Baseball Meets the Law

Baseball and law have intersected from the very beginnings of the sport in America. In 1791, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance prohibited ball playing near the town's meeting house. A 1794 Pennsylvania statute barred ball playing on Sundays. That intersection has continued unabated to the present day. In 2015 alone, a federal court held that baseball's exemption from antitrust laws applied to franchise relocations, another overturned the conviction of Barry Bonds for obstruction of justice, and a third denied a request by rooftop entrepreneurs to enjoin the construction of a massive video board at Wrigley Field. By recounting the long history of law's close relationship with the National Pastime-with stories about lawyers like Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Branch Rickey, the use of copyright to protect not only equipment but also ""Take Me Out to the Ball Game,"" the frequent litigation between players and owners over contracts and the reserve clause, and so many other instances in which law in some form has intertwined with baseball-this exhaustive and detailed chronology documents the profound effect law has had on the sport, both on and off the field. It makes a convincing case that knowledge of when and how baseball and law have come together is essential for anyone wishing to understand not only the game's past and present, but also its future.