Ryan Braun Situation Illustrates How Arbitrators Can Lose Perspective

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that the 2011 National League Most Valuable Player, Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, has been suspended without pay for the rest of the 2013 season for violating the league’s drug policy. Braun, who will not contest the suspension, has admitted to wrongdoing and apologized for his actions in a statement, saying:

As I have acknowledged in the past, I am not perfect… I realize now that I have made some mistakes. I am willing to accept

June 23, 2013 Antitrust / MLB

San Jose Looking to Play Ball with MLB in Federal Court

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013, the City of San Jose filed an antitrust suit against Major League Baseball (MLB) and its commissioner Bud Selig in federal court. The dispute revolves around the Oakland Athletics (A’s) hopes to relocate. Although the A’s have considered a move for a while, the league must approve one first.

The A’s stadium is the fourth oldest in the league, and it shows. A sewage leak on Sunday June, 16 created problems in the clubhouse forcing the A’s to share a …

February 15, 2013 MLB / NCAA / NFL / NHL

The Fight Over Legalized Sports Betting Begins

In 1992, Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, 26 USC 3701, to ban sports gambling outside states where it was already established (Nevada, and to much lesser extents, Delaware, Montana and Oregon) as of the time of the statute. In 2012, the New Jersey State Legislature passed a law allowing for wagering on the outcome of sporting events at racetracks and at Atlantic City casinos, and Governor Chris Christie signed that into law. The four major North American sports leagues, plus the …

January 18, 2013 MLB

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye

On September 8, 2009, John C. Coomer went to see a Kansas City Royals baseball game, an activity he had done dozens of times before. This time, however, he would not return home unscathed – during an in-game promotion known as the Hotdog Launch, Coomer was struck in the eye by a flying dog thrown by “Sluggerrr,” the team’s mascot. While the story might seem amusing, Coomer’s injuries were not; the impact of the hotdog detached Coomer’s retina, forcing him to undergo two surgeries to …

November 15, 2012 Insurance / MLB

GUEST ANALYSIS: Cleveland Indians Sent to Dugout – Appeal to 6th Circuit to Stay in the Game

What was supposed to be a fun-filled day at the Cleveland Indians ballpark turned tragic. An inflatable slide set up just outside the ballpark as part of a promotional event, collapsed killing one visitor and hurting another. A subsequent investigation found that the slide had not been properly installed. The families of the deceased and injured visitors filed suit. This particular case deals who’s going to pay.

Let’s rewind back to the beginning of the 2010 baseball season. The Indians had hired National Pastime Sports …

September 26, 2012 MLB

Yankees Accused of Cheating Stadium Workers Out of Tips

Concession workers at Yankee Stadium have sued the team, claiming they are being cheated out of the tips automatically added to their bills. Thirty two current and former waiters in the Yankee Stadium’s exclusive box seats have filed a lawsuit demanding their share of the team’s concession profits.

New York Yankees Partnership and Legends Hospitality LLC (“Legends”) was formed by the team in 2009 to operate the concessions at the new Stadium. Legends is owned by the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, and Goldman Sachs, and …

August 20, 2012 MLB

Former Oriole Murrary Enters Into Settlement with SEC

Former Baltimore Orioles player and MLB Hall of Famer Eddie Murray has agreed to pay over $358,000 to settle insider trading allegations brought against him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accuses Murray of making more than $235,000 in a trading scheme involving another former Oriole, Doug DeCinces and James V. Mazzo, the former CEO of Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. (“AMO”).

The SEC’s complaint asserted that multiple tipoffs from Mazzo to DeCinces – and eventually, from DeCinces to Murray and others – …