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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: The George Brett Incident
Message-ID: <520@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Jul-83 18:03:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.520
Posted: Thu Jul 28 18:03:09 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Aug-83 08:10:41 EDT
References: <910@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 21

The Catfish Hunter incident was anomolous, in that it occurred while the
reserve clause was still in effect, and free agency non-existent.  An
arbitrator ruled that the A's (read: Charley Finley) had defaulted on
Hunter's contract, thus freeing him to negotiate with any club he wanted.
Until the Messersmith decision a few years later, this was virtually the
only case in the history of baseball where an established star was free to
negotiate with any club he wanted.  Don't blame Steinbrenner for that one;
the Yankees weren't the only folks bidding, nor were the losing bids that
much lower.

The Messersmith decision completely threw out the reserve clause, and
instituted free agency for all players.  The players union, as part of
the collective bargaining agreement with the owners, agreed to certain
restrictions.  The major reason it hasn't worked equitably is that a few
owners have refused to acknowledge the new order, and won't deal with
quality free agents at all.  Steinbrenner, obviously, is not one of them...
(No, I don't like King George at all -- but what I object to is his penchant
for temper tantrums, and his insistence on meddling in the day-to-day
affairs of the team.)

		--Steve Bellovin