[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 2 (Thursday, January 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E42-E43]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          BASEBALL FANS AND COMMUNITIES PROTECTION ACT OF 1995

                                 ______


                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 4, 1995
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Baseball Fans 
and Communities Protection Act of 1995. It is time that Congress 
finally steps up to the plate and ends baseball's antitrust exemption 
which is at the root of the current strike and which has hijacked the 
national pastime away from the fans and communities that have supported 
it for so long.
  Professional baseball is the only industry in the United States that 
is exempt from the antitrust laws without being subject to alternative 
regulatory supervision. There may have been a time when this unique 
treatment under our antitrust laws was a source of pride and 
distinction for the many who loved the game. But that time has ended. 
The continuing baseball strike of 1994--which ended the regular season, 
which ended the possibility of a World Series for the first time in 90 
years and which has very nearly ended the love affair of the American 
people with their national pastime--has now become the Baseball strike 
of 1995. If Congress fails to take swift action in the 104th Congress, 
this lingering strike has the strong potential to destroy yet another 
season; and I, for one, am not going to stand by passively and watch 
that happen.
  I am proud that the House Judiciary Committee at the close of the 
last Congress voted to repeal the nonstatutory antitrust exemption 
created by an anomalous Supreme Court decision in 1922. That decision 
created the notion that baseball somehow did not involve ``interstate 
commerce'' and thus was beyond the reach of the Federal Antitrust laws. 
The committee acted to end this illusion, which has now spawned very 
real and devastating economic consequences for our citizens.
  The bill I am introducing responds to the current phase of the 
recurring labor crisis in baseball in a very limited, yet crucial, way: 
By subjecting the players' union and the owners to the Nation's 
antitrust laws in the event one party unilaterally imposes an 
anticompetitive term or condition of employment on the other. As 
introduced, the bill exempts minor league baseball from the scope of 
its coverage. It may be that the current situation will demand an even 
stronger response and a broader repeal. But, in my judgment, this is an 
appropriate starting point for developing a bipartisan consensus on the 
issue in the committee and in the full house.
  The end result of baseball's special treatment has been the 
perpetuation of a closed, cartelized industry in which the few, 
incumbent club owners possess inordinate economic power and every other 
party--players, fans, municipalities, minor league club owners, 
potential expansion investors--remain economically marginalized. In a 
very real sense, the competitive landscape of major league baseball in 
1995 resembles the very type of business arrangements that spurred 
Congress to enact the antitrust laws in the 1890's.
  I am gratified by the bipartisan support received for this 
legislation in the last Congress, and the prospect that both sides of 
the aisle can work productively together to have swift 
[[Page E43]] enactment of my legislation. While I realize that there 
are some who wish to concentrate solely on the provisions of the so-
called ``contract with America'' in the first 3\1/2\ months of the new 
session, I would urge all of my colleagues to join with me in moving 
this to a high priority status so that spring training and the 
regulator season are not lost to the American people.
  We have the opportunity and ability to rescue the national pastime 
from its current dispiriting condition. Let's not allow this 
opportunity to pass by or be deferred.
  I urge all colleagues to join in the effort.
  

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