Baseball's Power Shift

How the Players Union, the Fans, and the Media Changed American Sports Culture

By: Krister Swanson

Narrated by: John T. Arnott

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

From Major League Baseball's inception in the 1880s through World War II, team owners enjoyed monopolistic control of the industry. Despite the players' desire to form a viable union, every attempt to do so failed. In the mid-1960s, star players Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale staged a joint holdout for multiyear contracts and much higher salaries. Their holdout quickly drew support from the public; for the first time, owners realized they could ill afford to alienate fans, their primary source of revenue.

Baseball's Power Shift chronicles the growth and development of the union movement in Major League Baseball and the key role of the press and public opinion in the players' successes and failures in labor-management relations. Swanson focuses on the most turbulent years, 1966 to 1981, which saw the birth of the Major League Baseball Players Association as well as three strikes, two lockouts, Curt Flood's challenge to the reserve clause in the Supreme Court, and the emergence of full free agency.

Swanson shows how fans and the media became key players in baseball's labor wars and paved the way for the explosive growth in the American sports economy.

©2016 Krister Swanson (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An important study that will be read for years to come by fans and scholars alike interested in understanding the history and economics of baseball's labor practices." ( Sport in American History)

"This is the book we've been waiting for. Swanson is a great storyteller, weaving a narrative both timeless and timely." (Dave Zirin, The Nation)

"If you want to know how major league ballplayers went from making ends meet with winter jobs to signing multimillion dollar contracts, read Baseball's Power Shift." (Elliott Gorn, author of The Manly Art)

A history of labor relations in MLB

Author Krister Swanson takes an examination of the tumultuous relationship between owners of Major League Baseball franchises and the players. Former Major Leaguer Rusty Staub was once remarked that the owners are nothing without the players, and the players are nothing without the owners. That makes sense on paper, but as demonstrated in "Baseball's Power Shift," it has never been that easy.

In 1876, baseball owners adopted the reserve clause, which bond a player to his team for the duration of the player's career. The player could be sold or traded, but was not afforded the opportunity to shop his services around the league. Despite challenges through the years, it would not be until Curtis Floyd's successful legal fight that the courts finally struck down the dreaded reserve clause, opening the door to free agency.

Swanson documents how the public's perception of unions was shaped by the media, often times resulting in fans siding with the owner's in labor squabbles. The owners were able to convince fans that the players should feel fortunate to earn a living playing a kid's game, and were ungrateful and selfish when they complained. The players had to convince the public that they were workers, and deserved to be treated fairly. Some players had to work outside of baseball to support their families.

As established in "Baseball's Power Shift," owners insisted on the reserve clause to assure competitive balance. When challenged about the merits of the reserve clause, the magnates stated that baseball was an unique business, which required unique rules. Holding all the cards, owners could blacklist players that attempted to play elsewhere. For decades, the league was able to thwart off efforts of the players to unionize.

The players considered turning to the Teamster's for assistance, but finally in the 60's, a union was formed led by the shrewd Marvin Miller. The union successfully exposed the owner's inflexibility, and the public's perception started to shift. Miller was able to protect the player's pension fund, and rallied support among some of the reluctant players. Swanson traces the decades of labor strife, and brilliantly shows how it relates to today's issues.

Excellent work, well worth reading.

Detailed and well written, this work provides insight to the development and struggles of management and labor relations throughout the history of baseball, tackling a potentially dry subject in an interesting fashion. I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn not just the history of baseball labor relations, but the interplay of business, litigation, negotiation and public opinion. Well done!