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Selected Works

2016

Baseball

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Law

God Almighty Hisself: The Life And Legacy Of Dick Allen, Mitchell J. Nathanson Mar 2016

God Almighty Hisself: The Life And Legacy Of Dick Allen, Mitchell J. Nathanson

Mitchell J Nathanson

“What I saw…persuaded me that (he) was the victim of an innate and incurable disorder.  I might give alms to his body; but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach.”
     -- Herman Melville, “Bartleby The Scrivener.”

Through the course of his major league career, Dick Allen was without doubt recognized for doing a lot of things.  He was the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year and the 1972 American League Most Valuable Player.  His 351 home runs are more than Hall of Famer Ron Santo and …

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Light, Less-Filling, It's Blue-Ribbon!, Stephen Ross Jan 2016

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

Stephen F Ross

This Commentary reviews the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel and, accepting the Report's perspective of advocating the long-term interests of baseball fans, identifies some important and positive contributions made by the Report. Next, some significant flaws and shortcomings are discussed. Finally, the Commentary suggests several practical reforms likely to improve competitive balance which plausibly could secure the support of t he various constituencies of the National Pastime.

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Reconsidering Flood V. Kuhn, Stephen Ross Jan 2016

Reconsidering Flood V. Kuhn, Stephen Ross

Stephen F Ross

Within the academia, two very different groups of legal scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to Flood v. Kuhn. Those specializing in sports law have either attached Flood as a ridiculous decision that improperly distinguished between baseball and other professional sports, or have praised it for waging guerrilla warfare on the idea that Section 1 of the Sherman Act should apply to intra-league arrangements by owners of the professional sports teams. Those viewing Flood through the lens of statutory interpretation perceive the decision as adhering rigidly to the principle of stare decisis; this rigidity has been both praised …

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A Strategic Legal Challenge To The Unforeseen Anticompetitive And Racially Discriminatory Effects Of Baseball’S North American Draft, Stephen Ross, Michael James Jan 2016

A Strategic Legal Challenge To The Unforeseen Anticompetitive And Racially Discriminatory Effects Of Baseball’S North American Draft, Stephen Ross, Michael James

Stephen F Ross

Major League Baseball (MLB) has honored a single player by retiring his number for every club. Absent special commemorations, no player will wear the number “42” in honor of the man who broke the color barrier to become the first African American to play major league baseball in the modern era: Jackie Robinson. MLB has also honored a single player—chosen from nominees from each individual club—by presenting an annual award for humanitarian service in his name; that honoree is Roberto Clemente. However, the sad reality is that if a fifteen-year-old Jackie Robinson were growing up today in South Pasadena, California, …

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Just A Bit Aside: Perverse Incentives, Cost-Benefit Imbalances, And The Infield Fly Rule, Howard M. Wasserman Dec 2015

Just A Bit Aside: Perverse Incentives, Cost-Benefit Imbalances, And The Infield Fly Rule, Howard M. Wasserman

Howard M Wasserman

In "Time to Drop the Infield Fly Rule and End a Common Law Anomaly," Judge Andrew Guilford and Joel Mallord offer the first cohesive scholarly critique of baseball's venerated and venerable Infield Fly Rule. They argue that the rule is grounded in outdated notions of sportsmanship and opposition to deception and that the game would be more exciting if players could be left to their own strategic and skillful devices on infield fly balls. This Response Essay builds on my previous work to argue that, properly understood, the Infield Fly Rule is justified, necessary, and appropriate in order to to …

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