My bottom line is that I don’t know why MLB wants to keep its exemption, but that every time it is challenged, they fight to keep it in place. To me that seems to say that they view it as valuable, for whatever reason, and so must accept the Congressional busybodies that accompany it.
In order to answer you in more detail as to the actual present day effects of the exemption, I would have to go back and reread some stuff, but I am not sure it is strictly relevant here. The comment about baseball’s managment skills was a throwaway line from an annoyed fan rather than an attempt at rational argument…
God forbid that I should ever defend Joe McCarthy, but the real major difference here is that, if McCarthy’s wild-assed accusations had had any basis in fact, it would have actually mattered. I mean, if people really were trying to sell the US out to the Russians in the numbers McCarthy claimed, that would have been a bad thing. If steroid use is as rampant in pro ball as Congress is now claiming? WHO GIVES A SHIT? It’s a fucking game! They could be doping so much that player’s hearts are routinely exploding while they’re on the field, and these hearings would still be the most revolting waste of taxpayer money and transparent attempt at voter misdirection in the history of Democracy. Why don’t we have hearings on the use of wall-hacks in Counter Strike? Or violations of touch-move rules in USCF chess matches? We pay these asshole’s salaries because they’re supposed to run the goddamned country, not so that they referee a glorified stick-ball league.
Also, last time i checked, the name of the Committee undertaking this investigation was the Committee on Government Reform, not the Committee on Baseball Reform.
Personally, i think that the government in this country needs reforming a whole hell of a lot more than baseball does.