95. In 2016, David Price, an African American pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, signed a seven-year contract worth $217 million. At the time, it was the largest total value ever given to a pitcher. Over a century prior to Price's contract, African American players played baseball to entertain guests in hotels (Greenes 4). Shortly after the Civil War, African American baseball [End Page 226] clubs emerged as social clubs (4). Baseball has changed dramatically since the mid-twentieth century, when African Americans couldn't even stay in hotels with their white teammates. Regretfully, racism in baseball reflected the society in which players lived and played. Nowhere was this more evident than in the hallowed halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame. In Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame, Steven Greenes dives into the numbers and statistics, looking for African American players who played over the last century and whose numbers should place them beside the likes of Babe Ruth, George Brett, and Sandy Koufax. The book opens with the history of the Hall of Fame voting for the Negro League players, and it oozes racism by any standard. In fact, Greenes describes one particular group that decided, "Admitting Negro Leaguers would lessen Hall of Fame standards" (10). Another way of keeping many African American players out of the Hall was to say they did not have the necessary ten years of play in the Negro Leagues. The lack of statistics available for the Negro Leagues made it nearly impossible for Black players to make it into Cooperstown. Greenes continues with the history of the Hall by sharing what Bowie Kuhn, baseball's commissioner from 1969 to 1984, came up with to appease the baseball world. In 1971, Kuhn shared his thoughts on "a display, a separate room or wing, but no individual plaques" for African Americans based on their ability, statistics, and baseball service before 1947, when the modern major leagues were integrated. African Americans must have played 10 years in the Negro Leagues, and received 75% of the committee's votes (10). Announced in 1971, the Negro League Wing was part of a new exhibit to honor African American players, but it was made clear these players were not being elected to the Hall. The criteria for determining eligibility to the Hall became a moving target. Ranging from what exactly constituted the Negro Leagues to emphasizing a player's character to asserting only the best players should be admitted, the standards were flexed and bent for many players, though not all for the better. Fortunately, as Greenes writes, wins above replacement (WAR) was determined to be a measure of the total contribution to a team. It is also commonly accepted as the most valuable objective indicator of whether or not a player belongs in the Hall. Greenes shares the players' WAR as he compares the statistics of Negro League players and those already in the Hall. In addition, he takes his comparisons further by including coaches, managers, executives, and pioneers of the game. As of 2020, 333 players have been selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Of those, 35 members played in the Negro Leagues. One of the issues with granting more African American players is that many of them played multiple positions. They would also "barnstorm" from city to city, playing against [End Page 227] independent teams where little or no statistics were kept. Interestingly, when played head-to-head, Black teams won 60 percent of the games against White teams. Black teams also won thirteen of the sixteen California Winter League pennants. Negro Leagues and the Hall of Fame is a great read for baseball fans, historians, and sociologists alike. The timing couldn't be more appropriate, either. 2020 has shown us just how far we have to go in terms of race relations, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Hall. Steven Greenes...

Cleveland Rocked: The Personalities, Sluggers, and Magic of the 1995 Indians by Zach Meisel

