Bipartisan attorneys general strike out at Major League Baseball

But the future of the state’s minor league system took a beanball to the helmet after the 2020 COVID season, when Major League Baseball slashed the total of its minor league affiliates from 160 to 120 after the Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and MiLB expired.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, and other state leaders saw it coming.

“Minor League Baseball is a critical part of West Virginia’s future,” Justice said in 2019. “I am working to find a real solution on this issue, starting at the top with Commissioner Manfred. I am confident we can show Commissioner Manfred what a fantastic partner MLB has in the great state of West Virginia.”

Added Manchin in 2019: “I will do everything I can to protect Minor League Baseball in West Virginia because many of these teams have been pillars of the community for decades. I’m contacting everyone I know in the MLB to ask them to consider the consequences of scrapping our local teams.”

And Capito: “Minor League Baseball has become a part of the fabric of many West Virginia towns. I have stressed to both Major League and Minor League Baseball my hope and encouragement to work together and also with the impacted communities and franchises,” Capito said.

They tried hard, but it wasn’t enough.

The widespread move to slash affiliations ended up impacting four franchises in West Virginia: The Charleston Dirty Birds, Bluefield Ridge Runners, Princeton WhistlePigs and West Virginia Black Bears.

Suddenly, fans of Bluefield, Princeton and the Black Bears were no longer rooting for prospects for the Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates. Instead, those teams had to switch to amateur collegiate summer baseball, where college baseball players go for more seasoning and, in most cases, the hope of eventually making one of the 120 minor league teams still affiliated with the Major Leagues. And starting next year, Princeton won’t even have that.

Meanwhile, Charleston Dirty Birds fans went from watching Seattle Mariners’ prospects to watching Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. It’s professional and a partner league with Major League Baseball, but the team isn’t affiliated with any MLB team.

So yes, take me out to the minor league ball game isn’t what it once was in West Virginia or elsewhere But, a group of powerful attorneys across the country is hoping to K a Major League Baseball perk that dates back to the year Babe Ruth signed his first big contract.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — and attorneys general for Connecticut, Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia have gone to the courts in a bid to strike a court-imposed precedent out of the books.

The bipartisan filing led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to baseball’s antitrust exemption.

The filing targets U.S. Supreme Court decisions, with the first dating back to 1922, that it says exempt baseball from state antitrust actions.

In this instance, states where minor league franchises lost Major League affiliations want to challenge the way the 30 Major League teams in one fell swoop lopped off a quarter of its minor league affiliates.

“If Congress wants nationwide uniformity on the business of baseball, the federalism canon tells it how to get that: by clearly articulating an intent to displace state antitrust laws. ...,” the amicus brief seeking a writ of certiorari states. “Absent that clear statement, states must be able to exercise their police powers to promote competition and protect consumers.”

The brief also contends that “the Amici states have powerful economic and sovereignty interests in this Court’s reconsidering and overturning the antitrust exemption for the business of baseball.”

The states listed on the filing have long traditions “of enforcing federal and state antitrust laws to protect consumers and promote fair competition. And each has deep experience with the ways professional sports — including major and minor league baseball — can strengthen state and local economies and communities.

Amici know that professional sports teams and leagues can succeed as competitive businesses while subject to normal antitrust enforcement. After all, every other sport in our states does it. This case shows how the baseball exemption threatens our sovereign prerogatives and makes it harder for us to build economies and communities.

Tong went further in a news release.

“Baseball is big business. There’s no rational reason why baseball — above any other sport, or any other business — should be insulated from federal and state antitrust enforcement. The Norwich Sea Unicorns deserve the same, fair shot at recruiting talent and Major League support as any other team. It’s time to reconsider and overturn the antiquated and unfair baseball antitrust exemption,” Tong said in the release.

“In all aspects of business, and that includes the business of baseball, competition is key to a healthy marketplace, which is the philosophy of the antitrust laws,” Morrisey said in a news release. “This exemption effectively ties our hands behind our backs, preventing states from enforcing our own antitrust laws. ... It’s time to revisit this exemption; it’s anticompetitive and does nothing but hurt communities who want nothing but to enjoy America’s pastime in their own communities. In this case, Congress never made any directive for the preemption of state law; it’s time this ‘gift’ allotted to MLB is reconsidered.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James noted the 2020 decision by Major League Baseball impacted four teams in her state, plus 36 other teams across 23 states.

“Baseball may be ‘America’s Pastime,’ but it should also have to play by America’s laws that govern monopolies,” James said. “Minor league clubs are part of the fabric of hundreds of communities throughout the nation that don’t have nearby access to a Major League Baseball stadium. By calling these clubs out of the system, Major League Baseball is punishing the fans and local communities. I am proud to stand with this bipartisan coalition of attorneys general to protect these minor league teams, and to empower millions of Americans to head out to the local ballgame.”