Tuesday, June 20, 1972
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Eleven
PECULIAR INSTITUTION LIVES
Court upholds reserve clause
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court yesterday ex-
tended baseball's unique exemption from antitrust laws in
a 5-3 ruling against onetime St. Louis Cardinal outfielder
Curt Flood.
Rolling off the names of 87 old-time players and with
lyrical references to "Casey at the Bat," Justice Harry A.
Blackmun said he recognizes the immunity is an aberra-
tion. But he said any change in the 50-year old tradition,
established by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, would have to
come from Congress and not the courts.
Red Sox
rip Texas
By The Associated Press
The California A n g e I s
nipped Baltimore 4-3 last
night and Detroit trailed
Oakland, 5-3, in the eighth.
BOSTON - Reggie Smith
whacked a pair of home runs
and drove in five runs, pacing
a four-homer attack that pow-
ered the Boston Red Sox to a
12-0 American League baseball
victory over the Texas Rangers
last night 'behind Sonny Sie-
bert's three-hit pitching in the
American League's only East
Coast night action.
The one- afternoon game,
Cleveland at Minnesota, was
rained out and Detroit was at
Oakland and Baltimore at Cali-
fornia in late games.
Siebert, 7-3, kept the Rangers
hitless until Ted Kubiak, a pinch
hitter, lashed a double down the
right field line leading off the
sixth inning.
Magic Number: 103
Before the late results last
night Detroit held first place
and had the number down to
103. But now its the Oakland
A's confronting our boys. Good
luck, Tigers!
Smith started the onslaught
with a two-out, two-run homer
in the first inning off loser
Pete Broberg, 5-5, after short-
stop Luis Aparicio had singled
with one away. Smith connect-
ed again with two runners
aboard as Casey Cox was rapped
for four runs in the seventh.
The Red Sox struck again
with two out in the second.
Carlton Fisk singled, Siebert was
hit by a pitch and Tommy Har-
per doubled off the left field
wall, scoring both runners.
Boston left three runners
stranded in the third, then
chased Broberg in a four-run
fifth. Smith started it with a
single and Rico Petrocelli drove
his fifth home run of the sea-
son into the light towers atop
the wall in left.
Danny Cater greeted reliever
Jim Shellenback with his third
homer and the Red Sox made it
6-0 on a double by Fisk and
Harper's single.
Professional Le
As a result, baseball will be
able to retain its special "re-
serve clause," which binds a
ballplayer to the team that owns
his contract. Other sports, partly
impelled by judicial decisions,
have loosened these bonds and
given players some limited free-
dom to choose the team for
which they will play.
Blackmun said Congress ap-
parently has no quarrel with
baseball's special status since it
has adopted none of the more
than two dozen bills introduced
in the last two decades to
change the system.
Flood brought a $3.1-million
damage suit against the reserve
system after the St. Louis Car-
dinals traded him in 1969 to
the Philadelphia Phillies. He
was backed by the players'
union, and former Justice Ar-
thur J. Goldberg argued his
appeal in the high court.
Essentially, the suit main-
tained there was no logical
reason to treat baseball differ-
ently from other professional
sports, particularly since even
amateur players no longer have
broad freedom to select their
pro teams, and frenchises have
been moved from city to city.'
Flood sat out the 1971 sea-
son. He played briefly for the
Washington Senators, in 1971
after officials agreed this would
have no bearing on the suit.
Voting with Blackmun t
maintain baseball's legal status
were Chief Justice Warren E.
Burger and Justices Potter
Stewart, Byron H. White and
William H. Rehnquist. Dissent-
ing were Justices William O.
Douglas, William J. Brennan Jr.,
and Thurgood Marshall. Justice
Lewis F. Powell Jr. did not par-
ticipate.
Burger cast his vote with
"grave reservations." But he
said, "Courts are not the forum
in which this tangled web .ought
to be unsnarled."
Douglas, in his dissent, said
the 1922 Holmes decision "is a
derelict in the stream of the
law that we, its creator, should
remove." He added: "Only a
romantic view of a rather dis-
mal business account over the
last 50 years would keep that
derelict in midstream.
The justice went on to say
that the beneficiaries of the
exemption are not the Babe
Ruths, Ty Cobbs and Lou
Gehrigs but "the owners, whose
records many say reveal a pro-
clivity for predatory practices."
Justice ;Marshall, meanwhile,
said, "baseball players should
not be denied the benefts of
competition.
:ague Standings
CARLTON FISK of the Boston Red Sox slides safely into second
base yesterday eluding the tag of Texas' Toby Harrah. The Red
Sox won that game, and the major league owners won a major
battle when the reserve clause was upheld yesterday by the
Supreme Court.
Prates break slump,
dump Dodgers, 13-=3
Reactions to
decision vary
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Su-
preme Court decision on base-
ball's reserve clause yesterday
was greeted by different reac-
tions from the different involved
parties.
Baseball Commissioner Bowie
Kuhn hailed the finding as con-
structive, Players' Association
director Marvin Miller called for
Congressional action to change
the legal treatment of baseball,
and most player representatives
talked of collective bargaining
rather than litigation as a
means to change the reserve
clause.
Kuhn also called "for renewed
collective bargaining on the re-
serve system after the 1972 sea-
son."
"I think the decision is con-
structive in its recognition that
baseball has developed its
present structure in reliance on
past court decisions," said Kuhn.
