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  • Essay / Questionable Confidence in Baseball - 1232

    Baseball has long been considered America's favorite pastime. The qualities of this essential sport go far beyond simple entertainment; they represent a culture mired in decades of history and complete with the idealistic image of a close-knit family. When we think of the United States of America, cultural icons such as the American flag, apple pie, and baseball come to mind. It is therefore important that when discussing the economic aspects of baseball, we take into account the emotional reaction that can be evoked by the population. Coming in at over a billion dollars, baseball undoubtedly deserves an economic debate. A very controversial issue in this school of thought is the existence of exemptions from antitrust laws in baseball. Antitrust laws are laws that prohibit anticompetitive behavior and unfair business practices. Their goal is to ensure that businesses and consumers cannot be exploited by powerful companies that have or wish to have a monopoly on the market. They also take into account certain ethical standards and therefore can be considered quite subjective. Many specific strategies are prohibited by antitrust laws, including price fixing (agreeing on uniform prices for goods or services), predatory pricing (setting a low price in order to eliminate competitors), and price foreclosure. supplier (virtually forcing a consumer to purchase from a certain supplier). Antitrust laws have had a colorful history in the United States. The first antitrust law was created primarily by Senator John Sherman in 1890. It was signed by President Benjamin Harrison and put into effect, and is the root of all antitrust laws today. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was widely used during the Progressive Era by "trust busters" such as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. The Standard Oil Company (led by John D. Rockefeller) and the United States Steel Corporation (led by Andrew Carnegie) were among the giants that fell foul of antitrust. If these mammoth corporations couldn't resist antitrust policies, what kept baseball from falling into their hands as well? The controversy began to take root when, in the early 20th century, a National League player attempted to join a newly formed club in the American League. The dispute was settled in 1903, stating that the two leagues constituted a monopoly shared between the owners. Years later, the case Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National Baseball Clubs have become a crucial business in asserting baseball's status in the economy..