It's been 50 years since a lawyer's decision unlocked free agency in MLB and changed sports forever [View all]
NEW YORK (AP) — Sports were turned upside down 50 years ago Tuesday (Dec 23) by a man who never threw or kicked a ball.
A lawyer with expertise in labor relations struck down Major League Baseball’s reserve clause, which had bound players to their teams since the 1870s.
No one could have predicted then that the 65-page decision issued Dec. 23, 1975, by arbitrator Peter Seitz — who later compared baseball owners to “the French barons of the 12th century” — would lead to an upheaval that made thousands of players multimillionaires.
“The real floodgates opened after that,” former pitcher David Cone said. “Players were finally in all walks of life, in all sports, were finally able to see what, hey, what free agency really looks like. There was all the doom and gloom back then from one side that said: ‘This is going to ruin the game. It’s not sustainable.’ And actually, it was just the opposite. It made the game better.”
MORE: https://apnews.com/article/free-agency-50th-anniversary-849bbad930f23b37bb739d7c367c41c0
"It made the game better."
Yeah, for the players. And MLB was too myopic to add a meaningful salary cap.
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