MLB's three-month lockout came to a merciful end on Thursday -- but at least one elected wants to continue the fight against "baseball oligarchs."
US Sen. Bernie Sanders said he will introduce legislation to end MLB's century-old antitrust exemption, which came under increased scrutiny amid fraught negotiations during the league's 99-day lockout.
In a Thursday statement, Sanders welcomed news of the end of the lockout, but said he would be taking aim at the exemption in light of the owners' "recent and unacceptable behavior."
"It would be wrong for Congress to simply celebrate [the] agreement and move on. We must prevent the greed of baseball's oligarchs from destroying the game. The best way to do that is to end Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption, and I will be introducing legislation to do just that."
Sanders' announcement came just a day after Sen. Dick Durbin similarly threatened to challenge MLB's exemption, which has stood since a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1922.
“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.
“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.”
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Perhaps it was a coincidence, but a deal was reached on a new CBA only hours after Durbin and other legislators took aim at MLB.
The exemption means MLB is not subject to the usual antitrust rules prohibiting anti-competitive practices in interstate commerce, a unique privilege among professional sports leagues.
It was unclear what kind of support Sanders' proposed legislation would have in Congress, though MLB's exemption has come into focus several times in recent years.
Last season, a group of conservative electeds threatened action when the MLB All-Star game was moved out of Atlanta in response to Georgia's new voting laws, which critics said were targeted at making it more difficult for Black citizens to cast their ballots.
Earlier last year, a lawsuit was brought to challenge the exemption in the wake of MLB contracting approximately 40 minor league teams.
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