Balls and Strikes: The Money Game in Professional Baseball

(Hardback)

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Impressively researched and well written, this valuable study by a business professor at the Universiy of North Florida. . . traces the erosion of the reserve clause and the rise of arbitration in salary disputes, examining the participants in negotiations--players, owners, managers, agents, even commissoners--and showing the stake each has in the money game. Many striking points are made, i.e., there is no discrimination in salaries of minority players and there is little relationship between pay and performance. Publishers Weekly Jennings . . . gives a detailed account of collective bargaining in baseball during the last 25 years, leading up to the owners' lockout this year. He discusses the participants on both sides and how disunity among the club owners has contributed to the union's ability to achieve large bargaining gains. He also deals with salary arbitration and how it has been used to settle pay disputes, noting that it can resemble 'a high-stakes crapshoot' that leaves management incapable of controlling a team's payroll costs. For aficionados of the sport, this book provides clarifying insight into the complicated issues of baseball's labor relations and offers fascinating anecdotes and a shrewd commentary on the diverse and colorful personalities involved. New York Times Book Review Kenneth M. Jennings examines union-management relations in professional baseball, bringing together all the information the sports fan needs to follow the issues surrounding player-management arbitration in this unique industry. Covering the history of collective bargaining action in baseball from 1869 to the 1990 season, this book examines the issues that influence those high-profile player-management-owner negotiations. Balls and Strikes reveals: how in recent years the Major League Baseball Players' Association (MLBPA) has successfully parlayed owner disunity into substantial gains for its members; that baseball, in a statistical sense, surprisingly exhibits little discrimination against black and Hispanic players; how there is very little relationship between pay and performance in professional baseball. Baseball fans and sports journalists as well as professionals in management and labor relations, will find Balls and Strikes a fresh and exciting look at America's favorite pastime. Balls and Strikes presents the confrontations and relationships between players and management from the perspective of several hundred collective bargaining participants--the union and management officials who negotiate the labor agreement and the players who must approve and live with it. Kenneth M. Jennings derives his perspective from a variety of media sources, related biographies, autobiographies, and articles. The result is a highly readable book about owners, commissioners, agents, the media, manager-player relations, player pressures including drug and alcohol problems, race and ethnic issues, and player mobility and salaries. The book discusses the history of collective bargaining action in baseball from 1869 to 1966; the year Marvin Miller became president of the MLBPA, through the 1970s and Miller's successful bargaining efforts, into the 1980s and the opening of the 1990 season. Balls and Strikes discusses key participants in the collective bargaining process--owners, agents, the media, managers, and players--and concludes with a look at contemporary industrial relations issues in professional baseball: drug and alcohol abuse; racial discrimination; and the relationship between pay and performance.

Reviews

"Impressively researched and well written, this valuable study by a business professor at the University of North Florida opens with a history of labor-management negotiations from the early days of organized baseball in 1869 to the present, with emphasis on the period after 1966, when Marvin Miller became president of the Major League Baseball Players' Association. Jennings traces the erosion of the reserve clause and the rise of arbitration in salary disputes, examining the participants in negotiations--players, owners, managers, agents, even commissioners--and showing the stake each has in the money game. Many striking points are made, i.e., there is no discrimination in salaries of minority players and there is little relationship between pay and performance."-Publishers Weekly
Impressively researched and well written, this valuable study by a business professor at the University of North Florida opens with a history of labor-management negotiations from the early days of organized baseball in 1869 to the present, with emphasis on the period after 1966, when Marvin Miller became president of the Major League Baseball Players' Association. Jennings traces the erosion of the reserve clause and the rise of arbitration in salary disputes, examining the participants in negotiations--players, owners, managers, agents, even commissioners--and showing the stake each has in the money game. Many striking points are made, i.e., there is no discrimination in salaries of minority players and there is little relationship between pay and performance.-Publishers Weekly
. . . This is a serious, professional study, filled with tables, charts and numbers--some of which lead to provocative conclusion, including Miller's conclusion that black and Hispanic players suffer from statistically measurable discrimination in either playing time or salary. Fortunately, he uses the qualifier statistically measurable, ' and notes that this statement does not include social pressure or post-baseball preference. Similar comments throughout show that Jennings is not just a number cruncher, but understands the game as well.-The News
A highly readable, clear, thoughtful and entertaining discussion of some of the most controversial and complex issues in modern sport. He also makes some difficult and complex material accessible to the average student, fan and non-economic specialist. In doing so he makes a valuable addition to growing body of material on the business of sport.-The International Journal of the History of Sport
There is little doubt that this is another first-rate publication in the literature of sport management. Jennings's work has some similarities with Gerald W. Scully's recent The Business of Major League Baseball. Both of these authors reflect a growing trend to provide more in-depth information concerning the economics of sport. However, Jennings has clearly focused on the collective bargaining process in professional baseball, and his book is also very historical in nature. Needless to say, this is a most timely work in light of the difficult labor negotiations in baseball in 1990. There are some tables that provide pertinent information; the notes and references are very extensive and of high quality. The book is definitely recommended for any college library, particularly as a research reference for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses that cover labor relations in sport.-Choice
." . . This is a serious, professional study, filled with tables, charts and numbers--some of which lead to provocative conclusion, including Miller's conclusion that black and Hispanic players suffer from statistically measurable discrimination in either playing time or salary. Fortunately, he uses the qualifier statistically measurable, ' and notes that this statement does not include social pressure or post-baseball preference. Similar comments throughout show that Jennings is not just a number cruncher, but understands the game as well."-The News
"A highly readable, clear, thoughtful and entertaining discussion of some of the most controversial and complex issues in modern sport. He also makes some difficult and complex material accessible to the average student, fan and non-economic specialist. In doing so he makes a valuable addition to growing body of material on the business of sport."-The International Journal of the History of Sport
"There is little doubt that this is another first-rate publication in the literature of sport management. Jennings's work has some similarities with Gerald W. Scully's recent The Business of Major League Baseball. Both of these authors reflect a growing trend to provide more in-depth information concerning the economics of sport. However, Jennings has clearly focused on the collective bargaining process in professional baseball, and his book is also very historical in nature. Needless to say, this is a most timely work in light of the difficult labor negotiations in baseball in 1990. There are some tables that provide pertinent information; the notes and references are very extensive and of high quality. The book is definitely recommended for any college library, particularly as a research reference for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses that cover labor relations in sport."-Choice

Author Bio

KENNETH M. JENNINGS is Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of North Florida. He has spent over twenty years in industrial relations as a practitioner, academic, consultant, and researcher and is the author of three other books.