July 1, 2009

FAMOUS CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS:  Koufax & Drysdale versus the Los Angeles Dodgers

At Sportslawtalk.com we take a historical perspective on many different issues.  One of the more famous contract negotiations of the last fifty years occurred in 1966.  Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale had just pitched the Dodgers to 1965 World Series title.  Drysdale was an outstanding pitcher and Koufax, it can be argued, was one of the greatest pitchers ever.  If they were players in 2009, their contracts would be up and they would be sitting pretty- like CC. Sabathia this past off-season.  But the year was 1966, and there was a little thing called the reserve clause, which gave all leverage to the Dodgers in the upcoming negotiation.



Koufax and Drysdale attempted an interesting negotiating technique.  They said that the Dodgers could only sign them if they both received what they wanted- if one was not satisfied with his offer, then the other would not sign a contract.  This was a pretty good tactic for players who had no other leverage and could not seek offers from other teams.

When Koufax and Drysdale met with General Manager Buzzi Bavasi after the 1965 season the parties got nowhere.  It was at this time that Sandy Koufax brought his attorney Bill Hayes into the picture to act as his agent.  (Hayes would act as agent for Drysdale as well.)  The dynamic duo were seeking three year contracts totaling close to $1,000,000. for the two of them.  General Manager Bavasi had this reaction to the players bringing an agent into the negotiation (excerpted from Sports Illustrated)　

We sat down in my office at Dodger stadium and they said they had an agent—Sandy's lawyer, Bill Hayes—and that they wanted a three-year no-cut contract totaling $1 million and that neither one would sign unless both were satisfied. I told them I would negotiate only with them, that any discussions they had with their agent were their own business but please keep him away from me, that the amount of money they were asking was ridiculous, and that nobody on the ball club, including me and Walter Alston, was ever going to get more than a one-year contract. As I recall, I said something like, "You're both athletes, and what you're selling is your physical ability, and how can you guarantee your physical ability three years in advance?

So the parties were going nowhere, and Drysdale and Koufax started their holdout on February 26, 1965.  Tomorrow we'll look at some of the tactics used by Drydale and Koufax and how this mid-60’s negotaition was handled.

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