Reviewed by: Cleveland Rocked: The Personalities, Sluggers, and Magic of the 1995 Indians by Zach Meisel Chad S. Wise Zach Meisel.Cleveland Rocked: The Personalities, Sluggers, and Magic of the 1995 Indians. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2020. 257 pp. Cloth, $28.00. The year was 1948. World War Two had ended three years prior. The suburbs were starting to take shape by returning servicemen. And the Cleveland Indians won the World Series, beating the Boston Braves four games to two. The city of Cleveland had waited twenty-eight years since their first championship in 1920. While parades and celebrations broke out all over the Cleveland area in ’48, Tribe fans of multiple generations could not fathom that another World Series Championship would be so far away. As of the writing of this book, it has been seventy-two years since a championship has arrived at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario Avenues. In his book, Zach Meisel takes readers through the 1995 Indians season, which nearly ended in a championship. Even though the series went to Atlanta and their Hall of Fame pitching staff, fans, and writers from around the league debate whether the ’95 Indians were one of the best teams in baseball history. In Cleveland Rocked, The Personalities, Sluggers, and Magic of the 1995 Indians, Zach Meisal revisits that season in great detail. His account of that season is vivid, well researched, and framed by his own love of the Indians. He digs deeply into the numbers to show the Indians batting, pitching, and fielding percentages of ’95 rank right up there with some of the best baseball teams ever . . . yes, ever. Meisal shares that the lineup included Sandy Alomar Jr. (HOF), Kenny Lofton (HOF), Omar Vizquel (HOF), Carlos Baerga (HOF), Albert Belle (HOF), Eddie Murray (HOF), Jim Thome (HOF), Manny [End Page 243] Ramirez, and Paul Sorento. That makes seven of the nine players in the lineup who were bound for Cooperstown. But the ’95 Indians almost didn’t happen! Cleveland Municipal Stadium, with whom the Indians shared with the football Browns was old, dangerous, and simply decrepit. In fact, in the early 1990s Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, while visiting the stadium, stated that if a measure for a new stadium didn’t pass on the May 1990 ballot, “he could not guarantee the major league team would remain in Cleveland” (16). Fortunately, the measure passed and a new stadium, Jacobs Field, was opened in 1994 and quickly became “the place to be” in downtown Cleveland. As the number of sellouts continued, the revenues grew, which allowed the Indians to sink money into the players that made ’95 and so many other seasons, playoff-worthy. Besides being thoroughly researched and statistically accurate, Meisal includes off the field stories that really make the book a fun read. Case in point, Jim Thome once told the team a story about Sean Casey when he was with the Cincinnati Reds, who were in Chicago. It was the end of the 2004 season and the Reds were out of the playoff run. However, they beat the Cubs, eliminating them from the playoffs. On the bus leaving the ballpark, they got stuck in traffic. Casey demanded that the driver open the door. He ran into a corner bar yelling, “Hey, all you Cubs fans! The Cincinnati Reds just kicked your ass! Like they say in Chicago, better luck next season!” This may have seemed a good idea until he saw people in the bar running towards him. Casey yelled ‘Jesus!’ and ran as fast as he could, screaming, “Open the door to the bus!” As the Chicago fans beat on the bus, Casey got on, sat next to [Barry] Larkin, who observed, “God damn, Casey, I’ve been in the big leagues for 19 years. I’ve seen a lot of things. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” If you grew up during the 1970s and 80s in Cleveland, you were hungry for a winner. The Indians’ championship drought was approaching forty years in 1988. Meisel paints the picture of what it was like to live through those lean years. He shares stories of players, coaches, and front office personnel...

On the Cusp: The Yale College Class of 1960 and a World on the Verge of Change by Daniel Horowitz

