Author: Marc Normandin

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Over the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part five (of six), on Rob Manfred and fans choosing owners over players. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

Rob Manfred takes control while the MLBPA loses it

Rob Manfred is the current commissioner of baseball, but like his predecessor Bud Selig, his early work came on the labor scene. He was outside counsel for MLB during the 1994-1995 labor battle, and by 1998, Manfred was the Executive Vice President of Economics and League Affairs. He negotiated the first drug-testing agreement between MLB and the MLBPA, and was MLB’s lead negotiator for the collective bargaining agreements of 2002, 2006, and 2011 before becoming COO in 2013. He was also the head of MLB’s Biogenesis investigation, which, if you remember your recent history, involved MLB maybe obstructing a federal investigation just so they could get enough (stolen) dirton Alex Rodriguez that Selig could extend his victory lap into his final year as MLB commissioner.

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 5: Rob Manfred and the rise of tanking”

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part four, on MLB’s owners changing their tactics and approach to bargaining, in a way that reverberates in today’s game. If you missed any of the first three parts, you can find them here.

The owners change their tactics

No more would the owners directly attack player salaries and earnings. Baseball had been saved in 1998 by sluggers chasing history, and Bud Selig knew that a return to the wars of years past would bring baseball to ruin once more.

For the 2001-2002 CBA negotiations, Selig and the owners came to the table with what Doug Pappas described as “unusual foresight,” focusing heavily on increasing concepts already contained within the CBA:

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 4: Selig cries poor, then colludes once more”

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be emailing out sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part three, on Bud Selig’s transition from owner to “acting” commissioner. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

The rise of Bud Selig

Bud Selig wasn’t MLB commissioner in 1990. He was the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and a central figure in every labor dispute. He was one of the colluding owners, and a ringleader of the ‘90 lockout — he even attempted to divide the union by exploiting the different concerns of its age groups, secretly negotiating with veterans like Brewers’ star Paul Molitor, who just wanted to get back to work and cash his already-large paychecks at the expense of those younger players still working toward or within their arbitration years.

There were cracks in the union, and while the Players Association held firm during the 1990 lockout and 1994 strike, through failure Selig had figured out how to widen those cracks and start earning wins for the owners once again.

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 3: The rise of Bud Selig and the 1994 strike”