From: genetic+@pitt.edu (Dr. Dave)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: History of baseball business climate
Date: 15 Dec 92 19:48:44 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Department of Industrial Engineering

The following is a tongue-in-cheek (but accurate) mock advertisement
for baseball owners, in a "want ad" sort of format.  It was drafted
by Marvin Miller in 1969, before Curt Flood and Andy Messersmith and
Catfish Hunter taught the owners how to say "Free Agent" (I knew they
could).  Enjoy.

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OUTSTANDING INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUALS, PARTNERSHIPS, 
CORPORATIONS, OR ANY COMBINATIONS:

Invest in a business with the following advantages not found in 
*any* other industry in the United States:

	1. A record of more than 100 years of great consumer
	   appeal.  Revenue has grown year after year and is at
	   an all-time high.

	2. Material costs are negligible; machinery and equipment
	   costs almost nonexistent; physical plant leased on
	   extremely favorable terms; municipalities eager to serve
	   your needs through use of municipal funds, bond issues
	   with tax-free interest, and in other ways.

	3. Only assets needed are skilled personnel.  The displayed
	   performance of such personnel constitutes the commodity
	   to be sold.  An ample supply exists.

	4. Labor costs for skilled personnel total less than 15% of
	   revenue, have been stable proportionate to revenue for a
	   decade, and are spectacularly below the 35% of revenue
	   which labor costs represented forty years ago!

	5. Secondary revenue--from radio and television contracts--is
	   sufficient to meet all skilled labor costs twice over!

	6. Capital gain is virtually assured.  500 percent increase in
	   market value of franchises in last 10 years is not unusual.

HOW CAN YOU RESIST?

OWN YOUR OWN LABOR SUPPLY.  As long as your employees retain their skills,
their services are yours to command.  You may sell them for cash or trade
them for other skilled personnel to associated firms in your industry when
it suits your purpose.  You determine the compensation of your employees!
You determine when their skills begin to fade and when to remove them from
your employ.

ENJOY THE FINEST TAX SHELTER IN THE NATION.  This is an industry in which you
can depreciate, for income tax purposes, your skilled personnel.  Since your
assets are almost entirely in such personnel, you can depreciate almost all
assets over a short number of years.  If your enterprise is organized on an
individual owner basis, or a partnership, or a Subchapter S corporation, you
may utilize excess depreciation to reduce or eliminate income taxes on your
personal income.

FINALLY--Your methods of operation, your business practices--such as the use
of blacklists, group boycotts, and conspiracies in restraint of trade, 
including combinations with foreign associates--are free of legal restraint.

The United States Supreme Court has determined that the industry is not 
subject to the antitrust law of the United States or any state, UNLIKE YOUR
CLOSEST COMPETITORS, WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH RESTRAINTS.

You are therefore free to utilize what would otherwise be illegal sanctions
to enforce your will in controlling the entire skilled labor complement of
the industry, to deprive cities and entire areas of your product when you 
choose to do so, to maintain with your associates a complete monopoly by
barring would-be competitors, to fix prices, and to allocate divisions of the
market.

(Copyright 1991 by Marvin Miller.  Reprinted without permission)

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-- 
       David Tate        |"Out of the dugout endlessly swinging,
 dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu | Out of the manager's throat, the sound fundamentals,
 Prof. of Story Problems | Out of the six-month season..."            
 Member ORSA, TIMS, SABR | 	Walt "Lefty" Whitman