Reviewed by: On the Cusp: The Yale College Class of 1960 and a World on the Verge of Change by Daniel Horowitz Daniel Clark On the Cusp: The Yale College Class of 1960 and a World on the Verge of Change by Daniel Horowitz. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015. xxi + 310 pp. Paper $24.95. As a historian with an interest in the history of masculinity and higher education, I came to Daniel Horowitz's On the Cusp with a natural fascination with Yale, both as a preeminent institution and as a special seat in the formation of an ideal manhood that influenced the nation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The continued impact of the ideal "Yale Man" figures prominently in Horowitz's memory as well, if more as a model to rebel against. Horowitz seeks to find some insight into how family, education, and the Yale experience factored into the development of a class sitting in between the staid conformity of the 1950s and the rebellion of the 1960s. Many might first cast a skeptical eye toward yet another retrospective on this generation, and certainly Horowitz's interest centers on trying to understand where the activism and commitment to 1960's style change came from—seemingly more of this generation's self-infatuation. Nevertheless, this is not another study of how great (or horrible) baby boomer movers and shakers were. The book clearly grew out of the Yale class of 1960's fiftieth reunion, its class reunion book, and Horowitz's own self-reflection. While the class produced some incredible leaders (Yale president and Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti, Senator Jack Heinz, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, CIA Director Porter Goss, and several CEOs), what captures Horowitz's imagination is how the traditional, hypermasculine world of Yale nurtured the future liberal scholars and activists of the 1960s (and beyond)—how could Yale have birthed champions of the civil rights movement, modern feminism, and partisans of the liberal culture wars? Horowitz expected to find a "seamless connection between the rebellious stirrings" he felt in the 1950s and what happened in ensuing decades. Instead he found only subtle indicators (253). The book weaves together the style of emotional memoir, oral and intellectual history, and social [End Page 441] analysis all in an attempt to identify how this class was truly transitional, with some reflecting a dawning social consciousness. The first two chapters, "Think Yiddish" and "Dress British," cleverly introduce the reader both to Horowitz's personal tale and to the traditional world of Yale in the 1950s. He details the social aspects of the manly Yale world with the above-ground senior societies like Skull and Bones, the fraternities and a cappella groups (like the Whiffinpoofs), and the necessity of wearing the preppy style—a fun if not highly surprising read, all relayed through the eyes of Horowitz's "outsider" Jewish status. The next five chapters, then, explore what for Horowitz form the markers of how at least some of the class of '60 evidenced their "awakening"—an increasing racial consciousness, greater devotion to academics, alternative notions of masculinity in contrast to Yale tradition (more academic and sensitive to women), and a greater political engagement on social issues. His involvement with a year-long series of speakers and discussions called "Challenge" in his senior year sits as the culminating proof of all this increased consciousness raising and academic questioning. Challenge pulled in an impressive array of speakers from Ayn Rand, William F. Buckley, and Senator Barry Goldwater on the right, to Senator Hubert Humphrey, A. Philip Randolph, and several folk singers on the left, discussing such topics as nuclear arms (in the fall semester) and the "challenges of democracy"—racism, labor problems, and socialism—in the spring. This did not seem like Dink Stover's Yale and did foreshadow a dawning political awareness. For people already acquainted with Yale's history and traditions, the book offers little that is new. Most of the chapters center on the author's own experience, although the generous dose of classmates' stories and life experiences proves illuminating. Personally I found the author's forays into intellectual history (professor's classes...

Light, Less-Filling, It's Blue Ribbon!

In an effort to draw support for his agenda of revenue sharing and salary limits, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel consisting of Richard Levin, Paul Volcker, George Will, and George Mitchell to make recommendations on reforming the national pastime. This commentary reviews and critiques the report. It concludes that the creation of the panel and its focus on competitive balance was a constructive step. In particular, the commentary praises the Report for focusing discussion on ways to ensure that all clubs have a regularly recurring reasonable possibility of postseason play. However, in several important respects, the commentary explains why the Report is unsatisfying. Its reasoning lacks the rigor and comprehensiveness one might have expected from such an expert Panel. The report establishes payroll disparity as a proxy for competitive imbalance but fails to provide a detailed analysis of causality in light of a history of competitive balance despite disparity. Its recommendation that weak teams be encouraged to increase payrolls, while wealthy teams be punished for maintaining high payrolls, harms the Panel's credibility as disinterested observers and creates the appearance of bias in favor of owners. Building on the Report, this Commentary suggests five concrete and plausibly acceptable proposals to improve competitive balance. Permitting cash sales of players subject to the Commissioner's oversight, establishing a mandatory minimum payroll at a level likely to permit clubs to viably contend for postseason play, imposing payroll maxima only on dominant teams, changing the Rule 5 minor league draft to limit the players on top teams that can be protected, and establishing procedures to reform or rid the industry of inept management, are all designed to give observers of the game the same hope for the future of our National Pastime that each fan perhaps will have, if these proposals are implemented, each springtime.

Baseball Cinema Challenges the Hollywood Blacklist: Robert Aldrich's Big Leaguer (1953)

