Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson Recent documents in Mitchell J Nathanson en-us Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:10:02 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/25 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/25 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:18:19 PDT Is there an American who has advanced beyond the sixth grade unfamiliar with that most affirming morality tale in American history - the story of Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson and the integration of Major League Baseball in 1947? As symbolic and ingrained in the national fabric as the game is, it was seen, and has been recalled, as an American tipping point. Because baseball in America had mirrored the nation's racial practices for decades, the event was perceived as momentous and precipitous because here, baseball foreshadowed nationwide, federally-imposed and endorsed desegregation, coming as it did seven years before the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. As the story goes, once Major League Baseball rejected the "separate but equal" fiction of the Court's 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, it was inevitable that the case was on its last legs. It is not the only story that can be told, however. The same facts and information that lead to the popular tale can also lead to a different one; one which is equally illuminating in that it shows men in a powerful institution doing all they could to beat back a rising tide against them - the tide of integration - that threatened their status and way of life. One which is not so much a story of equality but one where these powerful men fought to maintain control over the process of integration such that the resulting "story" was one about equality only in its most superficial sense, with true equality having been delayed and denied to the majority of African Americans despite the success of Jackie Robinson. For in the end, although the powerful men may not have been able to alter history itself to the extent they desired, they could, however, greatly affect how that history was recounted and remembered. The popular story of the integration of Major League Baseball is perhaps one of the most resonant and powerful in our culture. But, at its core, it is simply that: a story. One that, like most stories, is complete with gaps and inconvenient facts left on the cutting room floor. What follows is another story - one that sweeps up these facts and picks them out of the dustbin of history in order to tell a far different tale of the integration of "America's game." It is likely that the powerful men would be far less pleased with this story, exposing as it does their flaws, fears and misperceptions. But that is precisely why they have chosen not to tell it. Mitchell J. Nathanson Sports Law Baseball and Society http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/24 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/24 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:55:54 PDT Although the December 13, 2007 release of the Mitchell Report received attention for the names of the players included within, what was overlooked by many was the true import of the report: namely, the indictment of Major League Baseball itself as a corrupt entity. As such, the players identified as steroid abusers within the report were merely reflections of the larger, systemic problem that existed for decades within MLB rather than the problem in and of themselves. This article examines this revelation in detail. Mitchell J. Nathanson Sports Law Baseball and Society http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/23 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/23 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:45:50 PDT This article examines the relationship between Major League Baseball (MLB) and the law and discusses how it has evolved that MLB has become unofficially exempt from federal law on a wide range of issues due to its unique status within American society. Although its antitrust exemption is well-known, MLB has, in practice, not been subject to the forces of federal law in many other contexts as well, setting it apart from most other corporations and organizations - even other professional sports leagues such as the NFL, NHL and NBA. As a result of the wide berth provided to MLB by the federal courts and legislature, MLB has largely been free to govern itself pursuant to its own definition of what is in "the best interest of baseball" - denying its players even the most basic and fundamental due process rights, arbitrarily punishing those it has labeled as "rogue" owners, and willfully violating federal law that has applied to it for decades in theory but not in practice, in the process. From its inception in 1876 to the present, MLB has been, in effect, an extra-judicial entity, a society unto itself, answerable to no one in all but the most extreme circumstances. It is this atmosphere of de-facto sovereignty that has led to the culture of corruption identified within the recently released Mitchell Report, which beneath the fireworks over the names of the players identified within the report, quietly and systematically details MLB's decades-long disregard for federal law. Such disregard eventually provided a fertile breeding ground for the corporate malfeasance that permitted MLB to ignore both federal law and the overwhelming evidence of illegal drug use taking place within its locker rooms and to, in fact, encourage it throughout the 1990's and 2000's. In the end, as the Mitchell Report highlights, in MLB it was the system itself that was corrupt, with the identified players merely symptoms of the problem rather than the problem in and of themselves. This article examines how things progressed to this point. Mitchell J. Nathanson Sports Law Baseball and Society http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/22 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/22 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:01:30 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/21 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/21 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:00:20 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/20 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/20 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:59:21 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/19 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/19 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:58:12 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/18 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/18 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:56:45 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/17 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/17 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:27:55 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/16 http://works.bepress.com/mitchell_nathanson/16 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:26:19 PDT Mitchell J. Nathanson