July 31

On July 31st, 1981, a 42-day baseball strike ended.

In 1922, the Supreme Court decided that baseball was exempt from anti-trust legislation. This means, among other things, that price-fixing and practices to restrict employee wages are legal.

The Curt Flood case (Flood v Kuhn) in 1972 set the stage for free agency for players. Free agency gave players a chance to negotiate salaries as different clubs bid on their services. Prior to that time, players were stuck with the team they had originally signed with, even after their contract was completed, the reserve clause. The Supreme Court sided with Major League Baseball and the anti-trust exemption, but subsequent pressure from the players union created free agency via arbitration.

The issue in 1981 was still free agency. Teams wanted compensation for losing players to free agency; players wanted free agency to cost the teams to enhance its value. This compensation would be that the team the free agent went to would supply the former team with a player (not a "protected" player). In the end, the players agreed to restrict free agency to players who had spent six years in the majors. The owners would pull the compensation from any team in the league. The new rules would only apply to "premium" players.

While the owners could claim to "win", strikes hurt both sides. Owners lost millions in revenues, players lost salaries, and both lost goodwill from baseball fans.