Baseball Cinema Challenges the Hollywood BlacklistRobert Aldrich's Big Leaguer (1953) Ron Briley (bio) As the traditional national pastime, baseball played a significant role in the post–World War II consensus in which the only possible threat perceived to an expanding capitalist economy was the alien ideology of communism. The Little League pledge included fealty to God and country, while Ohio Republican US Senator John W. Bricker, a staunch anticommunist, enlisted Organized Baseball in the Cold War. Addressing the second Annual Conference of Minor League Executives in 1949, Bricker asserted, "While the marching hordes in China are spreading the doctrine of communism, officials of the national pastime are helping to make democracy work in this country by giving every youth a chance to carve out his own career."1 Later that same year, Jackie Robinson appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to refute the alleged statement by activist and entertainer Paul Robeson that black Americans would not serve in a war against the Soviet Union. Acknowledging that he was no expert on communism, Robinson told the committee that while there was still a long way to travel on the path to racial equality, black Americans were loyal citizens who did not need communists to speak for them. Robinson testified, "They'd do their best to help their country stay out of war; if unsuccessful, they'd do their best to help their country win the war—against Russia or any other enemy that threatened us."2 Baseball's anticommunist crusade was also endorsed by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick. Speaking before the Rotary Club of Columbus, Ohio on December 3, 1951, Frick insisted that baseball defined America. He observed, "If Germany had had baseball, World War II would have been prevented, and if Russia had a sports program like the Americans, with a chance to let off steam, there would be no danger of communism." Frick concluded that baseball was doing an outstanding job of instructing youth in the virtues of democracy, and the game would "remain a proud part of our ideal way of life."3 Baseball's anticommunist consensus, however, might be surprised to learn [End Page 57] that the sport played a small role in challenging the Hollywood blacklist of performers, writers, and directors who refused to cooperate with HUAC or were suspected of being members of or sympathetic to the Communist Party. Disenchanted with Hollywood support for the New Deal and America's Soviet ally during the Second World War, prominent members of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, such as Walt Disney, invited HUAC to investigate the role of communists in the film industry. In response to the 1947 appearance of the Hollywood Ten before HUAC, Hollywood producers instituted an industry blacklist. The Hollywood Ten, led by screenwriters John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo, refused to answer the questions posed by the committee, insisting that the political identification of American citizens was no business of the government. The Ten were cited for contempt of Congress for their refusal to cooperate with HUAC, and their convictions were upheld in the courts. Fearing possible boycotts by anticommunist organizations such as the American Legion, Hollywood producers and studios instituted a blacklist of industry employees whose political loyalties were suspect—although one could always clear his or her name by appearing before HUAC and identifying associates who expressed sympathy for communism or other left-wing causes. The public confessions set off a witch hunt in Hollywood that resulted in suspicion being cast upon such Hollywood liberals as Edward G. Robinson.4 In the early 1950s, Robinson, a film star in the 1930s and 1940s, was encountering difficulty finding work in Hollywood due to questions about his politics and generous support of numerous humanitarian and anti-fascist organizations. In 1953, however, MGM decided to cast Robinson in a low budget baseball film entitled Big Leaguer. Robinson was to portray New York Giants scout and former major league player Hans Lobert who was in charge of a tryout camp in Florida. The film was to be directed by Robert Aldrich, whose previous experience in the industry was limited to television. Although Aldrich was a...

Baseball on Trial: The Origin of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption by Nathaniel Grow (review)

