The memory is vivid. In the time between the 1985 and ’86 seasons – the 10th season of free agency – any time I mentioned collusion Barry Rona laughed. Rona was the owners’ chief labor executive, and the laughter was his way of scoffing at the idea that the clubs were colluding against free agents.
I don’t recall when Rona stopped laughing, but the owners stopped conspiring after the 1987 season, the third of their illegitimate practice. They stopped only because they were caught by two arbitrators and negotiated an expensive plea agreement under which they paid the players $280 million plus interest.
How vile were the owners in conducting their conspiracy? They initiated it only weeks after they completed negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.
Bud Selig was instrumental in forming and conducting that conspiracy. He was the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and chairman of the Player Relations Committee, an owner who was instrumental in all of the strikes and lockouts of that strife-ridden era.
Selig has never acknowledged collusion, which is why when I have a question about it I ask Fay Vincent. Vincent had yet to accompany A. Bartlett Giamatti into Major League Baseball as his deputy commissioner when collusion first reared its ugly head, but in his unofficial capacity he witnessed and heard a lot.
Vincent is the most moral man I have ever known, and I appreciate his morality and honesty.
“I think that from my point of view,” Vincent told me, “collusion was probably the seminal event in the last 50 years in MLB because I think starting in the 80’s, as I understood it from talking to some owners, namely Jerry Reinsdorf, that they were colluding and they did it long before they got caught. He portrayed it as two different segments. He said the first time they did it they were much more successful at it.”
One time while he was at Fenway Park, Vincent related, he encountered Lou Gorman, a former general manager for the Red Sox. Years before, the general manager had negotiated a contract for Roger Clemens with his agent, Randy Hendricks, Clemens’ agent, but an edict from Commissioner Peter Ueberroth had muddied the negotiations.
In his third season, 1986, Clemens had compiled a 24-4 record, and the Red Sox wanted to sign to a multi-year contract for more than $1 million.
“Gorman told me that they really wanted to sign him, so they offered him $1 million for I don’t know how many years, Gorman said that they knew Clemens was special so they wanted to, and did, buy out arbitration. Gorman got a call from the then Commissioner Ueberroth about the large contract.
“Ueberroth said that they couldn’t sign him, but Gorman said that they did it anyway, and they told the agent that it was done, but they haven’t signed the papers yet. Ueberroth said that he would forbid the deal from happening because it will cause escalation, and that the league was trying to control prices and the deal would be a bad thing for baseball. The other owners were up in arms, and Gorman can’t complete the deal for that money. Gorman said, ‘How can I tell Hendricks that the deal is off; they are going to go crazy.’ Ueberroth said that was Gorman’s problem and he can deal with that, but he can’t sign Clemens. Gorman said that he went down and told Clemens and Hendricks about the deal and they were furious.
“Maybe they figured out it was Ueberroth, but I never said anything about Ueberroth,” Gorman told Vincent.
“Gorman said that it wasn’t long after that that the whole collusion business blew up,” Vincent said, “and that the next thing Gorman knew, he was subpoenaed and he had to testify as to what happened, and that if anybody asked the right questions that he was going to have to tell them what really happened with Clemens. He said that when Clemens left Boston, everybody wondered why, but it was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to stay with the Red Sox because he hated Gorman and what happened.
“Gorman said that when he got subpoenaed, the lawyers wanted to go over the testimony a couple of days before, but Gorman didn’t wait for them to ask any questions, he just told them the story. The lawyers said they wouldn’t ask him to lie, and Gorman said that if he was asked the right questions under oath, that he would tell that story. Gorman said he was very nervous and actually lost weight because he knew that he was going to be the one to blow the whole collusion story.
“In the hearing, they never asked a question about it, and it never came up, so that story has never been told until he told me. He only told me because it explains an awful lot about what was going on.”
Vincent offered one more piece of evidenced that owners cheated. He cited Walter Haas Jr., owner of the Oakland Athletics.
“When I left baseball I was getting pounded because people were saying that I was the real bad guy of baseball for saying that collusion happened, and Selig especially was very galled by that. He said that I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t know, that I wasn’t making it up. So one day I called about it in Oakland and Walter Haas, Jr. who was a good friend of mine, told me that he didn’t want to be in baseball without a guy like me, who would actually tell the truth. I asked him why the owners would pay $280 million if they had a good legal position, and fact is that they don’t. He told me that he was in on it, as everyone else was. He said that Bobby Brown was the ramrod in the American League and anytime somebody was rumored to be falling off the wagon and do something inexcusable like sign a Free Agent, Bobby would call and tell them not to do it because everyone is in it together and wants to make sure it doesn’t happen. Walter said that he went along with it, even though he knew it was wrong. He said he was ashamed of doing it, but was glad that I kept pushing the envelope; he told me that he hoped I spoke out about it.
“You would have to be a fool to not know what was happening. I was over at Coca-Cola and I could see what was going on, it was pretty clear. So I think Gorman and Walter Haas are pretty big aspects in that history, I don’t need much more.”
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Is Major Leagues Baseball living through another era of collusion? Tony Clark, executive director of the Players Association, and his lawyers have carefully scrutinized the free-agent landscape but have not uncovered the smoking gun they seek. They have to look harder. I believe it is there.
At the start of the weekend, 90 free agents remained unsigned. Then Yu Darvish signed with Chicago Cubs, and a couple more players will come off the unsigned list when they pass physicals this week. That number nevertheless remains high for players unsigned at the start of spring training.
More than coincidence is at work. Clubs know players get antsy as camps open and they don’t have jobs. Clubs like that condition because nervous players tend to accept cheaper contracts when they wonder where – or if – the will be working.
Given the number of unsigned free agents, the union has worked out an agreement with IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., for unsigned free agents to work out there.
In the meantime, union lawyers will search for the smoking guns. If they search diligently, I suspect they will find it in the weeds. I don’t think the owners are clever enough to keep it hidden from all peering player eyes, but they have hired all these platoons of Ivy League analytics experts and who knows what those guys are capable of?