"The decision opens the way
for renewed collective bargain-
ing on the reserve system after
the 1972 season," he added.
am confident that the players
and the clubs are in the best
position to determine for them-
selves what the form of the re-
serve system should be and that
they will both take a most re-
sponsible view of their respec-
tive obligations to the public
and to the game."
"We will continue in our ef-
forts to remedy the inequities
in baseball's present reserve sys-
tm through collective bargain-
ing," said Marvin Miller, execu-
tive director of the Major
League Players Association.
"In addition, we feel con-
fident that the Congress will
accept the court's clear invita-
tion to act in this matter and
we will be cooperating fully with
the Congress to achieve that re-
sult."
While Ted Simmons, St. Louis
catcher who is playing without
a contract, said he would prob-
ably seek court action against
the renewal clause if he has not
signed by the end of the season,
other players were thinking
along the lines of collective
bargaining rather than court
action.
"I'm sure there will be some
sort of new effort made," said
catcher Bob Barton, who' was
the San Diego player represen-
tative before being traded last
week. "All we want is for base-
ball players who are unhappy
with their team to be able to go
to another."
"The ruling doesn't make a
lot of difference and the play-
ers were not looking to make
utter chaos which complete eli-
mination of the reserve clause
would do" said pitcher Milt
Pappas, the player representa-
tive of the Chicago Cubs.
By The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - Al Oliver
and Roberto Clemente drove in
three runs apiece as the Pitts-
burgh Pirates ended a 23-inning,
scoring drought by blasting the
Los Angeles Dodgers 13-3 in a
nationally - televised baseball
game last night.
The victory moved the Pi-
rates back into first place in
the National League East by
one-half game over the New
York Mets, who were beaten by
Houston 3-0.
Pittsburgh, shut out twice
over the week end by San
Diego, jumped to a 2-0 lead in
the first inning off loser Don
Sutton, 8-2, on run-scoring sin-
gles by Oliver and Manny San-
guillen.
The Dodgers narrowed the
margin in the third with a run
off winner Doc Ellis, 6-3. Bill
Russell singled to left, took sec-
ond on a - sacrifice and scored
on Bill Buckner's single.
Mets one-hit
HOUSTON - The Houston
Astros tied a major league re-
cord with their second consecu-
tive one-hit pitching perform-
ance when Larry Dierker lim-
ited New Tork to Duffy Dyer's
third-inning sintle and retired
17 straight batters in a 3-0 vic-
tory over the Mets last night.
Jerry Reuss fired a one-hitter
against Philadelphia on Sun-
day-a leadoff double by Larry
Howa in the ninth inning-and
Dierker completed the record-
tying performance, the eighth
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time it has been done. Six of
the back-to-back one-hitters
have been in the National
League, the last by the Mets
against Chicago and Philadel-
phia in 1970.
Houston threatened to break
the base ball game open several
times against New York starter
Jon Matlack, 7-3, but he pitched
out of trouble in the third,
fourth, fifth and sixth. innings
before the Astros broke through
with two runs in the seventh en
route to their fifth straight win.
Reds shutout
CINCINNATI - Tim Foli
broke up a scoreless deadlock
with a sacrifice fly in the sev-
enth inning and Bill Stoneman
blanked the hard-hitting Cin-
cinnati Reds on four hits as the
Montreal Expos downed the
Reds 2-0 last night.
Stoneman limited the Reds,
1 e a d e r s in the National
League's West Division, to sin-
gles by Joe Hague and Denis
Menke in the second inning, a
bunt single by Tolan in the
fourth, and a leadoff single by
Pete Rose in the ninth. The vic-
ory was Stoneman's sixth against
tory was Stoneman's s i x t h
against five losses.
American League National League
East East
W L Pet. GB W L Pet. GB
Detroit 31 22 .555 _ Pittsburgh 36 20 .643 -
Baltimore 30 23 .566 1 New York 36 21 .532 1
New York 24 29 453 Chicago 33 22 .600 2'.M
Bostons 23 20 .451 7 Montrealt 24 31 .429 12
Cleveland 23 28 .451 7 St. Louis 24 32 .429 12
Milwaukee 17 34 .333 13 Philadelphia 20 30 .357 16
W'st West
Oakland 36 17 .679 incinnati 35 22 .614 -
Chicago 33 21 .611 3', Houston 35 23 .603
Minnesota 2 23 .54971 Angeles 32 26 .552 3M
Kansas City '25 19 .403 I1I Atlanta 27 21 .402 7 y
California 25 31 .446 12 San Diego 20 37 .351 15
Texas 23 33 .411 14 San Francisco2 1 43 .328 17?
Yesterday's Results
Toterday's Results Chicago 7,San Fra cisco 6, 11 innings
Boston 12 Tesas 0 P'ittsburght 13, Los Angeets 3
Detroit at Oakland, inc. Philadelphia at Atlanta, postponed
Baltimore'at California, ine. Montreal 2, Cincinnati0
Cleveland at Minnesota, postponed Houston 3, New York 0
Other clabs not scheduled San Diego at St. Louis, postponed
Tonight's Games Today's Games
Detroit at Oakland Los Angeles at Pittsburgh
Baltimore at California San Diego at St. Louis, night
Cleveland at Minnesota San Francisco at Chicago
Kansas City at New York Philadelphia at Atlanta, night
Chicago at Milwaukee Montreal at Cincinnati, night
Texas at Boston New York at Houston, night
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OPEN
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2nd Hit Week!'..8..M
SNICHOLAS &
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