Cincinnati Reds, L.L.C. v. Testa (Slip Opinion)

2018 Ohio 4669, 122 N.E.3d 1178, 155 Ohio St. 3d 512
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 21, 2018
Docket2017-0854
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2018 Ohio 4669 (Cincinnati Reds, L.L.C. v. Testa (Slip Opinion)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cincinnati Reds, L.L.C. v. Testa (Slip Opinion), 2018 Ohio 4669, 122 N.E.3d 1178, 155 Ohio St. 3d 512 (Ohio 2018).

Opinions

Fischer, J.

*512{¶ 1} It would be an understatement to say that baseball has changed in dramatic ways since, as Justice Harry Blackmun wrote, the "Cincinnati Red Stockings came into existence in 1869 upon an outpouring of local pride," Flood v. Kuhn , 407 U.S. 258, 261, 92 S.Ct. 2099, 32 L.Ed.2d 728 (1972). From the 1890s, when National Baseball Hall of Fame legend and Newcomerstown, Ohio's own Cy Young starred for the Cleveland Spiders; through the 1920s, when Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a native of Milville, Ohio, and a Hall of Famer, strove as Major League Baseball's first commissioner to maintain the integrity of the game following the notorious Black Sox scandal; through the 1940s, when player-manager and Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau guided the Cleveland Indians to a World Series championship and was the American League's Most Valuable Player ("MVP") in 1948; through the 1950s and 1960s, when Hall of Fame *1180manager Walter Alston of Venice, Ohio, and Miami University won four World Series titles with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers; through the Big Red Machine era of the 1970s; through the 1980s, when Dayton, Ohio native, Ohio University alumnus, and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt won three National League MVP Awards and was named World Series MVP in 1980 for the Philadelphia Phillies; and into the 1990s, when Cincinnati's homegrown Hall of Famer Barry Larkin led the Reds to a World Series Championship, professional baseball has seen the creation of the American League in 1900, the creation of the World Series in 1903, the first radio broadcast of a game in 1921, the first night game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati in 1935, the breaking of the color barrier by Jackie Robinson (in the National League) and Larry Doby (for the Indians in the American League), the first televised World Series in 1947, the establishment of the designated hitter in 1973, and the cancellation of the World Series due to a player strike in 1994. See Cy Young , available at https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/youngcy01.shtml *513(accessed Oct. 25, 2018); Kenesaw Mountain Landis , available at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/mlb_history_people.jsp?story=com_bio_1 (accessed Oct. 25, 2018); Lou Boudreau , available at https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/boudreau-lou (accessed Oct. 25, 2018); Walter Alston , available at https://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/alstowa01.shtml (accessed Oct. 25, 2018); Mike Schmidt , available at https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/schmidt-mike (accessed Oct. 25, 2018); Barry Larkin , available at https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/larkin-barry (accessed Oct. 25, 2018); Timeline , available at https://www.pbs.org /kenburns/baseball/timeline/ (accessed Oct. 25, 2018); see also Flood at 260-264, 92 S.Ct. 2099.

{¶ 2} At one time, the emphasis in professional baseball was on the game, as succinctly put in the title of the documentary series covering pre-1960s Major League Baseball that was created by a national cable network, HBO: "When It Was a Game." See Richard Sandomir, Old Color Clips Reborn in HBO Documentary , New York Times (June 21, 1991) B12, available at https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/21/sports/tv-sports-baseball-old-color-clips-reborn-in-hbo-documentary.html (accessed Oct. 25, 2018). In the early days, professional baseball was a business, but the game itself was the focus of that business, as explained by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in 1922: "The business is giving exhibitions of base ball." Fed. Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. Natl. League of Professional Baseball Clubs , 259 U.S. 200, 208, 42 S.Ct. 465, 66 L.Ed. 898 (1922).

{¶ 3} In Fed. Baseball , the court held that the business of professional baseball did not constitute interstate commerce and was not subject to antitrust law. Id. at 207-209, 42 S.Ct. 465. The court reaffirmed the holding of Fed. Baseball when it upheld Major League Baseball's reserve clause (which permitted a team to retain the rights to a player even after the player's contract had expired) in Flood . Flood at 284, 92 S.Ct. 2099. Despite noting that the antitrust exemption for Major League Baseball was "an exception and an anomaly," id. at 282, 92 S.Ct. 2099, the court concluded that any change to the exemption would need to be made by Congress, id. at 285, 92 S.Ct. 2099. Following Flood , however, player free agency was established in Major League Baseball through arbitration and collective bargaining, and players' salaries increased significantly as league revenues grew. Noah Goodman, The Evolution and Decline of Free Agency in Major League Baseball: How the 2012-2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement Is Restraining Trade , 23 Sports Lawyers J. 19, 20-21, 37-39 (2016).

*1181{¶ 4} Along with increasing revenues and salaries, other factors have contributed to the transformation of professional baseball into something more than just a game. Faced with rising ticket prices and increasing entertainment options, Major League Baseball has experienced challenges in getting fans to attend games. See Mark Koba,

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Bluebook (online)
2018 Ohio 4669, 122 N.E.3d 1178, 155 Ohio St. 3d 512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cincinnati-reds-llc-v-testa-slip-opinion-ohio-2018.