Reviewed by: Baseball on Trial: The Origin of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption by Nathaniel Grow Jim Overmyer Nathaniel Grow. Baseball on Trial: The Origin of Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014. 282 pp. Paper, $35.00. The Federal League survived for only two years as a challenge to the existing major leagues in 1914 and 1915. Its long-lasting material importance is limited to Chicago’s Wrigley Field, built for that city’s entrant in the league and later transferred to the National League’s Cubs. But the league’s messy demise gave professional baseball an advantage available to no other American sport—exemption from federal antitrust laws, bestowed by the US Supreme Court in 1922. This has allowed organized baseball to run itself via rules—particularly the reserve clause, limiting the movement of players between teams—that seem to be antithetical to American standards of business competition and labor freedom. But those rules also provide the top-down discipline that allows for the professional stability that makes leagues and teams credible. Nathaniel Grow, a professor of legal studies at the University of Georgia, surveys the entirety of this crucial legal dispute with a keen sense of organization and writing clarity. He is more than willing to second-guess the choices made by the baseball executives and their attorneys, and he debunks the commonly held criticism of two of the judges in the case, US District Judge (and future baseball commissioner) Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., widely seen by later commentators as pushovers for organized baseball’s attorneys. Grow’s deep view of the case is also aided by good old research elbow grease; he has read the court decisions, contemporaneous press accounts, and newly available correspondence among case attorneys. The Federal League needed big-league-quality players to sell itself as a major league; so before the 1914 season, the new league tried to recruit National and American Leaguers. Some players signed, many refused to sign, and some defected to the Feds but then had a change of heart and went back to their original clubs. The raids set off a flurry of lawsuits on both the state and federal court level, which Grow recounts in detail. But these scattershot legal [End Page 138] challenges produced conflicting legal opinions enforceable only in the courts’ geographically limited jurisdictions. The decision in one case involving a player’s possible right to jump his contract to play in the Federal League was sufficiently split so that “both sides declared victory” (36). This overall legal confusion added to growing Federal problems at the box office. Meanwhile, organized baseball was being cautioned by its lawyers about the narrow line the majors walked between maintaining a tight organization and possibly committing antitrust violations and the need to avoid a showdown over the Sherman Antitrust Act. Peace feelers were extended but failed. Having made no real progress litigating on a player-by-player basis, the Federal League decided to attack its opponents’ very foundations. In the US District Court in Chicago, the Feds claimed the majors were engaged in an illegal monopoly designed to destroy their new league. “We’re going to break up organized baseball” is how Federal League president James Gilmore put it (65). The case landed before Judge Landis. After an extensive hearing on the Feds’ request for an injunction against the majors, both sides awaited his ruling—which didn’t come. The judge still had it under advisement when the 1915 season ended and still had not ruled when the league finally fell apart. Landis, of course, became commissioner of baseball in 1921 and has long been suspected of failing to rule until the Federal League folded, thereby currying favor with his future employers. Grow thinks this criticism is “not entirely fair” (111). In fact, the judge’s carefully worded explanation on why he had not ruled was equivocal as to which side he might have come down on and didn’t gladden the hearts of major-league executives at all. The major leagues still wanted to put all legal issues to rest. A final “peace” agreement in December 1915 provided cash...

Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball (review)

Reviewed by: Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball Richard Puerzer Mark Armour . Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. 382 pp. Cloth, $31.95. Despite the fact that Joe Cronin is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame based on his merits as a player, and that he managed the Boston Red Sox longer than anyone else in history, his name likely does not spring to mind when thinking of the most important men in baseball history. However, [End Page 150] as Mark Armour deftly makes clear in this superb biography, in his roles as player, manager, general manager, and league president, Cronin made an important mark on the game. Joe Cronin was born in San Francisco in 1906, just a few months after what became known as "the great earthquake." As an eighteen year old, he was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates and began his professional career playing in the minor leagues. The following year, Cronin found himself in the majors trying to establish a place on the big-league roster. After a great deal of work in learning how to play shortstop in the majors, but not yet established with the Pirates, Cronin was signed by the Washington Senators. Armour focuses on the multiple ways in which Cronin's time with the Senators launched him to baseball immortality. First and foremost, he became a star at shortstop. He also gained the trust of Senators owner Clark Griffith, which meant that he was not only named player-manager at age twenty-six, but later was married to Griffith's niece. In his first season as player-manager in 1933, Cronin led the Senators to the World Series. Following a disappointing 1934 season, and perhaps also due to claims of nepotism, Cronin was sold to the Boston Red Sox, where he would again see great success as both player and manager. Armour recounts Cronin's years playing and managing the Red Sox in great detail. The Red Sox of this era featured very good teams, but teams that were consistently caught behind the Yankees in the American League. Cronin, a quiet leader, dealt with several not so quiet personalities on these teams, including Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, and Ted Williams. Describing Cronin's relationship with Red Sox fans early in his tenure with the team, Armour compares Cronin to Alex Rodriguez. Another perhaps equally apt comparison from a career-long perspective could be made to Derek Jeter. Just as Jeter does today, Cronin played shortstop, drew criticism from some for his defensive prowess, served as a quiet yet recognized team leader, avoided controversy, and was held in high esteem by his peers. After the end of his playing career in 1945, Cronin stayed on as the Red Sox manager, leading them to the American League pennant in 1946. Then, following the 1947 season, Cronin moved to the position of general manager for the Red Sox. He would hold this position for the ten years before he assumed the presidency of the American League. Although he was considered for commissioner of baseball both in 1965 and in 1968, Cronin remained as president of the American League until his retirement in 1973. Armour describes the impact that Cronin first had on the Red Sox and then later the American League and professional baseball in these years. Of particular interest is Cronin's involvement, or lack thereof, in the integration of the Red Sox, and his approach to the changing labor-management environment in baseball. [End Page 151] Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Cronin's life in baseball, and this biography, are the decades that he spent as the virtual personification of the baseball establishment. Armour provides a detailed description of Cronin's various roles in baseball management, from player-manager to league president. In each role, Cronin tended to conform to the establishment. For example, writing about integration, Armour says Cronin and the Red Sox "sat the revolution out." Later, while American League president, Armour depicts Cronin's establishment view of labor practices. In 1968, Cronin fired umpires Al Salerno and Bill Valentine ostensibly for their work in trying to organize their fellow American...

