The University of Wisconsin Law School professor has written extensively about the long relationship between the Supreme Court and baseball, and he already thinks Sotomayor is "the most important federal judge in the history of baseball besides Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis." Sotomayor's 1995 ruling as a federal district court judge ending the baseball strike...And here, you can buy Brad's excellent books: "Beyond the Shadow of the Senators: The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball" and "A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports."
Judge Landis... was the first federal judge to become known as having "saved baseball," back in 1915. The Federal League had filed an antitrust challenge to Major League baseball, claiming it was a huge illegal trust. Knowing it was a hot potato, Landis sat on the case without acting on it until the Federal League folded. Landis then became baseball commissioner. "Justice Sotomayor is a much better judge than Judge Landis," said Snyder.
September 24, 2009
Sotomayor and baseball (and Brad Snyder).
On the occasion of Sonia Sotomayor's throwing out the first pitch at a Yankee game, Tony Mauro talks to my colleague Brad Snyder:
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7 comments:
Except that now if you are a major market fan you practically have to sell your first born if you want to see the game like it was meant to be seen.
Baseball salaries are out of control.
If salaries are too high and games are too expensive, then fans can't buy tickets.
I am lucky in that when the White Sox come to town you can find free tickets everywhere.
Well, maybe that's not really "lucky."
"Sonia Sotomayor," as good a name as it is, will never scale the sobriquetic heights achieved by "Kennesaw Mountain Landis."
It's all supply and demand. The owners of baseball teams still make a lot more off ticket sales than do the players that fans pay to see. And it's their decision how much tickets cost, not the players.
Being a professional ball player requires a LIFETIME of dedication -- from when you're a child -- and you're likely giving up your future physical well-being in exchange for a shot at the big club. Obviously some players (A-Rod) have been overpaid for their market value, but I don't think player salaries are the biggest problem in baseball.
I thought Justice Blackmun, author of the Flood vs. Kuhn decision was the most important judge in the history of baseball.
Whatever you think of Roe vs. Wade, Flood vs. Kuhn was Blackmun's worst decision.
A few months back, I read up on Sotomayor's decision about the baseball strike and thought her decision and reasoning was idiotic. I've no faith that she's any smarter now than she was then.
Baseball players today are media stars who first came to our attention when they were playing baseball. Their pay is for being media stars that can sell beer and fastfoods advertising om TV. They are therefore salesmen capable of influencing hundreds of millions of dollars of beer and fastfoods sales.
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