(Note: I've been thinking about this for awhile. I got through two full seasons without a problem, not so much the third one, which I'll pick up at that point...somewhere down the line. But this is a fun season to consider, so it's better if I'm able to preload a lot of the research now rather than later. It won't begin daily until early April, but we can lay out the predicate for the season ahead).
PRELUDE TO A BASEBALL SEASON
There is one slight uptick of optimism among baseball personnel: this promises to be the first year free of labor problems in over a decade, and given what happened last year - and what's ongoing in the NFL right now as they appear perched for their first-ever in-season strike - it came none too soon for fans put off by the infighting. Before previewing the season, let's review how we got here and what the current status is across Major League Baseball (MLB).
THE BIRTH PANGS
Prior to 1966, MLB had a "union in name only", powerless players who could do nothing but beg and hope. Players were bound to their teams for life by a catch-all termed "the reserve clause." Put bluntly, it meant that if Hank Aaron got sick of playing for the Braves and retired and came back five years later, he was still a member of the Braves unless he'd been traded. In an effort to change things, two events in 1966 flipped the momentum. The first was the joint holdout of Dodger star pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. In the wake of 2 world titles in three years, Koufax got sick and tired of his skill - and low pay - being used against other Dodgers seeking pay increases, so he hired an agent to do his negotiation and got Drysdale to agree to holdout with him. Dodger owner Walter O'Malley actually admired the guts of both men while opposing a third party, but they settled, and the Dodgers won the pennant (although they got creamed in the World Series by Baltimore). The second event was the hiring of labor lawyer Marvin Miller as head of the MLBPA. Every player union lawyer prior to Miller had basically just been there; Miller spent 15 years shaking up the sport, the most obvious the strike that gutted the entire summer last year.
In 1968, citing the joint negotiation of Drysdale and Koufax, the collective bargaining agreement Miller negotiated made it illegal for owners or for players to negotiate in tandem. Miller then led the first strike in history that cancelled the first 13 days of the 1972 season when the owners refused to pay even a tiny amount of money to an agreed upon pension plan. Miller would later say that strike shocked him completely, figuring the current players would not go nuclear over a pension many years hence. But when the owners coughed up $500K - more than they'd promised - the power of the player's union grew. Miller had offered to let an arbitrator settle the whole thing, but neither the players nor the owners were interested.
The owners retaliated with a lockout in 1973, angry over an agreed upon procedure for salary arbitration. The players backed off a bit here, not permitting arbitration until after completion of two consecutive full seasons or three non-consecutive seasons. Arbitration allowed a player seeking a raise to preach his virtues to an impartial third party if he sought one value for his pay increase while the owner sought a lower value. Another lockout occurred in 1976 after the basic agreement expired at the end of 1975, but it was a decision just eight days prior to 1976 that set the stage for all of the acrimony to follow between the players and owners over the next six years. On December 23, 1975, arbitrator Peter Seitz issued a decision that altered the baseball landscape forever.
The argument centered over the following phrase, one still found in the Basic Agreement:
If prior to March 1, the Player and the Club have not agreed upon the terms of the contract, then on or before 10 days after said March 1, the Club shall have the right by written notice to the Player to renew this contract for the period of one year.
In 1975, Dodgers pitcher Andy Messersmith and Expos Pitcher Dave McNally played the season without signing contracts, contracts automatically renewed in accordance with the above phrasing. The union then filed a grievance, arguing that "one year" meant one year, the owners arguing that "one year" meant "one year and another and another into perpetuity." The arbitrator basically told the owners that if that's what they meant, that's what they should have said. Seitz immediately declared both players free agents, and Messersmith signed a 3-year, $1 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, purchased just days earlier by new Atlanta owner Ted Turner. In retaliation, the owners locked the players out for 17 days in 1976 in an attempt to demand concessions and maintain the reserve clause. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn then angered the owners by ordering the camps opened, and eventually the two sides came to an agreement through the end of the 1979 season as to when exactly a player could become a free agent (e.g. after six full years in the majors).
That same year, the umpires went on strike, angry over low pay. It took six weeks and some bad feelings, but the umpires got a new deal in May. One year - almost to the day - later, the players were about to strike when just 15 minutes before deadline, everyone agreed to play out the season with one unsettled issue, free agent compensation, that would be the focal point of the 1981 strike. Given we now know a strike occurred, what exactly happened?