Leadership to Run the World: A Mandate for Higher Education

"Leadership is an essentially moral act," said A. Bartlett Giamatti, former president of Yale University,who later became Commissioner of Baseball. But consider these few news items, selected from amultitude of candidates: Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York, resigned after his involvement witha prostitute was made public. Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, was removed from office byunanimous vote of the Illinois State Senate after conviction on federal corruption charges. BernardMadoff, former Wall Street executive and NASDAQ chair, currently is incarcerated in federal prisonafter conviction for investment fraud. Rev. Jeffrey Sarkies, a popular pastor at West Seattle’s HolyRosary Church, resigned after the Seattle Archdiocese determined that he had violated theirprofessional ethics policy in the area of sexual misconduct and harassment. Mike Garrison, formerpresident of West Virginia University, resigned after he was accused of compromising the university’sacademic integrity in what was described as an improper granting of an executive MBA to the daughterof the governor of that state. Jim Harrick, former head basketball coach at the University of Georgia,resigned after he was accused of National Collegiate Athletic Association violations; Harrick had beenfired six years previously as head basketball coach from UCLA for ethics lapses. Dr. Scott Reuben, ananesthesiologist at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA and prolific researcher, admitted thathe fabricated much of the data for his research. And so on.

Office of the Commissioner of Baseball v. Markell, No. 09-3297, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 19460 (3d Cir. Aug. 31, 2009)

Gaming Law Review and EconomicsVol. 13, No. 6 CASESOffice of the Commissioner of Baseball v. Markell, No. 09-3297, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 19460 (3d Cir. Aug. 31, 2009)Published Online:27 Dec 2009https://doi.org/10.1089/glre.2009.13607AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byThe Report of the Death of the Interpretive Regulation Is an ExaggerationSSRN Electronic Journal Volume 13Issue 6Dec 2009 Information© 2009 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Office of the Commissioner of Baseball v. Markell, No. 09-3297, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 19460 (3d Cir. Aug. 31, 2009).Gaming Law Review and Economics.Dec 2009.501-507.http://doi.org/10.1089/glre.2009.13607Published in Volume: 13 Issue 6: December 27, 2009PDF download

Office of the Commissioner of Baseball v. Markell, No. 09-538 (GMS), 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69816 (D. Del. Aug. 10, 2009)

Office of the Commissioner of Baseball v. Markell, <i>No. 09-538 (GMS), 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69816 (D. Del. Aug. 10, 2009)</i>

Haunted by the Babe: Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick's Columns about Babe Ruth

In 1961, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick announced that Roger Maris's home run record would not be recognized unless he set it in 154 games, as record-holder Babe Ruth did. Frick's announcement sparked criticism and was later rescinded. This article demonstrates that the motive for Frick's actions was not concern for integrity of the game, but loyalty toward Ruth, as reflected both in his ghostwriting for Ruth and his columns in the New York Journal newspaper. Before becoming president of the National League in 1934, Frick was a newspaper sports journalist and one of the first sports broadcasters. His columns are examined both for his depictions of Ruth and for insight into his professional ethic as a sports journalist. The article concludes that Frick ignored the ethical conflicts inherent in his close friendship with Ruth—both in his ghostwriting and in his handling of the home run record.

