Minor league advocates call on Congress to restrict MLB’s antitrust exemption

In a letter to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Advocates for Minor Leaguers executive director Harry Marino called on Congress to extend the Curt Flood Act — which suspends Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption regarding to how major league players are employed — for minor league players.

From Marino:

This would render illegal the entire Minor League Conspiracy—both (1) the owners’ agreementto suppress Minor League player wages and working conditions and (2) the owners’ agreementto artificially limit the number of Minor League teams and in turn the overall number of MinorLeague players.

The 14-page letter also suggests repealing the Save America’s Pastime Act, which was passed in 2018 and exempts minor league players from federal wage minimums and overtime laws.

“At the time, there were 160 Major League-affiliated Minor League teams. Major League Baseball, along with Minor League team owners with no choice but to join the effort, convinced Congress that the Act was necessary to prevent the elimination of some of those 160 affiliated MinorLeague teams,” Marino wrote. “That was a lie. Just two years after obtaining the exemption, Major League Baseball eliminated 40 affiliated Minor League teams anyway.”

There’s more on this story from Jake Seiner at the Associated Press and Evan Drellich at The Athletic.

More Kershaw All-Star Game talk

Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic is on board with Clayton Kershaw starting the All-Star Game on the mound at Dodger Stadium, along with the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, even with other pitchers putting up better numbers so far in 2022.

“This is the All-Star Game, an exhibition, a television show, one of the leading promotional vehicles for the sport,” Rosenthal wrote. “Alcántara, McClanahan, Tony Gonsolin, they can all pitch, receive their just due on the broadcast. And then get back to the more serious business of trying to win Cy Young Awards.”

Kershaw told David Vassegh of AM 570 that getting picked to start would be special.

“I’ve had some chances in the past, for whatever reason it didn’t work out,” Kershaw told Vassegh. “I know there are some guys that are having great seasons so I completely understand if it doesn’t work out.”

Links

• The bracket for the 2023 World Baseball Classic was unveiled on Thursday, with first-round games in Tokyo, Taichung, Taiwan, Marlins Park in Miami, and Chase Field in Phoenix next March. The semifinals and championship game will be at Marlins Park.
• Hall of Fame weekend in Cooperstown is just a few weeks away (July 22-25), with longtime Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges among this year’s inductees. The HOF announced earlier this week that 51 previously-inducted Hall of Famers will be in attendance that weekend. The former Dodgers among that group are headlined by Sandy Koufax, who spent his entire career with one franchise. Other Hall of Famers expected to be in Cooperstown that weekend were all Dodgers for a relatively small part of their careers — Eddie Murray, Pedro Mártinez, Rickey Henderson, and Jim Thome.
• Orel Hershiser posted on Twitter Wednesday about his lost dog, Popcorn, but the story had a happy ending by Thursday. Popcorn is home