PRELUDE TO A BASEBALL SEASON
There is one slight uptick of optimism among baseball personnel: this promises to be the first year free of labor problems in over a decade, and given what happened last year - and what's ongoing in the NFL right now as they appear perched for their first-ever in-season strike - it came none too soon for fans put off by the infighting. Before previewing the season, let's review how we got here and what the current status is across Major League Baseball (MLB).
THE BIRTH PANGS
Prior to 1966, MLB had a "union in name only", powerless players who could do nothing but beg and hope. Players were bound to their teams for life by a catch-all termed "the reserve clause." Put bluntly, it meant that if Hank Aaron got sick of playing for the Braves and retired and came back five years later, he was still a member of the Braves unless he'd been traded. In an effort to change things, two events in 1966 flipped the momentum. The first was the joint holdout of Dodger star pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. In the wake of 2 world titles in three years, Koufax got sick and tired of his skill - and low pay - being used against other Dodgers seeking pay increases, so he hired an agent to do his negotiation and got Drysdale to agree to holdout with him. Dodger owner Walter O'Malley actually admired the guts of both men while opposing a third party, but they settled, and the Dodgers won the pennant (although they got creamed in the World Series by Baltimore). The second event was the hiring of labor lawyer Marvin Miller as head of the MLBPA. Every player union lawyer prior to Miller had basically just been there; Miller spent 15 years shaking up the sport, the most obvious the strike that gutted the entire summer last year.
In 1968, citing the joint negotiation of Drysdale and Koufax, the collective bargaining agreement Miller negotiated made it illegal for owners or for players to negotiate in tandem. Miller then led the first strike in history that cancelled the first 13 days of the 1972 season when the owners refused to pay even a tiny amount of money to an agreed upon pension plan. Miller would later say that strike shocked him completely, figuring the current players would not go nuclear over a pension many years hence. But when the owners coughed up $500K - more than they'd promised - the power of the player's union grew. Miller had offered to let an arbitrator settle the whole thing, but neither the players nor the owners were interested.
The owners retaliated with a lockout in 1973, angry over an agreed upon procedure for salary arbitration. The players backed off a bit here, not permitting arbitration until after completion of two consecutive full seasons or three non-consecutive seasons. Arbitration allowed a player seeking a raise to preach his virtues to an impartial third party if he sought one value for his pay increase while the owner sought a lower value. Another lockout occurred in 1976 after the basic agreement expired at the end of 1975, but it was a decision just eight days prior to 1976 that set the stage for all of the acrimony to follow between the players and owners over the next six years. On December 23, 1975, arbitrator Peter Seitz issued a decision that altered the baseball landscape forever.
The argument centered over the following phrase, one still found in the Basic Agreement:
If prior to March 1, the Player and the Club have not agreed upon the terms of the contract, then on or before 10 days after said March 1, the Club shall have the right by written notice to the Player to renew this contract for the period of one year.
In 1975, Dodgers pitcher Andy Messersmith and Expos Pitcher Dave McNally played the season without signing contracts, contracts automatically renewed in accordance with the above phrasing. The union then filed a grievance, arguing that "one year" meant one year, the owners arguing that "one year" meant "one year and another and another into perpetuity." The arbitrator basically told the owners that if that's what they meant, that's what they should have said. Seitz immediately declared both players free agents, and Messersmith signed a 3-year, $1 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, purchased just days earlier by new Atlanta owner Ted Turner. In retaliation, the owners locked the players out for 17 days in 1976 in an attempt to demand concessions and maintain the reserve clause. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn then angered the owners by ordering the camps opened, and eventually the two sides came to an agreement through the end of the 1979 season as to when exactly a player could become a free agent (e.g. after six full years in the majors).
That same year, the umpires went on strike, angry over low pay. It took six weeks and some bad feelings, but the umpires got a new deal in May. One year - almost to the day - later, the players were about to strike when just 15 minutes before deadline, everyone agreed to play out the season with one unsettled issue, free agent compensation, that would be the focal point of the 1981 strike. Given we now know a strike occurred, what exactly happened?