Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law

Preface Introduction 1. The Legal Process at the Birth of Baseball: John Montgomery "Monte" Ward 2. The Enforcement of Contracts: Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie 3. Baseball's Antitrust Exemption: Curt Flood 4. Collective Bargaining: Marvin Miller 5. The Owners and the Commissioner: Branch Rickey and Charles O. Finley 6. Labor Arbitration and the End of the Reserve System: Andy Messersmith 7. The Collusion Cases: Carlton Fisk 8. The Crimes of Baseball: Pete Rose 9. Baseball's Labor Wars of the 1990s: Sonia Sotomayor Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Roger I. Abrams is a major league baseball salary arbitrator who has arbitrated such cases as those involving Ron Darling and Brett Butler. He is also Dean and Richardson Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law and has taught and written in the field of sports law for more than a decade. He is the author of The Money Pitch, also published by Temple University Press.

"Dean Abrams has been teaching both sports law and labor law for many years. He is the co-author of a major scholarly treatment of labor arbitration. Abrams is also the kind of writer who can relate personal anecdotes in a conversational style that brings the technical issues in sports labor law alive for the lay reader who wants to understand what lies behind the controversies that occupy so much of the sports pages in the media... there will be a significant market for this book, not only among students in law schools, business schools, and other institutions where the subject is taught, but also among the more sophisticated baseball fans." --Paul Weiler, Harvard Law School "The book reflects its author's experience as a baseball salary arbitrator, balancing anecdotes with antitrust analysis and overviews of the collective bargaining process. Wearing lightly his notable learning, Abrams writes with verve and intelligence." --The New York Times Book Review "Abrams is astute and unflinching in his judgments, yet shows admirable balance...Also, he obligingly explains many terms often used but seldom understood (in relation to baseball), and makes clear many subtle distinctions, such as that between arbitration and mediation. Interesting and illustrative, this is a book every thinking sports fan should read." --Kirkus Reviews "Fans usually intimidated by legalese but interested in the complex web of the baseball business should welcome this accessible primer. Abrams succeeds in presenting in a lucid and entertaining fashion the legal challenges to baseball's reserve clause, arbitration system, ownership collusion and the commissioner's powers." --The Washington Post "As dean of Rutgers Law School, baseball salary arbitrator and sincere grassroots fan, few have Abrams qualifications for writing on baseball and the law. The book is organized around 'nine men and one woman who played pivotal roles in its history. They constitute our "All-Star Baseball Law Team." ' ' The "team' (apparently the 10th player is justified by the designated hitter rule) is chosen to illustrate important principles of baseball and law dating from the 19th century (John Montgomery Ward) through the reserve clause challenge (Curt Flood) to baseball's crimes (Pete Rose). ...the book will serve as a valuable reference for the ardent baseball student." --Publishers Weekly