Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal
Volume 17 | Issue 1
Article 4
1999
Foreward: Discipline in Professional Sports
Alfred G. Feliu
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Feliu, Alfred G. (1999) "Foreward: Discipline in Professional Sports," Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal: Vol. 17: Iss. 1,
Article 4.
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Feliu: Foreward: Discipline in Professional Sports
E§§SAYS9
FOREWORD: DISCIPLINE IN PROFESSIONAL
SPORTS
Alfred G. Feliu*
I. INTRODUCTION
The following essays in this section are adapted from the panel discussion on Discipline In Professional Sports which took place at the
Annual Meeting of the New York State Bar Association's Labor and
Employment Law Section, in Cooperstown, New York, in September of
1999. This illustrious panel addressed the timely topic of discipline in
professional sports, in particular, in Major League Baseball. The panel
focused its attention on the interesting question of the interplay between
traditional labor law principles and the world of sports law.
II. THE DYNAMICS OF LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS IN SPORTS
The world of sports labor-management relations is in a different
orbit than the traditional labor-management field. The "workers" are
highly compensated; "management" is often dominated by large corporations or well-to-do business people looking to profit from their investment.
When thinking of labor relations in the world of sports, it is appropriate to invoke as a frame of reference the multiemployer collective
* Alfred G. Feliu is a partner in the New York City law firm of Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP.
He represents clients in all aspects of employment law and serves as an arbitrator and mediator on
the American Arbitration Association's National Employment Disputes Panel. Mr. Feliu moderated the panel discussion from which the ensuing essays are taken.
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bargaining context.' Leagues, rather than teams, negotiate with players'
unions.! The players' unions, in contrast, most resemble unions that are
in the entertainment industry where the membership consists of highly
skilled professionals with needs not typically shared by the stereotypical
blue collar worker. Further, the major issues in the sports collective
bargaining context typically revolve around economics and free agency.
The issue of discipline in sports generally centers around player
activities off the playing field. This may include bar room brawls, sexual misconduct, and drug or alcohol use and/or abuse. Misconduct on
the field, on the other hand, is generally subject to the broad discretion
of the Commissioner under the "best interests" of the league clause in a
collective bargaining agreement!
Most legal issues arising in the sports context are contractual in
nature. Criminal proceedings run a close second.7 Finally, civil proceedings are generally limited to review of the Commissioner's decisions,
arbitrator's awards, or the ruling of quasi-public bodies, i.e. licensing
boards.
1m1.
TYPES OF DISCIPLINE
Discipline can be purely economic; for example, fines may be im-
1. See Michael C. Harper, Multiemployer Bargaining,Antitrust Law, & Team Sports: The
Contingent Choice of Broad Exemption, 58 WM. & MARY L. R.v. 1663, 1664 (1997).
2. See Jan Stiglitz, Player Discipline in Team Sports, 5 MARQ. SPORTS L.J. 167, 168
(1995).
3. See Harper, supra note 1, at 1710.
4. See Frederick N. Donegan, Examining the Role of Arbitration in ProfessionalBaseball,
1 SPORTS L.J. 183, 189-90 (1994).
5. See Jason M. Pollack, Note, Take My Arbitrator,Please: Commissioner "Best interests"
DisciplinaryAuthority in ProfessionalSports, 67 FORDHAM L. REv. 1645, 1648 (1999); Stiglitz,
supra note 2, at 177.
6. See generally Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258 (1972) (involving a challenge to baseball's
reserve system where a professional baseball player brought an antitrust suit for being refused the
right to make a contract with another team).
7. See generally Mike Lupica, Darryl Walks on Eggshells, NEWSDAY, Aug. 4, 1995, at A95
(commenting on the effect Darryl Strawberry's drug problem had on his career).
