John Conyers: “this Curt Flood Act is an important piece of legislation. I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for his…”

“this Curt Flood Act is an important piece of legislation. I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Chairman Hyde) for his very charitable comments. As two baseball aficionados, we know that the right thing is being done as we move this to finality. Professional baseball is the only industry in the United States exempt from the antitrust laws without being subject to regulatory supervision. This circumstance has resulted from a rather sorry Supreme Court decision in 1922 holding that baseball did not involve interstate commerce and was beyond the reach of antitrust laws. For some reason, we in the Congress have failed to rectify this, despite subsequent court decisions holding that all the other professional sports were fully subject to these same laws that baseball claimed to be exempt from. There may have been a time when baseball's unique treatment was a source of pride and distinction for many loyal fans who loved our national pastime. But with baseball suffering more work stoppages over the last century than all the other sports combined, including a 1994 strike which ended the possibility of a world series for the first time in 90 years, and depriving many of our cities of tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues, we can now no longer afford to treat professional baseball in a manner enjoyed by no other professional sport. And that is what S. 53 and H.R. 21 attempt to do.”