(670 The Score) Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has turned up the heat on MLB owners as the lockout continues, threatening to hold a Senate hearing regarding the status of the league’s antitrust exemption if they don’t reach a new labor agreement quickly.
MLB has held the antitrust exemption since 1922 that essentially allows it to act as a monopoly.
“These baseball franchises are worth billions of dollars, and here they are haggling over this and that and the other thing,” Durbin said on the Mully & Haugh Show on 670 The Score on Thursday morning. “It’s time for the lockout to end. It’s time for the baseball season to begin, and it’s time for the agreement to be reached.
“And in the meantime, I have a responsibility too. Are we going to continue to give Major League Baseball one of the few antitrust exemptions in American law? The courts have said over and over again the only ones who can change that are Congress. Well, I’m in Congress. And I’m prepared to have a hearing on the antitrust exemption for baseball.”
On Tuesday, MLB announced it was canceling two more series early in the season. MLB games through April 13 have now been called off after Opening Day had already previously been canceled.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin characterized himself as “fed up” with the MLB lockout. As of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Durbin hadn't heard from any MLB officials or owners after he originally shared his sentiment on Twitter on Wednesday evening, but he expected to hear from someone soon.
“We don’t treat as other business in America like we treat baseball,” Durbin said. “We said they’re not part of interstate commerce. Come on, these teams are playing in different venues every night of the week and they’re moving all along the country in an interstate fashion. That’s the nature of it. But they said at the beginning, it’s not interstate commerce, it’s a special situation. Well, that special situation has been challenged from time to time, and I think it ought to be looked at again.”