Winter 1999: Document of the Month
This issue features a November 30, 1949 confidential memo from
Walter Lord O’Brian to Commissioner Happy Chandler,
discussing MLB’s attempt to write its judicially-created
antitrust exemption into law. “At the Executive Council
Meeting in Versailles, Kentucky, on November 1, 1949, it was
decided to investigate with some care the possibility of
obtaining legislative relief for Baseball in the near future. . .
.
“It is clear that it will not be easy to obtain passage of
even a limited legislative exemption, and unless preliminary
talks with the Department of Justice and the Administration
result in favorable reaction, it is believed that it will be so
hopeless as to be unwise to make the attempt.” MLB’s
proposal would have codified the Federal Baseball antitrust
exemption, except for radio and TV contracts (which were then
under investigation).
“It is assumed that it will be desirable to include other
organized sports than baseball, but this is a very doubtful
assumption, and presents a serious question of policy. No other
sport has baseball’s reputation for integrity and
responsible self government, and some may be said to be
definitely subject to suspicion; accordingly, it might be wiser
for baseball, at least initially, to urge an exemption only for
Baseball itself, and not to attempt to include other
sports.”
Compiled by Doug Pappas. All rights reserved.
Originally published in the Winter 1999 issue of Outside the
Lines, the SABR Business of
Baseball Committee newsletter.
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