"The Business of Baseball--The Free Agency"

     One of the most confusing things for baseball fans to understand is free agency.  It is a complex, complicated set of rules that has been negotiated in labor agreements between players and owners for more than 30 years, and the formula involved gets tweaked with each new agreement.

History of the Free Agency

     From the 19th Century through 1976, baseball players were committed to one team for life because of a

clause called the reserve clause.  Teams were allowed to renew contracts for one year as long as they wanted

to keep the player.  The beginnings of free agency began in 1969.  Longtime Cardinal outfielder Curt Flood was

being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and refused to report.  Flood appealed his case to the Supreme Court,

but lost. His case, however, set in motion and put in place an arbitration system for owners and players' union

disputes.

In 1975, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally, Major League pitchers, played without a contract. They argued that their contract could not be renewed if it had never been signed. An abitrator agreed, and the two pitchers

were declared free agents.  With the reserve clause now successfully abolished, the owners and the players'

union then agreed to the rules governing free agency that the players and teams would follow. In my next

segment, I will cover the Rule 5 draft, minor league requirements and how the 40 man roster fits in.

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