[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 124 (Friday, July 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10901-S10902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


             THE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ANTITRUST REFORM ACT

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate Judiciary 
Committee began consideration of the Major League Baseball Antitrust 
Reform Act, S. 627. I look forward to the committee completing its 
consideration of this measure at our next business meeting and 
reporting it to the Senate.
  This year the major league season did not begin, of course, until a 
Federal judge granted an injunction and the owners and players, who had 
shut the game down last August and robbed fans of pennant races and a 
World Series, finally declared a ceasefire in their ongoing 
hostilities. They had to scramble to begin a shortened 144-game 
schedule.
   As far as I can tell the owners and the players have not gotten back 
to the bargaining table. They are no closer to reaching a collective 
bargaining agreement than they were 3 months ago. A further unfair 
trade practices complaint remains pending against the owners.
  Interest in major league baseball is undeniably down. Attendance 
figures show it--they are down between 20 and 30 percent. Ratings for 
the recent All Star Game were down 10 percent from last year. 
Advertising and merchandising revenues show it, as well. Both NBC and 
ABC recently indicated that they will not even bid on broadcast rights 
for baseball in the future.
  In spite of the outstanding years that the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland 
Indians, California Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies and 
Atlanta Braves are having and the young, talented players throughout 
the leagues, the unsettled business affairs that haunt major league 
baseball and disillusioned many of its fans. Older fans have been 
turned off and the younger ones have decided to spend their time and 
attention on other pursuits.
  Meanwhile interest and attendance at minor league baseball games 
continues. If the Vermont Expos are any indication, fans turned off by 
the excesses of major league baseball have turned to minor league 
games. Attendance at Centennial Field for Expos' games is up more than 
10 percent and merchandise 

[[Page S 10902]]
sales are booming. It is friendly, fun, and entertaining. I know that I 
will enjoy taking in a few games during the August recess, if there is 
an August recess.
  As the season began, Bud Selig, baseball's acting commissioner was 
quoted as saying: ``We knew there would be some fallout. It's very 
tough to assess, but there is a residue from the work stoppage, there's 
no question. There is a lot of anger out there.''
  At our February 15 hearing on legislation to end baseball's antitrust 
exemption, I had asked the acting commissioner how fans get their 
voices heard. I observed even then: ``Fans are disgruntled; I mean, 
they are really ripped. Do they vote with their feet?'' Unfortunately, 
the strike dragged on, fans suffered through the owners' experiment 
with so-called replacement teams, and the matter remains unsettled and 
unsettling.
  Mr. Selig answered me last February by observing that when the strike 
ended, there would be an enormous healing process. I said then: ``The 
longer you go, the harder the healing process is going to be.'' I say 
now that major league baseball has gone too far and has been above the 
law too long.
  I do not think that those who are the game's current caretakers 
appreciate the damage that they have done. Slick advertising, discount 
tickets, and special giveaway nights will not make up the difference. 
The last year has been disastrous.
  Worse, nothing has been resolved. The problems and differences 
persist. There is no collective bargaining agreement and, so far as the 
public is aware, no prospect of one any time soon. To borrow from a 
famous baseball great, ``It ain't over, 'til it's over.''
  Why should people return to major league ballparks or patronize major 
league teams if the risk remains of having affections toyed with again 
and having hopes of a championship dashed--not by a better team but by 
labor-management problems?
  I believe the time has come for the Senate to act. The Senate 
Antitrust Subcommittee reported the bill to the Judiciary Committee on 
April 5. This consensus bill, S. 627, is sponsored by Senators Hatch, 
Thurmond, Moynihan, Graham, and myself. It would cut back baseball's 
judicially created and aberrational antitrust exemption.
  Congress may not be able to solve every problem or heal baseball's 
self-inflicted wounds, but we can do this: We can pass legislation that 
will declare that professional baseball can no longer operate above the 
law. The antitrust laws apply to all other professional sports and 
commercial activity should apply to professional baseball, as well.
  Along with the other members of the Judiciary Committee, I recently 
received a report of the section on antitrust law of the American Bar 
Association that examines S. 627. The antitrust section of the ABA 
reasons that professional baseball's antitrust exemption is not 
tailored to achieve well-defined and justified public goals.
  The antitrust section, therefore, ``supports legislative repeal of 
the exemption of professional major league baseball from the federal 
antitrust laws.'' Moreover, the report notes that putting professional 
baseball on equal footing with other professional sports and business 
and having the antitrust laws apply ``cannot fairly be criticized as 
`taking sides' '' in baseball's current labor-management battle.
  I look forward to working with our Judiciary Committee chairmen to 
have our bill, S. 627, considered favorably by the Judiciary Committee 
at our earliest opportunity and then promptly by the Senate. It is time 
that the Senate act and end this destructive aberration in our 
law.


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