The 1990 Major League Baseball lockout was the seventh work stoppage in baseball and, at the time, the second-longest since

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. Beginning in February, the lockout lasted 32 days, virtually wiping out

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

, moving

Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent year ...

back a week to April 9 and extending the season three days to accommodate the normal 162-game schedule.

Background

The five-year Basic Agreement between the players and owners was set to expire on December 31, 1989. During the buildup to the lockout, the two sides spent months trying to iron out long-standing disagreements over free agency and

arbitration Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...

; following arbitrator determinations that the owners had colluded in suppressing player wages in the mid-1980s, with a more open labor market player remuneration had rapidly increased. By the end of the 1989 season, salaries for nine top players had reached the $3 million-a-year level. In 1988, national television broadcasting contracts had been negotiated which brought revenue to $1.5 billion over four years, amounting to a 102 percent increase on the previous contract. Given the significant increase in funds available and the earlier disagreements over free agency there was a likelihood of a dispute.

Owners' plan

The owners set forth a

revenue sharing Revenue sharing is the distribution of revenue, the total amount of income generated by the sales, sale of goods and services among the stakeholder (corporate), stakeholders or Benefactor (law), contributors. It should not be confused with profit ...

plan in which 48% of gate receipts and all revenue from local and network broadcasting would go toward paying player salaries. These salaries would be based on a pay-for-performance scale, in which players with less than six years of experience would be compensated based on a ranking against their peers. Perhaps most importantly, a salary cap would be placed on each club. In the process, there would be a stipulation put in place that teams reaching the said cap could make no more free agent signings or salary increases. Owners claimed that under the plan, average player salaries would proceed to rise over 20% to $770,000 by the 1993 season. They cited rising attendance figures as well as solid television contracts with CBS and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

MLBPA's response

Although revenue sharing of this type had worked considerably well in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Major League Baseball Players Association The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) is the labor union representing all current Major League Baseball (MLB) and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held ...

(MLBPA) Executive Director Donald Fehr, feared that a salary cap would restrict the number of choices free agents could make. He argued that a pay-for-performance scale would eliminate multi-year contracts. Players were concerned that the owners were trying to limit free agency and had been engaged in long term preparations for a dispute.

Resolution

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

Fay Vincent worked with both sides and, on March 19, a new Basic Agreement was reached. The minimum major league salary was raised from $68,000 to $100,000. Meanwhile, a six-man study committee on revenue sharing was established.

Sources

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References