"Charlie Finley Has Soured My Stomach for Baseball": Charles O. Finley versus His Players

Kansas City Athletics pitcher Vida Blue uttered this title's quote after resolving a season-opening salary dispute and holdout with A's owner Charles O. Finley in May 1972. (1) The holdout finally ended after Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn decided to mediate the dispute, and President Richard Nixon--in an irony too great to ignore--publicly sided with Blue. Blue went on to say that Charlie Finley treated me like a damn colored boy. His experience with Finley exemplified the owner's with many of his players during the late 1960s and 1970s. (2) Charles Finley could be a very generous, kindhearted, and charming person. On several occasions he spent huge sums of money helping players and coaches with family medical emergencies. However, Finley had a darker side--one of control and manipulation. He could be bombastic, egotistical, and confrontational. In later years Finley's generosity included many strings and caveats that damaged his relationships with his players. In sum, Charlie Finley was a bully. This essay examines his bullying antics and the paternal relationship Finley imposed upon his players. It will explore Finley's positive and negative traits with his players as well as the players' reactions to these traits. We will examine two of the most infamous Finley-player controversies: the 1967 airliner incident that resulted in Finley's eventual suspension and the release of Ken Harrelson and the 1973 World Series controversy involving Mike Andrews. These two controversies had a lasting effect on the A's and provided the American public with a negative picture of their eccentric owner. It is important to understand that wherever Finley went he engendered contempt, or so it appeared. And he never seemed to mellow with age. In Kansas City in 1961, many people thought him a jerk, and in 1980, when he finally sold his team to Oakland, many people still thought him a jerk. (3) SHENANIGANS AT THIRTY THOUSAND FEET: FINLEY VERSUS THE 1967 A'S Charlie Finley's cantankerous with his players did not happen overnight. Throughout the 1960s Finley ran his team as he ran his insurance business--his way was the only way. Finley was not a patient man and did not trust advice from others. He was demanding and wanted to turn Kansas City into a winner. While he could be extremely generous and kindhearted, he also quickly betrayed pettiness, crudeness, meanness, and capriciousness. Finley lived by the creed sweat plus sacrifice equals success. It was how he became a millionaire, and he demanded the same all-out effort from his players, coaches, and managers. Finley spent most of the 1960s fighting with his managers, general managers, and the municipal leaders of Kansas City. Never satisfied with having the team in Kansas City, Finley threatened to move the team if city leaders did not resolve his complaint of the moment. He also eventually alienated his entire fan base. He is remembered for his off-the-wall promotional ideas for increasing the sub-par attendance at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium. Finley was not initially involved in the daily activities of his players or field managers and avoided interfering with on-field decisions. This was about to change. As the 1967 baseball season dragged through the hot and humid month of August, little was going right for the Kansas City Athletics. After a promising 1966 campaign in which they won 74 games and finished in seventh place, the young A's were experiencing the tougher side of life in the Major Leagues. The 1967 season began with great hope; Alvin Dark was back to manage the A's. Sports Illustrated ran a feature article on the young team in its March 13 issue that stated, For the first time, the A's are not the subject of ridicule.... Some people have been so bold as to predict a K.C. pennant may be only two years away. After a quick start, the overachieving young A's found themselves once again near the bottom of the American League. …

Drug Use in Sports and Exercise

Drug Use in Sports and Exercise

Did Steroid Use Enhance the Performance of the Mitchell Batters? The Effect of Alleged Performance Enhancing Drug Use on Offensive Performance from 1995 to 2007

Introduction: The Mitchell Report to the Commissioner of Baseball sought to characterize the extent to which the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) proliferated through baseball during the last 15 years. While the Report was not primarily initiated to expose individual players, it nonetheless contained detailed accounts of alleged PED abuse by 89 current and former players including seasons in which the abuse occurred and type of abuse (steroids or human growth hormone (HGH)). Previous analyses have largely focused on the impact of PED abuse on individual players (Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, for instance). The present study integrates data from the Mitchell Report to make inferences about the overall effects of PED abuse on offensive production.Methods: The Lahman database was queried for all offensive seasons from 1995 to 2007 (minimum 50 PA, no pitchers). Runs created per 27 outs (RC27) was used as an estimate of the offensive production of a player in a season. An adjusted RC27 (ADJRC27) was obtained by accounting for career progression effects to reduce the influence of the expected change in performance over time due to age. Information from the Mitchell Report identified each player season as a PED season or a non-PED season. General linear mixed effects models were constructed that modeled ADJRC27 as a function of PED use (Yes or No). Multiple models were considered to assess the PED effect under various assumptions.Results: The baseline model estimated a mean non-steroid ADJRC27 during the study period of 4.58. The effect of steroid use was an additional 0.58 ADJRC27, an increase in production of 12.6% (p=0.0108). Additional models considered the effect of being a player mentioned in the Mitchell Report, adjustments for baseline performance, and the influential effect of Barry Bonds' performance. The estimated steroid effect ranged from 3.9% to 18.0% among twelve different models. Similar analysis of HGH use showed no evidence of performance improvement.Conclusions: This analysis suggests a significant and substantial performance advantage for players who used steroids during the study period. It is estimated that offensive production increased approximately 12% in steroid users versus non-users. This analysis represents the first attempt to quantify the overall effect of PED abuse on offensive performance in baseball.

