On collusion
Last week it was noted that Major League Baseball and the Players Association agreed to continue for a period the issue of the owners possibly colluding during the 2008-2009 off season. Baseball has a long history regarding collusion issues dating all the way back to 1918. After the 1918 season ended, all teams released players from their roster in an attempt to lower salaries. In fairness to the owners, though, World War I caused the season to be shortened The owners did not want to pay the players for the canceled season. The key here was that the owners all agreed not to sign anyone else's players. It’s little wonder that one year later, in 1919, we had the Black Sox scandal, in part because of the frugal ways of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey.
The penurious Charles Comiskey
With the reserve clause, the owners had a built in system of artificially restraining players’ salaries. It was the players, though, who next posed the threat of colluding in order to raise salaries. The somewhat limited success that Sandy Koufax and Don Drydale had in 1966 in obtaining their market value is detailed in the SLT blog of 7/1, 7/3, and 7/6.
The owners were apprehensive that other players would follow the lead of Koufax and Drysdale. Baseball’s first Collective Bargaining Agreement, reached in 1968 with Marvin Miller negotiating on behalf of the players, contained language that, " Players shall not act in concert with other Players and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs." 
Marvin Miller
With the Peter Seitz (no photo available) decision several years later, and a new CBA that ushered in free-agency, the owners suddenly had something new to fear- themselves.
Tomorrow: Collusion in the 1980's
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