Freedom of Contract

There was an enlightening story in today’s Sun-Times sports’ section on the recently concluded negotiations between the White Sox and announcer Jason Benetti. In case there was any doubt, Jerry Reinsdorf’s team is firmly planted in the nineteenth century, where it intends to stay. Jeff Agrest’s story noted that the team prefers to negotiate one-on-one, which is a little like me going up against Amazon or Google. Brooks Boyer, senior v.p. for revenue and marketing, noted that Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn don’t use agents. Why? Because “We’re compensating them; we have a partnership with them. There’s never been a need to have any sort of outside entity come in and negotiate these things.” Funny how this way of doing business doesn’t apply to players. Gosh, I wonder if that’s why they formed a union. Yes, unions in general and the MLB Players Association in particular can be tone deaf and selfish. But look what they’re up against. Boyer was basically quoting chapter and verse from the Robber Barons’ playbook for labor relations, circa 1890. The argument was that unions and, for that matter, any type of government regulation were a denial of the employee’s due process. Scabs and Pinkertons killing strikers, not so much. The argument lives on today in the notion of “right to work.” In practice, the right flows one way, in favor of those holding the power. If the Sox are so wedded to age-old beliefs, no matter how discredited or unfair, they should opt out of honoring Jackie Robinson come April 15th. It’s the next logical step.