Free Agency 50th Anniversary Baseball
FILE - Abritrator Peter Seitz speaks during a news conference after he gave free agent status to pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally by voiding the reserve clause in their contracts, Dec. 23, 1975, in New York.
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Sports were turned upside down 50 years ago Tuesday by a man who never threw or kicked a ball. A lawyer with expertise in labor relations struck down Major League Baseball’s reserve clause, which had bound players to their teams since the 1870s. No one could have predicted then that the 65-page decision issued Dec. 23, 1975 by arbitrator Peter Seitz would lead to an upheaval that made thousands of players multimillionaires. Seitz was immediately fired by MLB and later compared baseball owners to “the French barons of the 12th century."
