Sorry to be that guy, but I am only 27 and was never alive prior to the free agency era....how did it all work back then? What happened when a player's contract ended?
Sorry to be that guy, but I am only 27 and was never alive prior to the free agency era....how did it all work back then? What happened when a player's contract ended?
They entered the carousel.Originally Posted by MillerTime58
Hoping to change my username to 75769024
MillerTime58 (11-03-2013),Yachtzee (11-04-2013)
The club renewed it for (usually) another year like the players now who do not have enough service time to be arbitration eligible. A player's only recourse was to hold out. The contract stated that the club could renew the player's contract for one year at the end of the current contract. The owners felt that meant they could renew the contract forever. Marvin Miller believed that they could only renew it for a year then the player could become a free agent.
They were automatically re-upped for the next year.
No. I'm not making that up.
The only leverage players had in contract negotiations was to sit out. Nobody ever did.
"Even a bad day at the ballpark beats the snot out of most other good days. I'll take my scorecard and pencil and beer and hot dog and rage at the dips and cheer at the highs, but I'm not ever going to stop loving this game and this team and nobody will ever take that away from me." Roy Tucker October 2010
Oh some did, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Reggie Jackson, Blue Moon Odom were the most notable names to do so. Ted Simmons in 1972 played without a contract because he was in dispute with Cards management.
http://thedaleyplanet.net/articles/archives/356
The most notable hold out in history though was probally Joe D.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dimaggi...s/pande08.html
"Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it." Cal Hubbard
dfs (11-04-2013)
Koufax and Drysdale held out together. The Dodgers refused to budge then it looked that the dynamic duo were serious they finally gave in to some of their demands in time to salvage the season. Had any less talented players tried that they would have been summarily traded. Only mega stars had any clout and that was pretty puny - owners even refused to speak with agents so players then did not have agents with the club. Advisors maybe, who coached them but they couldn't negotiate directly with the teams.
Teams would simply send out contracts in the mail in December usually, setting the amount they decided to pay. Players either signed or sent it back unsigned with a different amount. That was what they called negotiating. With stars there might be some personal contact. Often, though, stars were given the same treatment. Baseball owners did a great job selling their unique monopoly to the public,too. Holdouts were usually scorned as greedy and grasping - at contracts that were literally worth 1% of today's.
There is a reason for the bitter antagonism between ML Baseball and the MLPA once it got legally started.
Interestingly, in 1890 a players league was attempted with common ownership, players to be paid from a percentage divvied receipts and owners sharing league profits. Ballplayer and lawyer Monte Ward was one of the principal architects of the new league, formed to fight the restrictive new reserve rules that had been just been invented to hold players to one club in perpetuity, end team jumping and control payrolls. The structure was a lot more like the NFL than today's baseball but crudely structured. It was under capitalized although a great many popular players joined. There were also three major leagues that year which spelled doom for the Players League. Too many teams. Attendance dived across all three but the Players League owners didn't have the deep pockets the AA and NL had to enable it to survive. It was over before the season completely ended. Most Players League teams barely managed to finish and a couple folded before the end. In December 1890 they returned all players to their riginal franchises. Of note, The Pittsburgh team grabbed one Louis Bierbauer who was originally a Philly. Fans and reporters dubbed the team the "Pirates". They've been the Pirates ever since.
Had a deep pocketed savior emerged to weather the losses for the Players League baseball might have been very, very different. Much more NFL like with shared revenues and players having collective bargaining from the beginnings.
99% of all numbers only tell 33% of the story so when looking at the numbers remember that numbers is plural...
Chip R (11-04-2013),cumberlandreds (11-04-2013),Old school 1983 (11-04-2013)
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