8. See generally Charles 0. Finley & Co. v. Kuhn, 569 F.2d 527, 528 (7th Cir. 1978)
(upholding the Commissioner's authority to nullify the sale of a player's contract); Kansas City
Royals Baseball Corp. v. Major League Baseball Player's Ass'n, 532 F.2d 615 (8th Cir. 1976)
(reviewing an arbitrator's award where an arbitration panel was established pursuant to a collective
bargaining agreement); Atlanta Nat'l League Baseball Club, Inc. v. Kuhn, 432 F. Supp. 1213
(N.D. Ga. 1977) (upholding the Commissioner's authority to suspend the Chief Executive Officer
of the Atlanta National League Baseball).
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Feliu: Foreward: Discipline in Professional Sports
1999]
Discipline in ProfessionalSports
posed. 9 Discipline may also involve suspending a player, or at the other
extreme, banning a player from participating in sports altogether.'0
Regardless of the various methods of discipline in sports, disciplinary decisions in the first instance are typically the domain of the
Commissioner or team management."
IV. DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN SPORTS
In sports dispute resolution, arbitration is the king. 2 Mediation is at
best a lowly prince. Arbitration related to disciplinary matters follow a
general pattern of traditional labor-management relations. Arbitrators
typically rule on the propriety of the disciplinary decision and, of
course, have the authority to modify the discipline meted out.'3 The
standard to be applied by arbitrators in reviewing league-imposed discipline is still a subject of debate.' 4Arbitration related to salary matters
tends to be far more limited, i.e. baseball arbitration where the arbitrator's jurisdiction is limited to selecting either the team's or player's salary tendered number. 5
V. CONCLUSION: SPORTS DISCIPLINE AS SHAPER OF PUBLIC
PERCEPTIONS
The battles between labor and management are in the most public
of forums and are vulnerable to media intervention and the attention resulting from public opinion. 6 The high visibility of disciplinary matters
in sports are complicated by the traditional notion that sports figures are
9. See Heidi C. Doerhoff, Note, Penalty Box or Jury Box? Deciding Where Professional
Sports Tough Guys Should Go, 64 Mo. L. REV. 739,756-57 & n.141 (1999).
10. See Pollack, supra note 5, at 1652 (discussing Judge Landis' suspension and subsequent
lifetime ban of eight Chicago White Sox players after the 1919 World Series).
11. See Stiglitz, supra note 2, at 168 ("Moreover, in the case of baseball, there is an additional level of disciplinary authority.... Each league has a President, who exercises a certain
amount of disciplinary authority.").
12. See id. at 169. Collective bargaining agreements have "a grievance procedure which
gives the player the right to have most disputes resolved by a neutral arbitrator." lI
13. See Pollack, supra note 5, at 1691, 1662-63 (stating that an arbitrator is responsible for
interpreting a collective bargaining agreement such that a Commissioner no longer has the ability
to rule without having to think about his authority being limited by an arbitrators interpretation).
14. See id. at 1691 (stating that an "arbitrator's lack of deterrence to commissioner authority
damages the integrity of professional baseball" as well as other sports).
15. See id. at 1663.
16. See Gil Fried & Michael Hiller, ADR in Youth and IntercollegiateAthletics, 1997 BYU
L. REV. 631, 639.
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to be role models for our youth. 7 Such concerns are rarely present in the
traditional labor-management dispute. Despite these differences, there is
much that the traditional labor-management practitioner can learn from
the wild world of sports, such as earlier strategies that have succeeded
or failed, i.e. Richie Phillips and the mass resignation of major league
umpires,"s use of public opinion, etc. These lessons are best learned because the highly visible world of sports law and sport discipline are
likely to be frames of reference for both sides of a dispute and the general public, in much the same way that the O.J. Simpson trial and the
Thomas-Hill hearings influenced public opinion.
17. See Pollack, supranote 5, at 1668; see also Laurie Nicole Robinson, Comment, Professional Athletes-Held to a Higher Standard and Above the Law: A Comment on High-Profile
CriminalDefendants and the Needfor States to Establish High-Profile Courts,73 IND. L.J. 1313,
1328 (1998).
18. Richie Phillips is head of the umpire's union. See Richard Wilner, Rebel Umps Pick Up
Steam, N.Y. PoST, Oct. 6, 1999, at 58.
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