A brief history of baseball’s antitrust exemption

Al YellonEvery year about this time my brother and I get into a heated argument or two about free agency. At some point he’ll bring up how much money players make, I’ll counter with a pro-players argument and take a swipe at owners. All families have their predictable holiday squabbles and this just happens to be the one my brother and I engage in every year. Inevitably someone will sign a huge contract and he’ll tout the brilliance of free markets at which point I’ll remind him that baseball is not even close to a free market economy.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently even though the annual “Sanchez siblings litigate the economics of baseball” conversations haven’t hit their peak…