Mets360 - The unmasking of the hypocrites and cowards who voted against Steve Cohen

 

By Brian Joura November 5, 2020

We saw many MLB players react negatively when the Astros cheating scandal became public. But that’s nothing compared to how the players react when the owners collude to keep down salaries. It brings to mind Billy Martin’s great quote about Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner, where he said, “One’s a born liar and the other’s convicted.” The players would consider the owners to be born liars about colluding in the recent free agent classes, starting with the one following the 2017 season. And they were convicted for their collusive behavior in free agency following the 1985-87 seasons.

MLBPA ended up filing three grievances over the owners’ collusive behavior in the 1980s. Arbitrator Thomas Roberts heard the first case and ruled for the players. George Nicolau, Roberts’ successor, heard the next two cases and he, too, sided with the players. Afterwards, MLB and MLBPA negotiated a settlement of all three cases for a total of $280 million. Having to pay that money to the players was one factor in the ultimate expansion of the league in the 1990s, as a way to recoup some of the lost revenue.

Anyway, the reason that’s relative today is that the hawks among ownership leading the crusade to collude to keep down salaries were Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf. And of course, we recognize that Reinsdorf was the leading voice against the confirmation of Steve Cohen as the new Mets owner. Sure, some point to his personal relationship with Alex Rodriguez for Reinsdorf’s position. But it’s hard to believe that the real reason wasn’t Reinsdorf’s belief that Cohen would be an active bidder for free agents, driving up costs for the rest of the league.

Of course, we should keep in mind that Cohen also has the insider trading scandal from his previous business attached to his resume. But it’s hard for me to believe that was a major sticking point for any of the other 29 teams. The parable about glass houses comes immediately to mind.

Perhaps as a preemptive strike against Reinsdorf, Cohen announced that he would hire Sandy Alderson as team president. If it was indeed a move to counter charges that he would spend other owners into the ground, one would have to call it a successful one. Needing 22 of the other 29 teams to agree to the sale, Cohen received approval from 25 clubs.

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