Baseball as Underdevelopment: The Political-Economy of Sport in the Dominican Republic

Baseball as Underdevelopment: The Political-Economy of Sport in the Dominican Republic

Crime and Punishment: The Marichal-Roseboro Incident

Marichal-Roseboro incident is one of the most heavily documented yet least understood on-field episodes in baseball history. Because the affair caught spectators and press by surprise, there are no photographs and only a few conflicting eyewitness accounts of the initial phase of the event. Given the resultant confusion about the episode, contemporary accounts, compilations of the game's memorable moments, and general histories of both the game and the National League as well as autobiographies and biographies of players, managers, and executives are incomplete and often inaccurate in relating, first, that on August 22, 1965, Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants laid his Louisville Slugger upside the head of Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro, and second, that for his assault Marichal received one of the heaviest penalties in baseball history. (1) There is much more to it than that. Marichal-Roseboro incident is one of those events that lend themselves to what interdisciplinary scholars call micro-ethnography, events that represent fundamental aspects of the participants' lives. Put otherwise, the Marichal-Roseboro incident is a case study of ethnicity and American race relations in baseball during the 1960s as well as of the administrative workings of Major League baseball. This diamond drama three principal players. One of the key figures was Warren Crandall Giles, president of the National League. In 1951 Giles, then president of the Cincinnati Reds, was stalemated with Ford Frick, then National League president, for election to the office of commissioner of baseball. Giles withdrew after the seventeenth ballot, allowing Frick to become commissioner; as a quid pro quo he was subsequently elected to replace Frick as head of the Senior Circuit. A strong president, Giles supported the unionization of umpires, league expansion, and franchise relocation--including the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants to California in 1957--and strongly urged teams to sign Latin and African American players. (2) other two principals were baseball players: Juan Marichal, star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, who hailed from the Dominican Republic, and John Roseboro, the outstanding catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, an African American from Ashland, Ohio. Each was at the height of his career in 1965. Marichal, The Dominican Dandy, reached the majors in 1960 and became the National League's winningest pitcher in the decade. In 1963 and 1964 he posted consecutive 20-win seasons (25 and 21); on July 13, 1965, he was named Most Valuable Player in the annual Major League All-Star Game after pitching three scoreless innings. On the eve of the Giants-Dodgers series, Marichal was fashioning the finest season in league history with a 19-9 record and a 1.65 ERA. (3) Johnny Roseboro, who became a Dodger in 1957, was an outstanding defensive catcher and team leader. He was named to the National League All-Star team in 1958, 1961, and 1962. two ballplayers were temperamental opposites. Nicknamed Laughing Boy in the minors, Marichal was a cheerful, gregarious, easygoing fellow who was popular with teammates, fans, and even baseball beat writers. Roseboro, an ex-football player, was soft-spoken and quiet, hence the nickname Gabby, but competitively aggressive. They shared in common concerns beyond the ballpark. Earlier in the year a bloody civil war erupted in the Dominican Republic prompting U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower in late April to dispatch 20,000 troops to establish order. result was a military dictatorship and an inability from outside the country to communicate with family and friends by mail, telephone, or telegram. Marichal surely joined teammate Felipe Alou in brooding about his family's welfare; Alou recalled that he had no idea how my parents were while I was in America. Correspondence then was poor and despite three months of trying, I not been able to get a call through to my folks. …