Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton, the senators from Minnesota, are now threatening MLB with removing their anti-trust exemption status, something that I’m sure comes as a complete surprise to nobody, since this threat comes up everytime MLB does something – or doesn’t do something – somebody in Congress doesn’t think should happen. And because MLB is so afraid of losing that exemption, they always give in, which explains almost all the expansion they have ever done.
But exactly what is it MLB will lose if this should ever happen? I guessing that right now no one is prohibited from trying to start another baseball league. As has been shown in football (at least three times to my knowledge), it is nearly impossible to get a new major sports league started, even with help from one of the TV networks.
What is it the owners are so afraid of in losing their legalized monopoly status?
In practical terms, the anti-trust exemption is meaningless.
Proof: The NFL doesn’t have it. Major league baseball does.
And yet, while this is SUPPOSED to be a huge advantage for baseball, the NFL owners have managed to beat down their players’ union time and again. Baseball owners, on the other hand, ALWAYS knuckle under and ALWAYS lose.
If the baseball owners were truly tough, smart or united, they wouldn’t need an anti-trust exemption.
I was going to ask this question anyway, is there a relationship between a salary cap and anti-trust exemption? Baseball has the anti-trust, but no salary cap, football has a salary cap but no anti-trust exemption. Also, how do the players unions figure into this equation?