On Collusion
One thing that baseball fans under the age of 40 almost universally do not understand, and many fans over the age of 40 do not understand, is that the Owner’s Collusion in the winter of 1986-1987 was not done in secret. It was done entirely in the open. The owner’s announced that they intended to do this, and they did it.
The owners, having mostly come into the game at a time when there was in effect no union, didn’t have ANY understanding of labor law, and were very badly advised about labor law. They made the classic mistake of hiring lawyers who would tell them what they wanted to hear.
Peter Uebberoth was brought in in an attempt to force the owners to stay together, to stay united against the Player’s Union and fight back against rapidly increasing salaries. Uebberoth’s idea was "We’re all going to agree not to sign one another’s players."
Marvin Miller, a lifetime worker in the Labor Industry, knew immediately that this was not legal. (Saying it was not "legal". . .it was not criminal in the sense of being a felony or a misdemeanor. It was a violation of labor law. It was prohibited conduct.) Miller knew that immediately, and tried to tell the owners, in a friendly and straightforward manner, that what they were planning to do was prohibited conduct and would blow up in their face. They wouldn’t listen to him. They thought that, since they had a Supreme Court exemption from anti-trust law, that they were exempt from Labor Law. They hired lawyers who told them that was right. It wasn’t.
My point is, people now are asking "Are the owners secretly colluding again?" Well, shit; they were NEVER secretly colluding. That’s not what happened. They were OPENLY colluding. They just didn’t understand that it was illegal. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what is happening now.